For the third time in a row, Braisin’ Hussies came out on top of the city’s annual food cart review process, a feat Madison street vending coordinator Meghan Blake-Horst called a hat trick.

“He is a super consistent, high-quality chef and has something that’s different than I think you see in a lot of food carts,” she said about cart owner Michael Sollinger, often called “Solli.”

Sollinger finished ahead of 32 other carts. He said while it’s nice to finish first, the best part for him is that along with high placement comes the guarantee of getting his two favored spots, where his customers know where to find him.

“It’s a nice accolade,” he said. “Most importantly, it helps me keep my spots that I’ve been working in the last few years.”

His cart can be found on Main Street near King Street on the Square, in front of Walgreens, a spot he got in the beginning of 2019. On Saturdays during the Dane County Farmers’ Market, his cart is at the top of State Street.

He describes Braisin’ Hussies as a modernist diner with comfort foods from around the world.

Blake-Horst said the cart intrigues people. “It’s different flavors than you would anticipate.”

And with a lot of the city’s volunteer reviewers being new, many were exposed to the cart for the first time, she said. Eleven of the 27 reviewers were new this year.

This year’s food cart review took place from Sept. 11 to Oct. 7. Thirty-five food carts/vendors applied, with 33 completing the review process.

Vendors were judged on the food, and the cart’s appearance and originality. Seniority points factor into the final rank.

Braisin’ Hussies won in 2022, and before that in 2019. There were no reviews in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

There were fewer applicants this year and last year than in 2019, when 51 carts applied and 43 completed the review process. Some of that has to do with the effects of COVID-19, Blake-Horst said.

“New food carts are slowly getting their feet underneath ’em, moving maybe from catering to a mobile unit, where they can start to operate and maybe apply,” she said.

The 2024-2025 vending season that begins on April 15 won’t have a waiting list as there has been in past years because of the smaller pool of applicants, Blake-Horst said.

In 2018, the city started allowing full-size food trucks and larger vehicles across the city and Blake-Horst said a lot of the new applicants have much larger vehicles than could have fit Downtown under past rules.

She said there are also applicants who are just seeking to do special events like the Madison Night Market, where they’re vending in the roadway. “It’s just different. It’s like apples and kumquats, you know, they’re not the same.”

That’s the year Sollinger calls a watershed for him, when he said he started making good money with Braisin’ Hussies and didn’t have to supplement his income with other jobs.

In 2021 and 2022 there were fewer carts out, but also fewer people Downtown, so it kind of evened out, Sollinger said. This year has been another banner year for the cart, and he said he hopes to have a repeat next year.

Sollinger, 55, grew up in Champaign, Illinois, but has lived abroad for most of his adult life. He opened several restaurants in Warsaw, Poland.

He said he told his mom he wanted to be a chef when he was 10 or 11, and went to culinary school at Johnson & Wales University in Providence, Rhode Island.

One of the primary reasons he opened a food cart was so he could have a seasonal business and travel during the winters. “I mean, who doesn’t want to take a whole season off?”

Sollinger’s gone to Puerto Rico three times and when he’s there he’ll pick up a few kitchen shifts a week in a friend’s restaurant. He enjoys whatever his task is, whether it’s chopping onions or peeling plantains. An added bonus is that if he’s working, it means he’s not out spending money.

“So, no matter what they pay me, I’m actually saving money by working on Friday or Saturday night. I just enjoy it,” he said.

Last year, he was in New York, Poland, Thailand, Qatar, Indonesia, Seattle, Chicago, and finished in Door County. “You know, the literal cherry on top of my little vacation,” he said.