Viral food truck causes chaos in Richmond, thousands wait hours

Here's what happened. I found out via a local influencer that Flavor Hive Truck, a spot based in Alexandria with 1.2 million Instagram followers, was coming to Richmond from 4pm-midnight.

• The truck was co-founded by Shihan Chowdhury, who's TikTok famous for his recipes.

How it works: Step one — bring your own bag of chips.

• The owners slice open the bag and fill it with Halal meat, toppings and sauces for $10.

I'm easily influenced, so I show up with a friend at 7:50pm thinking the line from earlier would've died down by then. Wrong. You could see the line from the highway.

• It took us 45 minutes just to get from Diversity Thrift, about half a mile from The Park's entrance, to the first Michael & Son's sign barely a hundred steps away.
• At 9pm, someone who got their food tells people in line that it took her four hours. Others on social media said it took them more than five.

The intrigue: Despite the long wait and dropping temps, people were meeting each other's kids, laughing together and bonding over forgetting a jacket or how long they've been holding their pee.

Cut to: 10pm. We can see the entrance. Why we and hundreds of other people hadn't given up yet, I'm not sure.

Yes, but: Security guards dealt the final blow at 10:35pm. They're not letting any more people in.

• My friend and I skipped the brooding and headed to Halal Munchies on West Cary, where we bumped into others with unsliced Doritos bags.

Stunning stat: Flavor Hive told Axios they served 3,500 people but estimated over 6,000 people came.

• That's about 1,000 people showing up every hour.

What we're watching: Whether Flavor Hive coming back any time soon so we can have our bag of chips and snacks ready.