Calling all food truck owners: there's a great new spot for you to set up your business: the Southside Food Truck Park is calling your name and ready to support food truck owners in the heart of the Southside Historic District.
Just south of Main Street on Williams Street is the location for the new Food Truck Park. The concrete lot is where a building once stood, which was owned by Bobby Colvin.
“This is where I used to own a 21,000 square foot two-story building,” Colvin said. “It burned down on Thanksgiving Day in 2016, and it just devastated me.”
Unable to afford rebuilding the structure, Colvin said he demolished what was left and he sold most of the bricks and limestone blocks. The lot sat vacant for several years.
“I have a good friend of mine that was in real estate with me. She used to go down to Naples Florida to visit her brother in the wintertime and they have a big food truck park down there. A pretty one.”
Colvin said she was the one who brought up the idea of turning the lot into a food truck park.
“I didn't think too much about it to begin with,” he said. “But the more I thought about it, I thought that might not be a bad idea.”
He said he knew there would be some investment expenses, but nothing unmanageable.
“Nothing like trying to build a building back,” he said. “And then I started checking around. I found out there's no food truck park in Chattanooga at all.”
Colvin said he spoke with his family and the more he thought about it, the more it seemed like the right thing to do. He started slowly working on getting the area ready on a part-time basis.
“So, we’ve working on this for about two or three years,” he said. “Now that I’m retired from real estate, I'm going full time on this and trying to get the clientele built up.”
He opened the park early March.
The ground is concrete, the original foundation of the building. Trucks don’t have to worry about getting stuck in soft grass or mud after rainfall. He installed a porta-potty and handwashing station. There are tables for seating with umbrellas to help keep people covered on hot days and string of lights above the tables for night-time ambiance. The food truck park can accommodate up to five trucks at a time.
Colvin is thinking about placing down some artificial turf on a section of the concrete and break out the Cornhole game sets, he said he already has.
Right now, food trucks are selecting which days they plan to be there but Colvin said the ultimate goal is to have trucks that stay there for a long duration of time so people will know where they can find their favorite mobile dinner establishment.
The location is within a block from the new Hyatt Hotel being built on Main Street and just behind the new Songbirds live music and event venue.
Colvin said food truck owners can apply for a vendor spot online. They need to provide a certificate of insurance along with the vendor agreement. Once approved Colvin gives the food truck owners access to software that allows them to pick the days they want to be at the park.
“The program automatically places them in that date slot and assigns them their truck position, and then they pay online and we're doing it for just $30 a day,” he said. “Right now, we've got about 37 trucks that have signed up to be vendors that come and go, but ultimately we hope to have trucks parked here for longer stays or permanently.”
During our visit, Miss Griffins Foot Long Hot Dogs, a Chattanooga iconic diner, was slinging dogs all afternoon. There was a new food truck in town called Smokey Ridge BBQ which started operations just a month ago. Inside their truck is a working convection / wood fired BBQ smoker that can handle up to 600 pounds of meat a day. We can vouch for their pulled pork. Served over the biggest baked potato ever and covered in cheese, sour cream, butter, BBQ sauce and the pork. Everything tasted perfect together. You could taste the smokey goodness. We washed it down with their homemade lemonade. It was a perfect spring day outing under the sun and cool breeze.
Colvin said he is working on getting the word out to the community about the food truck park. He created a website and a Facebook Page but admits he needs help in becoming more tech savvy.
“I’m 77 years old,” he said. “So, I don't know anything about Facebook or Instagram.”
He said he has family that is helping him navigate the social media world, but they live in Birmingham. He said he bought books and is learning, but said he would also consider hiring someone to help him gain some traction and draw in customers and vendors.
He’s also working on gathering emails addresses so he can send out notifications and newsletters so people will know ahead of time what trucks will be there each week.
If you’re a food truck owner looking for a vending spot, visit the website and apply online: https://southsidefoodtruckpark.com/
If you’re a foodie, make sure you check it out!
Southside Food Truck Park
- 1511 Williams Street
- Chattanooga, TN 37408
- (423) 667-7030
- Facebook: facebook.com/profile.php?id=61573739125825