New Fletcher food truck park offers commissary kitchen, more dining options

ASHEVILLE - A vacant building once an eyesore for neighbors has been renovated and reintroduced as a pit stop for diners to refuel on food and mobile catering businesses to serve and regroup.

At the end of June, The Village Food Truck Park made its soft opening debut at 25 Fletcher Commercial Drive in Fletcher.

Bob Turner, a real estate developer, acquired a vacant self-serve car wash and was inspired to convert it into a multifaceted facility filling the needs of the community and small business owners.

The Village Food Truck Park has been designed to provide a quick meal, snack or beverage for residents, workers and visitors in the area that has few other options, Turner said. And food truck operators from the Asheville and Hendersonville areas have shown interest and a need, too.

“It turns out there’s a huge demand, and it’s unbelievable how word has spread quickly amongst the food truck operators,” Turner said.

The Village Food Truck Park also offers dedicated space for food trucks to serve customers, a commissary kitchen for prepping food and resetting at the end of a run, plus storage space to park overnight.

“The Village Food Truck Park concept in Fletcher is great because it’s more than just a place to park. It’s a place to call home for a lot of the trucks,” said Greg Fulcher, owner of Bridge and Tunnel Coffee Co., a high-end mobile coffee café and one of the early vendors during the soft opening week. “That is one of the bigger challenges of operating a food truck is a relationship to a place that you can drain your wastewater and fill up your water tanks and keep the battery charged. … They’ve kind of addressed all of those things in that old car wash. It’s a great repurposing.”

The Village Food Truck Park dining operations

The Village Food Truck Park is off Old Airport Road and isn’t far from the more populated Hendersonville Road stretch in Fletcher. However, restaurants are in short supply.

Early on, those who work in the industrial area, which includes factories and offices and other commercial businesses have expressed the most interest and excitement for the food truck park to bring more options, Turner said.

“There are offices and businesses up and down this area that have been vocal about needing a quick lunch because they can’t go to Ingles every day and the two restaurants in the area are usually pretty packed,” said The Village Food Truck Park manager, Amber Sloan.

During the soft opening week, Fulcher said Bridge and Tunnel Coffee Co. did “surprisingly well” with sales.

“We were pleasantly surprised, but the enthusiasm for this amongst those who stopped by – and we talked to everybody – they were either residents or worked in a 2- or 3-mile radius and they were over the moon that this was built in their neighborhood,” Fulcher said. “That speaks to the fact that it is a food and drink desert over there and there’s a need.”

The food venue consists of a covered seating area in a high-ceiling bay with roll-up garage doors and three picnic tables.

It connects to an enclosed patio area with umbrella-covered picnic tables.

Food trucks may line up to sell directly off the patio at the two designated spots or other areas of the wraparound parking lot.

Currently, the hours are set for 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Monday-Friday for lunch. Weekend hours and breakfast and dinner service may be offered on select days, depending on demand.

The grand opening celebration will be 11 a.m.-2 p.m. July 7 with live music until 3 p.m.

On days of operation, food trucks will rotate, and updates will be announced on The Village Food Truck Park’s social media platforms.

Bridge and Tunnel Coffee Co.’s van will be on-site occasionally, operating with a drive-up service so commuters don’t have to leave their vehicles.

Food truck troubles

In 2020, Bridge and Tunnel Coffee Co. became a fixed part of the area’s food truck scene that continues to grow.

“I would say per capita it’s a pretty generous amount of food trucks and more interestingly is the variety of said food trucks in Asheville. It’s really quite great,” Fulcher said. “I’ve lived in major metropolitan areas and was pleasantly surprised at the diversity of the food offerings here. It really represents the cross-section of who’s living here.”

Bridge and Tunnel Coffee Co. now has a truck and a van and may be spotted at area festivals, concert venues, medical facilities, schools and regularly Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College.

Yet, the food truck park is a good addition to the company’s rotation and to the Asheville area, Fulcher said.

“It’s a concept that did really well in San Francisco where I lived for 15 years, and I remember the first one that opened in the city was an instant success," he said. I feel like food trucks are widely accepted at this point in time and it’s great to have a corral … an easy place that can support the trucks in every way.”

The people operating a food truck are saddled with many of the same expenses of a brick-and-mortar, Fulcher said. He continued to say that a mobile eatery isn’t as easy as some people may think or cheaper than running a brick-and-mortar restaurant, with expenses like insurance, gas, vehicle maintenance and kitchen rental. And there are other issues like supply chain restraints and time management.

“It’s an absolute slog and an absolute hustle,” Fulcher said. “The people doing it are so very devoted to what they’re doing, ourselves included,” Fulcher said.

Feeding a need

Mobile food truck operators may rely on electricity, water, garbage disposal and drainage capabilities for things like grease and gray water – used water that can’t be disposed of in regular sewer lines, Turner said.

The Village Food Truck Park is aimed to make it easier for operators to comply with the health department and operation permit protocols, he said, as it offers these amenities as well as a kitchen equipped with prep tables, a large storage area, refrigeration, a three-compartment sink, and easy access to an outside dumping station and city water.

“We’re filling a need. It’s a big need right now. There’s just nowhere for them to go to be legal. To get their permit even, they have to tell the health inspector where’s their commissary kitchen and if they can’t get into one, they can’t get into business,” Turner said.

The few local commissary kitchens in the area that offer those things and are frequented by food trucks usually are booked at capacity, leaving the operators in a lurch, Fulcher said.

“Commissary kitchen arrangements around Asheville are one of two scenarios. The food truck operator either has a brick-and-mortar location where they can support the business, or they have an agreement with an existing restaurant who’s willing to be host,” Fulcher said. “They’re better than having to foot the bill for your own commercial kitchen. It’s really cost prohibitive for many but they’re not exactly convenient a lot of the time just because you’re sharing a kitchen with 20 other entities.”

The Village Food Truck Park helps alleviate some of the challenges by offering another commercial kitchen option. Plus, garage bays may be rented for secure overnight truck and trailer storage, which may be difficult for those who don’t live somewhere where they can park it.

Depending on the situation, facility users may be offered trade-offs, like those who operate their eatery on-site may receive free time using the kitchen.

Strengthening a mobile culinary community

Sloan operated Diggity Doughnuts food trucks for 13 years until ending operations at the beginning of the year. She joined The Village Food Truck Park to assist other food truck operators, and she will use the commissary kitchen to develop and launch a new grab-and-go savory food business concept.

“The shared commissary can be a difficult and expensive process to initially build, then to have a food truck come in and have everyone come in, it has to be a delicate dance,” Sloan said.

She also sees the potential of operators networking and collaborating on events and catering gigs.

“That’s the part I really love, the camaraderie and small businesses helping small businesses succeed and teaming up and being friends,” Sloan said.

Sloan said more commissary kitchens are needed.

If all goes well, Turner foresees opening a second food truck park.

“I would see doing it again because I think the demand is everywhere. It’s such an explosion of food trucks. There’s so many in the last few years,” Turner said.

Food news you may have missed:

• Find out how to attend Beer, Bacon & BBQ Festival and Oaxabrunch and more here.

• Check out the list of Asheville-area restaurant openings from January to June 2023 here.

• Check out the list of Asheville restaurant, bar and brewery closings in the first half of 2023 here.

The Village Food Truck Park

Where: 25 Fletcher Commercial Drive, Fletcher

Hours: 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Monday-Friday (hours may vary)

Info: For more, visit villagecommercepark.com and follow The Village Food Truck Park on Facebook and Instagram.

Tiana Kennell is the food and dining reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA Today Network. Email her at tkennell@citizentimes.com or follow her on Twitter/Instagram @PrincessOfPage. Please support this type of journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times.

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: The Village Food Truck Park opens with rotating vendors