Food For The Road

New Haven and Stamford invest in food truck future

Each year, NLC holds a State League Workshop for employees, and several CCM employees traveled down to Austin, Texas to learn and share with peers from the 48 other leagues (Hawaii does not have a municipal league). And one thing that stands out about Austin is the proliferation of food trucks – they are everywhere. In Connecticut, one may look towards Food Truck Paradise down near the CCM offices on Long Wharf in New Haven, but is this the future or just a passing trend? In Stamford and New Haven, they are betting on a long road for food trucks.

The city was recently awarded three million dollars in grants to go towards pedestrian improvements and food truck parking at Government Center where city offices are located. Though no plans are currently set in place, Stamford has a food truck committee that has been regularly meeting for seven years about these mobile restaurants.

Food trucks are not necessarily a new concept, dating back to roving “chuck wagons,” they are a sort of lifeline or middleman to burgeoning restauranteurs. Like so many residents, businesses are struggling in this strange economic environment, and a simple google search for “Connecticut Restaurant Closing” will bring in dozens of reports of beloved staples and new eater- ies closing for a variety of reasons. Budgets in the food business are razor thin and where COVID shutdowns didn’t knock them out, rising food costs due to inflation are dealing a punishing second blow.

But for food truck owners, the cost of owning their own business location is typically much lower than if they were to purchase a brick-and-mortar location. And, most obviously, being on wheels allows the owners the flexibility of moving to where the needs are.

In New Haven, Frank Pepe sold his pizzas from a push cart to workers on Long Wharf, a stone’s throw to where the Food Truck Paradise is now. Like Pepe’s, the popular Jitter Bus in New Haven made the same mobile to brick-and-mortar path, showing that the dream of opening up a physical location is not out of the realm of possibility for those that want to follow that path.

It would be hard to say if New Haven or Stamford will end up looking like Austin, TX, where the food truck is embedded in the culture and you can hardly walk a city block downtown without seeing one or six. But both New Haven and Stamford are carving out spaces for food trucks to park it up and see what tomorrow brings.