In order to make food trucks more accessible to customers, a small business owner set out to change city ordinances and create a new food truck park in College Station.
Located adjacent to the train tracks at the corner of Wellborn and University, Wayside Food Park is now home to a number of food trucks including DBQ Barbeque, Fire Truck Crepes and Bacongate, with more to come.
College Station city ordinances previously required food trucks to move around from place to place. However, DBQ Barbeque and Catering owner Derek Barre convinced the city to change this ordinance to make food trucks more accessible to customers. After the ordinance was passed on October 8, 2015, Barre and his business partners, Matt Abegglen and Alex Jester, opened Wayside Food Park on December 6, 2017.
“[Wayside is] open as early as 7 a.m.,” Barre said “We’re just open when [the trucks] are, so if some wants to come in at 5 a.m. we’ll be open for them.”
While these food trucks boast vastly different menus, like Bacongate’s peanut butter, banana and bacon sandwich and Frio’s spicy pineapple popsicle, as listed on their websites, a variety of foods can be found at Wayside Food Park.
Barre said the process to get the food truck park was lengthy. Once city councilman James Benham got on board with the food park idea, it took Barre a few years to get the permit and construction done.
“We started working with the city staff to write an ordinance and eventually this got done,” Barre said. “It took years and years to get the paperwork done as far as getting the city to allow food truck parks and then we got our permit done and then we had to construct this place.”
Barre said he believes having a place to park is very beneficial to food trucks and trailers and he hopes Wayside will bring new customers to the trucks.
“I think we [would] do better in one spot and folks don’t have to find out where you are and also this is a great way for groups of folks to decide on one restaurant,” Barre said. “You can just say, ‘Hey let’s go to Wayside’ and you’ve got multiple options as far as food goes.”
Analyse Wells, Bryan-College Station resident, said she likes the variety of options and trying new food from different vendors is the reason she makes return trips to Wayside.
“I had a waffle from Moki Hoki and I had bubble tea as well, which the tea was good but the tapioca boba was just okay, may have been an off day or just very cold so they didn’t cook properly,” Wells said. “I will definitely be going back for the BBQ and to try hopefully each truck.”
Since Wayside is still in the opening phase, Barre explained some projects are still up in the air, such as the addition of more trucks and obtaining their alcohol license.
“We’re in the process of getting our beer license and we’re building a stage, so we’re looking forward to having some shows and just having this be a staple of the Northgate area,” Barre said.
Wayside was created for the food truck owners to have a place to park, but Barre said he hopes that it will become a place to hang out, whether that be to study or grabbing a meal with friends at Northgate.
“Just come out and see what there is,” Barre said. “We’re dog friendly, so bring your puppy. We’ve got dog treats and water bowls. This’ll be a nice place to hang out, a little different taste to Northgate than all the bars.”