By Dave Fidlin
CORRESPONDENT
An event aimed at spotlighting the various fare available through the popular food truck phenomenon is being offered in Whitewater for the first time.
City officials recently took the wraps off Food Truck Fest, an event scheduled to take place from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 14, at Cravath Lakefront Park, 341 S. Fremont St.
Economic Development Director Taylor Zeinert discussed the event with the board of directors overseeing the city’s Community Development Authority at a meeting July 18. Her announcement of the inaugural event came days after the Common Council adopted an ordinance for mobile food operators.
Zeinert said there has been one overarching driver behind the new ordinance, in her discussion with the CDA board.
“We have gotten so much feedback about the downtown space to make sure we events that bring in those college students downtown to make sure we can create that foot traffic, so that when we have businesses to help them explore that area and pull them in,” Zeinert said. “With that being said, we have decided to move forward with Food Truck Fest.”
As the mobile food truck ordinance was working its way through different channels within Whitewater’s municipal government, Zeinert and other city officials began putting out feelers to food truck vendors for the planned event.
“What’s really exciting is that we have seen so much interest,” Zeinert said as she reported o the event. “We currently have room for 20 food trucks, and we currently have 16 slots filled.”
Thus far, committed vendors will be serving up such disparate offerings as tacos, grilled cheese and lumpia, which are Filipino fried spring rolls. The small business owners operating the food trucks are expected to come from all over the region.
“They range from people from Illinois, people from Milwaukee, people from Madison, so it has been fantastic to see,” she said.
Editor’s note: For the full story, please see the print edition of the Whitewater Register.
