Lunch options are expanding downtown at the corner of Main Avenue and 11th Street – at least temporarily.
Mariana’s Authentic Cuisine, Bounty for the Belly and a new iteration of The Box are setting up food trucks for the summer, with aspirations of becoming permanent, though two of the trucks have a rocky history with the city.
The three trucks will join Good on the Bun, a food cart, and the owner of Bounty for the Belly, Kelsy Peabody, believes the mini foodtruck court will draw a crowd from Main Avenue offices.
“When people have options, I think it brings more people in,” Peabody said. She is new to town and plans to start serving sandwiches on Friday.
Mariana’s, a Chinese and Southeast Asian food truck, and The Box both closed late last year because they came to the end of their six-month permits from the city.
Unlike many cities, the trucks in Durango can’t operate on a public street or in a park. They must find a private lot and request a six-month permit from the city to operate. Then, the business must vacate the site for six months. If the business finds an alternative location, it can apply for another six-month permit.
For the trucks to stay on the corner permanently, landscaping and other site improvements would have to be made, under the city’s current regulations.
Over the next six months, the property owners and planning department staff will evaluate the businesses on the site, said city planner Scott Shine.
“We want to see how a site works in accommodating multiple food trucks,” he said.
The city is open to input about what might need to be done to update regulations, he said.
Marianah Hiddyat, who owns the Chinese and Southeast Asian food truck, has moved several times and was operating most recently near College Drive and eighth Street. Hiddyat said she felt “happy and blessed” to reopen last week.
She gathered hundreds of signatures last fall and petitioned the city to change its regulations.
Jaime Wisner, the landlord of the site at Main Avenue and 11th Street, said city staff was helpful and accommodating in permitting this year. But he would like to see the six-month limit extended.
Peabody agrees because food trucks are treated the same as brick-and-mortar restaurants, including being subject to inspections and licensing. The only difference is property tax, she said.
“It’s not pulling up the truck and starting to serve food,” she said.
Peabody started her truck while she worked as an executive chef at her family’s restaurant in Detroit. She moved to Colorado last year and worked as a sous chef at Purgatory over the winter.
She plans to have a seasonal menu with options such as apple turkey ciabatta and a barbecue pot roast sandwich.
“Hopefully, this is just the start of my opening up my own restaurant,” she said.
Chef Marcos Wisner opened The Box last year at the same location with the same plan. In January, he became a partner at Durango Coffee Co. He purchased the business with two investors from Tucson, Arizona. There is no set date for The Box to reopen, but it may serve tacos, Jaime Wisner said. Marcos Wisner will not run it and Jaime has not decided who will take it over.
mshinn@durangoherald.com
