By Jacob Wheeler The gourmet food truck craze has brought diverse culinary options with a low-carbon footprint to city streets and public parks nationwide over the past decade\u2014to the delight of millennials, hipsters, and tourists, as well as working Americans who no longer have the time to drive home for a relaxing lunch hour. Food trucks have surged in the age of Facebook, the DIY career, and the frenetic pace that now defines life in 21st-century America.<\/p>\n Food trucks have also arrived in Benzie County, but forget about 15-minute lunch breaks or hustling for an $8 taco between business calls. Here in our woods, the laidback summertime ritual still resembles a meandering creek.<\/p>\n Over the winter, there was lots of discussion in Benzie about whether food trucks should be allowed, and if so, where they should be allowed and when. Deliberations are ongoing. Mobile vending has been tried here before. <\/p>\n Food trucks may never become as a big of a hit in this county as they are in nearby Traverse City, but a spark has definitely been lit, and they may yet catch on.<\/p>\n In Elberta, the village council<\/a>\u2014under advisement from the Parks & Recreation Commission\u2014decided in March to allow food trucks this summer on a trial basis during the Thursday farmers\u2019 market<\/a>. <\/p>\n \u201cEveryone who has approved of this concept at the farmers\u2019 market thinks this will be great for the community at large,\u201d says Sue Oseland, who runs the Elberta Farmers\u2019 Market. \u201cWe can expand the market by having people who wouldn\u2019t otherwise visit the market come and get good, local food. I think everyone will think, \u2018This is cool.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Some officials are downright enthusiastic about the potential of food trucks in their municipality.<\/p>\n \u201cI think I can speak for the commission when I say that we were all immediately\u00a0excited by the idea of opening the farmers\u2019 market up to food trucks this year,\u201d says Emily Votruba, secretary of the Elberta Parks & Recreation Commission<\/a>. \u201cIt was fun to discuss the logistics and to think about how food trucks will not only go along with but advance our market\u2019s mission, which is to provide high-quality, locally produced food to our community and to create a healthy, welcoming, and profitable venue for local producers.\u201d<\/p>\n Votruba added that this will be a trial basis for the Elberta program, which could potentially be expanded to more hours or locations in the future.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ll learn a lot and see if we want to do it again next year,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s a really fantastic time to live and volunteer here in the village with so many visionaries like Sue around making cool new things happen!\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, in Frankfort, a subcommittee of the Downtown Development Authority (DDA)<\/a> took on a lengthy process of facilitating conversations between the business community and the public back in February and March.<\/p>\n Ultimately, the DDA recommended that Frankfort\u2019s food truck ordinance remain mostly the same. Mobile vending, which includes food vendors and non-food vendors, is currently\u2014and has been for more than two decades\u2014permitted on private commercial property for a fee of $50 per day. The subcommittee recommended that the City of Frankfort revisit this fee structure, potentially adding a seasonal rate that would give the vendor the security to make a commitment to a particular location all season long. <\/p>\n For instance, Traverse City\u2019s seasonal rate on private commercial property is $725, which is based on the taxes that brick-and-mortar businesses pay. There have been two mobile vending seasonal fees that have been individually approved by Frankfort\u2019s city council, however no formal seasonal fee structure has been approved. <\/p>\n \u201cAs of now, anyone who wants a seasonal fee has to negotiate it directly with city council,\u201d says Josh Mills, city superintendent for Frankfort. <\/p>\n The DDA recommended another change to the ordinance that would allow vendors at the Saturday farmers\u2019 market to cook and sell the food that they grow. The city allowed the policy change this spring, and Bud Phillips is already taking advantage of this change. His business, Bud\u2019s Pure Maple, features cotton candy and other delights, made from his own maple syrup. Ricky Hilliard of Frog Hollow Farms in Kaleva also wants to start a new side businesses, called Ricky\u2019s Twisted Veggies, through which he will sell fried potatoes, but he will have to wait until fall when his crop comes in. There is talk of another local business, Peninsula Pops<\/a>, which would run a popsicle stand with icy delights that are made in the Grow Benzie kitchens<\/a>. For the last few years, kettle corn has also been made and sold at the market.<\/p>\n Additionally, the city approved non-profit food trucks\u2014such as those from Grow Benzie, the Lions Club<\/a>, Rotary<\/a>\u2014to be allowed in public spaces on special events. <\/p>\n Lastly, the DDA subcommittee also discussed two items related to Frankfort\u2019s brick-and-mortar businesses, though these agenda items have not yet been addressed by the city commission. The subcommittee recommended that the city permit existing restaurants to deliver food on public property, and they mentioned in their report that Frankfort is considering a portable facility for renting water-sports items at the Lake Michigan beach. First priority would be given to current existing Frankfort businesses, such as Beach Nut Surf Shop and Crystal Lake Adventure Sports. <\/p>\n Frankz<\/a>, a hot dog restaurant in downtown Frankfort, is the first brick-and-mortar to offer a \u201cbeach menu\u201d that is specifically targeted at delivery: on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, you can call in your order from a limited list of items, and Joey Barcheski\u2019s employees will ride their bikes down to meet you at the beach turn-around.<\/p>\n Mobile vending is nothing new in Frankfort, which has seen many come and go over the years.<\/p>\n For instance, back in the 1990s, there was Dog Haus, a hot dog wagon that set up in the space that is currently occupied by Stormcloud Brewing Company<\/a>. Dog Haus later moved to the Smokestack, which later became what is now known as Gateway Village.<\/p>\n Wingz & Thingz<\/a> is a popular food truck in Northern Michigan and a frequent caterer for big concerts. The truck set up in the parking lot of Big Bob\u2019s Up North Outfitters<\/a> last spring, but left for Traverse City before the busy summer season began. The owner and the city negotiated a seasonal fee of $250 per month for half of May and all of June. Amanda Rommell, co-owner of Big Bob\u2019s, says that they did not charge the truck an additional fee to set up in their lot, but the truck\u2019s owner did throw in a little to pay for the electricity that he was using.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were doing him a favor until he got rolling,\u201d Rommell says of the Monday-through-Wednesday operation. She concedes that those hours are not super conducive for foot traffic on the east side of town during early spring, and she thinks that he would have done quite well if he had stuck around for the busier season.<\/p>\n In 2014, Fox & Fawn Vintage<\/a>\u2014an eclectic boutique of vintage home goods, furniture, and clothing for sale out of a shiny 1969 Airstream trailer\u2014set up in the parking lot of Bayside Printing<\/a> on a couple of occasions. Aubrey Ann Parker, owner of the shop, says that the $50 daily fee was prohibitively expensive, so she negotiated a rate of $725 for the season with city council. (Ultimately though, Parker was not able to take advantage of this, as family members had moved into the camper for the remainder of the summer.)<\/p>\n Also in 2014, Eric Haan set up a hot dog stand in the parking lot of the Frankfort Laundromat<\/a>, owned by Eric\u2019s father, Dick Haan. This was part of the overall business plan of the property, according to Mills, so the city did not impose a $50 daily fee.<\/p>\n \u201cBasically this was the property owner being creative and taking advantage of business opportunities on his own property,\u201d Mills explains. \u201cWe encourage mixed uses like this one. It would be great to see more.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Crystal Lake Adventure Sports<\/a>, with a home base out of Beulah, has\u2014for more than a decade\u2014had a nonpermanent structure at the American Legion Hall for renting water-sports equipment near the Frankfort beach. <\/p>\n Crystal Lake Adventure Sports pays the American Legion<\/a> a seasonal fee for their little rental shed. When this agreement first started, the city council waved the $50-per-day fee so that all of the money collected could instead go to the American Legion. As a nonprofit organization, the Legion is able to use those dollars to give back to the community in the form of college scholarships.<\/p>\n \u201cCrystal Lake Adventure Sports will be \u2018grandfathered\u2019 with this arrangement, but any new request for outdoor activity will be assessed a city fee that will be either $50 per day or approved by the city council,\u201d says Mills, who notes that Serkan Erginkara\u2019s Frankfort Takeout<\/a> did not pay a $50 daily fee back in 2014, because it was located inside the Legion hall and thus not a deemed \u201cmobile\u201d vendor. (Click here to read our story about Erginkara’s Turkish take-out<\/a>, now closed, in our archives.)<\/p>\n Look for Josh Herren\u2019s new \u201cTiki-licious<\/a>\u201d grill-and-party cart this summer in downtown Frankfort; he will also rent the cart out for parties, and you can hire him to run it. More than two decades ago, Herren started washing dishes at Harbor Shores and has since worked his way up the food-industry ladder at local favorites like Dinghy\u2019s<\/a>, Crystal Mountain<\/a>\u2019s Main Street Grill, the Frankfort Deli, Coho<\/a>, Northern Naturals<\/a>, Frankfort Takeout, and The Cabbage Shed<\/a>. Herren\u2019s latest venture is a Tiki-inspired food cart, equipped to grill kabobs, meats, and whatever your palette craves. Check out the Tiki cart online to find out where Herren is slinging kabobs today or how you can book him for your next backyard barbeque: Facebook.com\/Tikilicious1<\/a>.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Mary\u2019s Asian Cuisine<\/a>\u2014a bright yellow food truck\u2014is once again parked on the site of the former Beulah Oil Company, between the Market Basket<\/a> and Eden Brook Place<\/a>, the former Brookside Inn. This is the food truck\u2019s second season serving Asian fusion, fast food, and culturally diverse street food in Beulah. Mary Remey, a native of the Philippines who went to culinary school in Singapore, met and married Jim, a Benzie Central graduate, 11 years ago. She is the daughter of a chef, and her Asian cuisine, composed of all fresh ingredients, is a true fusion of Malay, Thai, and other delectable ethnic fares. Mary\u2019s is open seven days a week from 11:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. until the end of October. Her most popular items are the spring rolls (four for $5) and the sesame chicken with bacon-fried rice (a basket costs $8). She will also be selling the spring rolls at the Market Basket and other local restaurants after she closes for the winter. Check out more details here: bit.ly\/28Lb1AZ<\/a>.<\/p>\n Another new venture is Grill Benzie<\/a>, a food truck operated by the local food and farming nonprofit Grow Benzie. The truck will be serving food every Monday afternoon from 3-7 p.m. during the Grow Benzie Farmers\u2019 Market at 5885 Frankfort Highway (M-115); that same food truck will appear at the Elberta Farmers\u2019 Market on Thursday mornings from 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. According to Josh Stoltz, Grow Benzie\u2019s executive director, the food truck will be making regular appearances at St. Ambrose Cellars <\/a>of Beulah and the soon-to-be-open Iron Fish Distillery<\/a> of Thompsonville. Grill Benzie is also booked for several local events and festivals\u2014including Grow Benzie\u2019s eighth annual Midsummer Night\u2019s Garden Party on Tuesday, July 12, and second annual Bayou on the Bay on Saturday, August 13\u2014but still has open dates available, in case the public wants to hire it for private events.<\/p>\n \u201cPart of our mission is to increase access to healthful foods, jobs, life skills, and each other, so a food truck is a grand slam for Grow Benzie,\u201d Stoltz says. \u201cOur board had discussed ways to get what we grow here onto plates\u2014including a food truck or a pop-up cafe in our kitchen\u2014so when Brandon Seng from Goodwill<\/a> offered a partnership through the MI Fresh Start job-training program<\/a>, we jumped at the opportunity. Goodwill is training life and job skills to our newly hired employees, and Grow Benzie is connecting folks to tasty, healthy food\u2014all from a giant, fire-engine-red food truck that people gravitate to because food trucks are cool.\u201d<\/p>\n The food truck\u2019s menu will change throughout the growing season but, according to Stoltz, will always feature local ingredients, either that which is purchased from vendors at farmers\u2019 markets or that which is grown in Grow Benzie\u2019s own gardens. The Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy<\/a> recently donated 340 pounds of locally raised, grass-fed beef from Misty Acres Farms<\/a>, a 600-acre preserved property that straddles the Benzie-Manistee county line. Much of this will find its way into tacos, pasties, kabobs, and sandwiches made by Grow Benzie and sold at the food truck. Delicious vegetarian options will be available, too.<\/p>\n Stoltz hopes to showcase products made in Grow Benzie\u2019s incubator kitchen, including Granola Empire and Peninsula Pops frozen fruit bars.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is the same food that we grew while teaching people how to grow it for themselves and that we use for teaching classes on how to prepare and preserve in our commercial kitchen,\u201d Stoltz adds.<\/p>\n Nourishment is one goal of Grow Benzie\u2019s food truck; multimedia education is another.<\/p>\n \u201cAs a nonprofit, Grow Benzie is all about education and outreach, especially since we\u2019ll have such a large audience this summer,\u201d Stoltz says. \u201cSo we\u2019ll be live-streaming demonstrations on Facebook and YouTube from inside the truck and also looping informational videos on a giant HDTV outside of the truck while people are waiting for their food.\u00a0 People love to learn about their food, so we\u2019re going to have some fun showing them where it\u2019s from and how we\u2019re preparing it.\u201d<\/p>\n The Elberta Farmers\u2019 Market will also feature demos and prepared food for sale from Jim Barnes\u2019s nearby Elberto\u2019s Taqueria<\/a>. Sue Oseland, who runs the Elberta Farmers\u2019 Market, is thrilled to welcome Grill Benzie and Elberto\u2019s, and she hopes, in the future, to see food trucks that introduce Indian and other ethnic foods, not otherwise common in Northern Michigan.<\/p>\n \u201cThis should benefit all of us by bringing more people into town,\u201d Oseland says. \u201cAfter they eat at a food truck, they\u2019ll stay and go to the local brewery or go shopping. They\u2019ll bike the trail, or kayak, or go to beach.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nCurrent Editor<\/strong><\/p>\nUp For Discussion<\/h2>\n
A History of Mobile Vending<\/h2>\n
New Guys Around Town<\/h2>\n