Food trucks are taking over Melbourne. Street food can be spotted on many inner city streets and suburban parks.
Now residents of Yarrambat and neighbouring suburbs will be able to experience the food truck trend without having to travel.
Yarrambat Park Golf Club general manager Michael McKay is behind the initiative to start a food truck park at the club and says he expected that more than half a dozen food trucks to offer services from Friday to Sunday during daylight savings.
“I think there’s a lot of untapped patronage in that Diamond Valley and Whittlesea area, and we want to dig into it a little bit better,” McKay tells upstart.
“I’m a regular attendee of Welcome to Thornbury and those kinds of places, and I could see that people were really resonating with the whole food truck movement.
“I started looking into it and seeing if it was possible, first of all. Once I started to talking to a few of the operators they seemed fairly keen, because I think they’re always looking for somewhere new to park to set up their business.”
Welcome to Thornbury was Melbourne’s first permanent bar and food truck park. Currently licensed for over 700 people, the location was previously used as a car-manufacturing plant for much of the 20th century.
Now, it operates as the second largest beer garden and only permanent bar and food truck stop in Melbourne.
McKay says that although the calendar is yet to be finalised for the new Yarrambat food truck park, names like Sliders on Tyres, The Curry Truck, Gumbo Kitchen and Ghost Kitchen are expected to appear.
“I think there’s a lot of untapped potential out here, because we’re in a really prime location. We have a really picturesque facility, we have a lot of kangaroos hopping around and the sun setting over the tree lines, and it just looks really beautiful out here. For some reason, there’s nothing bringing people out here, which I think is a shame,” McKay says.
“I think that by doing something like this, it really isn’t sales driven at all. It’s really just about doing something for the surrounding community, and then maybe once people come and see, they might come back as regular users of our facilities.
“We’re getting people who otherwise wouldn’t have come here, and possibly retaining those people for years to come, so it was sort of a no brainer for us.”
Frequently packed to capacity in warmer months, food trucks have quickly become the place to catch up with friends for a relaxed night out in Melbourne.
Student and northern suburbs local George Collins welcomes the new food truck park.
“I think that it’s going to be good. Sometimes you just don’t feel like heading into the city, you want somewhere a little quieter, and having a place in Yarrambat where you can just hang out with friends will be great,” he tells upstart.
Yarrambat Park Golf Club is expected to open their food truck park on October 3rd.
Katherine McLeod is a third year journalism student at La Trobe University and a staff writer for upstart. Twitter: @kattt_mcleod