Lafayette city officials are talking about the possibility of having a food truck day — the dreamchild of vendors Gary and Gretchen Kufel who operate the Dixieland Deli food truck.
“In this proposal, all the food trucks that participate would operate under their own power,†said Gary Kufel. “They would also be required to be inverted generators to help reduce noise pollution. When I first came up with this concept I was looking at maybe 10 or 12 trucks that may be interested in participating. Within two posts on Facebook, I had more than 30 trucks interested in the event. Well over 100 people wanted information about when the event would take place. The response has been overwhelmingly positive. I had zero negative feedback on this idea.â€
Lafayette Mayor Tony Day said, “I looked at how many restaurants we have here. We have 18 or 20, so we don’t need more food trucks than we have restaurants. I think maybe around 10 or 15 would be good.â€
Initially, the proposal called for the event to take place at Key Park, but officials decided that they didn’t want to cause parking problems for the church located at Key Park, so the event will be held at Winding Stairs Lane.
Gary Kufel says he reached out to people not only in Macon County, but others as well.
“I’ve reached out to Westmoreland, Celina, Gallatin and others,†he said. “When I first approached the mayor, I proposed to have the trucks around the square. Then he recommended possibly Key Park because they didn’t want to have to block off the streets downtown and things like that. So that’s where the idea for Key Park came into play. Hendersonville hosts a summer event at their park, and last summer we participated. There were over 80 trucks. Last week in downtown Gallatin they closed off downtown for another food truck event. The interest is there for sure. Again, the number of people who have expressed interest is overwhelming. I’ve even been approached by some to try and do this monthly. I said no, that would be a full-time job.â€
He said the idea is to “see how it goes and possibly do this quarterly or semiannually.â€
“We’re hoping to grow this so that everyone in the area can participate and enjoy it,†he said. “As you all know, here in town our food selection is very limited. We have interest from Cuban, Thai, Caribbean, you name it, we have heard from them. This is a great opportunity to bring many new food choices to the area and who knows where it could lead in the future.â€
The council decided to send the proposal for a final vote during the May council meeting. If voted for, the event will be held on the winding stairs along the roadway.
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