A food truck event this weekend in Pittsfield comes as the city and others in the region continue to grapple with how to balance mobile vendors and fixed, permanent restaurants.
Kathy and Gabe Lloyd have been frying up egg rolls and other uniquely named dishes for customers in downtown Pittsfield and elsewhere for the past year.
Their restaurant on wheels, called How We Roll, features a pink scantily-clad roller-derby girl painted on the side of a black truck. It caught the eye of Mike Eitelberg, who works within the city’s hub on North Street and was walking past during a rainy lunch hour.
“Let’s do a hipster Elvis [a fried egg roll with banana, Nutella and peanut butter as well,” said Eitelberg.
“You got it,” Gabe Lloyd replied. Excellent choice.”
“These are very clever names and a very creative menu you have,” Eitelberg added. “Thank you for this fun stuff and you might see me for one more.”\
The recent rollouts of food trucks in downtowns have caused a stir in some communities. Pittsfield city planners have been working on a mobile food vendor ordinance since the summer after How We Roll and the Amanda’s On Wheels food truck, which also operated in Great Barrington, arrived on the downtown scene. Pasquale Arace is co-owner of The Highland Restaurant in Pittsfield and was among about 10 business owners who voiced their concerns ata December city council committee meeting.
“If a person is able to show up on good days, sell their product, and just leave at minimal fee that is an unfair playing field,” Arace said. “If you charge the same amount of taxes or rent that some restaurants pay to be in the downtown I can assure you that you wouldn’t see a food truck anywhere in the downtown.”
The ordinance is on hold while the city waits for the results of a parking study set to wrap up this spring. Kathy Lloyd says How We Roll has plenty of community support.
“I think it’s pretty clear by the amount of restaurants that didn’t show up to the ordinance meetings and speak out against us that we have a lot more support than we do naysayers in town,” said Kathy Lloyd.
One of the vendors coming to Pittsfield’s food truck rodeo this weekend is Chanterelle To Go. Lauren Kendzierski started serving farm-to-truck dishes out of a retrofitted, 1950s handmade ice cream cart from Belgium she found on eBay last spring. Kendzierski and her boyfriend had hoped the food truck would be their main business, but discouragement from the business community and a new fee to park in downtown Northampton has made business unprofitable. The former restaurant owner grows her own produce, relying on catering and events from Cape Cod to the Hudson Valley for business and plans to open a storefront in Westfield in the coming weeks. She hopes the weekend’s event can showcase the unique service food trucks offer.
“We are kind of pinned down and unable to operate in a lot of places,” Kendzierski said. “I think that the more people who know there are great food trucks options out there maybe they’ll be more interested in talking with representatives locally to allow us to be a part of the local business scene.”
In all, five food trucks will be at the event. Andrew Chase will be there in his Black Forest Flammkuchen trailer.
“It literally means flame cake,” Chase said. “It’s a wood-fired super, super, super thin crusted flatbread that cooks in about 45 seconds.”
Chase and his wife Conny were both born in Germany and were living there when they came up with the idea. The couple debuted the farm-fresh pizza-style product via the food trailer last year in Poughkeepsie and is relocating to open a restaurant in Kinderhook.
“Initially it was kind of a test,” he said. “We wanted to see how people would response to flammkuchen. It’s a new dish. You know falafel had to start somewhere too.”
Proceeds from the Pittsfield event will go toward The Moments House, which provides support for those affected by cancer. It runs from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday in Palace Park on North St. Lloyd also plans to roll into Kinderhook for the region’s inaugural food truck event in June.
“We’re circling the wagons,” said Kathy Lloyd.
