New Haven Register (Sunday) (New Haven, CT)
WestSide Square food truck park and marketplace opens in Hartford
The city of Hartford has a brand-new food truck park, thanks to an entrepreneurial local couple that saw a vacant parking lot and envisioned a vibrant community space there.
Quan and Rebeca Quach recently opened WestSide Square, a food truck park and marketplace, at the corner of Girard and Farmington Avenue in Hartford’s West End.
Quan, a former Hartford restaurateur turned contractor, said he was inspired by similar parks on the West Coast. He’s also a former food truck operator, having run the Baba Ghanoush truck in partnership with Hartford’s Tangiers International Market.
“I figured it’s about time for [Connecticut] to catch up with the rest of the country,” he said. “I went to a couple, and thought it was a pretty cool idea.”
The couple lives in the neighborhood, so they frequently drove by the empty lot where the park now resides. They began to visualize an outdoor space with rotating food trucks, ample seating, beverages for sale and live entertainment — similar to West Hartford’s GastroPark, where Quan had frequently served falafel and gyros from the Baba Ghanoush truck.
They started the process with the city of Hartford back in May 2021, Rebeca said, and the park’s official approvals and permits came through about two weeks ago. The buildout took about
four months, the couple said.
WestSide Square will host no more than four food trucks a day, giving each truck enough opportunity to make sales, Quan said. On slower weekdays, the park welcomes two or three, with recent appearances from Brazilian Gula Grill, No Pork On Dis Fork (a popular hot dog vendor that serves beef and turkey dogs) and The Rolling Roti, with Guyanese
cuisine. Other trucks have featured fish and seafood, tacos and Caribbean vegan and vegetarian fare.
The park has an open-air liquor permit, Rebeca said, allowing alcoholic beverages to be served at their outdoor open space. In the first couple of weeks, they were contracting with mobile bartenders, or local bars with catering permits, to
handle drink sales. Hartford’s Agave Grill is now handling the bar component on the park site, she said.
More food trucks will be joining the rotation in the next several weeks as their schedules allow, Rebeca said, noting that many were booked up for a full summer of parties, special events and stops at breweries and wineries.
The park includes a fencestyle structure at the entrance, built from recycled windows and French doors from old homes right in Hartford’s West End. On the property, a large pergola stretches over seating for about 120 people, Quan said, offering shade during hot days. Smaller umbrella-shaded tables, made from old recycled spools, are also scattered throughout the park.
“We do have Wi-Fi available at the park, so we’ve seen a couple of people come [during the day]...they open their laptops and sit with their food and say, “I’m just going to work here for a couple more hours,” Rebeca said. “They enjoy it, and this is what we love to see.”
The park also features a stage, where live musicians perform. Quan said they’re looking ahead to more entertainment like comedy shows.
“We’ve only been open two weeks, but there are always things you can do to improve,” he said.
The couple said they’ll keep the park open “as far as weather permits” into the fall season, Rebeca said, with their permit eligible through the end of 2022.
So far, they said they’ve been thrilled with the initial feedback.
“[People] have been very thankful, very grateful that we’re bringing this to this area here in Hartford,” Rebeca said. “We’ve had many people come from different places, and they’re loving it. So we’re excited to hear all the positive feedback.”
WestSide Square is at 510 Farmington Avenue in Hartford. Parking is available on nearby streets.