Keep on food-trucking: Fayetteville's first dedicated space for food trucks looks forward to serving the community in 2024

By Faith Hatton, posted Dec 22, 2023 on BizFayetteville.com

PHOTO PROVIDED BY GFBJ
The Haymount Truck Stop is a reliable host for food trucks in the Fayetteville area, providing space for both the trucks and their loyal customers.

Downtown Haymount is experiencing a food truck renaissance thanks to the opening of a new home for food trucks and their fans.
The Haymount Truck Stop celebrated this past Black Friday by officially opening its doors, and parking lot, to the public as the newest option for people to meet, eat and be merry.

Located at 100 Broadfoot Ave. in the heart of Haymount in Fayetteville, the Haymount Truck Stop is a reliable and semi permanent hub for area food trucks.

Taking up residence on a plot that used to be home to a mechanic shop, Co-Owner Jordan Sherrod shared that the concept had been in the works since spring of 2020.
“I’ve always been amazed that we don’t have a really good patio space in this town, the weather’s nice pretty much all year round. When this [building] came open for purchase, it just made a lot of sense. Haymount is a nice area where you can easily walk to, so the lot really lended itself to a good patio area where people can come and congregate and have a good time. That was really the motivation and we have a lot of really good food trucks and I just don't think everyone knows that, so this gives an opportunity for us to showcase what others are doing,” shared Sherrod.
The first Food Truck specific business in Fayetteville, the Haymount Truck Stop team had to work with local lawmakers to make operating a business model of this type legal within city limits.
“Food trucks were not allowed to be a primary use case for a business, they could only be a secondary use meaning you could have any kind of business, but then you could get food trucks to come for a time period. There are restrictions on how close they could be to buildings and how many could be on the lot. We wanted it to be a primary use so we worked with the City and over about a six to eight month period, we were able to push through an ordinance through the City for the food truck courts to be a legal entity,” said Sherrod.

The layout of the front patio is structured to accommodate four food trucks at a time. To keep options fresh for guests, the Truck Stop operates on a rotating schedule.
According to Operations Manager Doug Ray, food truck owners are expressing interest from as far away as the Raleigh and Durham areas.
“From here to the Triangle, the word is out and food trucks are kind of falling out of the sky. I spend the majority of my time daily now, talking to food truck owners in emails, phone calls, in person meetings and touring the facility. So far, the reception in the food truck community has been amazing. The
food trucks bring incredible value to the Haymount Truck Stop,” shared Ray.
Now, the Truck Stop is looking to incorporate more structure to their schedule by scheduling their first “permanent” food truck residents.

“Permanent” residents are able to set up shop for a longer amount of time and will operate on a monthly rotation schedule.
Ray shared that their first permanent resident, the Fry Papi food truck, will be on location for the full month of March in 2024.
“There's so many great stories. We have school trained chefs, we have entrepreneurs that somebody told them their food was amazing so they got started… We’re really keen on rotating and trying to keep the lot as fresh as our bar menu is. You're not going to come to the truck stop and see two trucks with the same menu at the same time,” shared Ray. “I'm really enjoying meeting and talking to new food trucks and they tell two friends and I get two more applications. This early on, it's a really good problem to have.”
Along with providing a reliable space for food trucks to set up, the Haymount Truck stop provides a comfortable environment for guests to settle down. The Truck Stop provides plenty of seating for guests along with a 22 tap bar which specializes in various cocktails along with offering the option to purchase non alcoholic drinks. Currently, the menu includes traditional cocktails like a classic Old Fashioned, Cosmopolitan and a Bee’s Knees along with unique creations all cultivated by Bar Manager Maurice Spagatner.

Other features in the Haymount Truck Stop include a back patio space and an arcade lounge which will be available to rent for events.
After more than a month being open and meeting the community, the Haymount Truck Stop will be bringing in the New Year by hosting its very first event: A New Years Soirée with Haymount Truck Stop.
Sponsored by Southern Glazier Wine and Spirits, the event will be an opportunity for the community to dress to impress and enjoy champagne, a new elevated cocktail menu, hors d’oeuvres and fantastic company.

“We wanted to give people an option to get dressed up and not have to drive to Raleigh and get hotels and to actually have something here locally. It gives us time to expand our cocktail menu for that party. The cocktail menu will completely change for New Year so people that are coming to that party will have first dibs,” shared Events Manager Annie Galyon.
The event will go from 9:30 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. on Dec. 31 and also feature catering from Haymount Food truck regular GR Fil-Am Grill. Tickets are $100 and include champagne at the door, a champagne toast at midnight, an in house cocktail and hors d’oeuvres throughout the night.
“We want to get people excited to get dressed up and go somewhere that's actually cute and fun and will have a fun crowd. We're going to try to have sparklers and we're gonna have it set for pictures and it's private which is kind of nice, so it's not overwhelming because anyone that has been on site since we've opened, especially on the weekends, knows it can get a little packed, so we're capping it at 80 people,’ continued Galyon.
The Haymount Truck Stop is open to the community on Monday through Thursday from 11 a.m.- 10 p.m., Friday from 11 a.m. -12 a.m., Saturday from 9 a.m. - 12 a.m. and Sundays from 9 a.m.- 9 p.m. Learn more about the Haymount Truck Stop on their website at www.haymounttruckstop.com.

Copyright © 2024 Enhanced Media Management Inc. dba Greater Fayetteville Business Journal
This story may be displayed, reformatted and printed for your personal, noncommercial use only and in accordance with our Terms of Service located at https://bizfayetteville.com/useragreement.