By Anna Padilla | KRQE.com
Albuquerque’s first permanent food truck park is set to officially open this Friday, Oct. 23 and feature a variety of local vendors. The park comes as another expansion project of the La Esquinita marketplace, and from the Barelas Community Coalition, which is its parent organization.
“We always wanted to bring something closer to our main street, so we said we’d love to create an extended opportunity for food trucks and those entrepreneurs who aren’t necessarily looking for retail space but who have some of the best food in town,” said Alejandro Saavedra, Board Chair of the Barelas Community Coalition.
Saavedra said he hopes La Esquinita continues to evolve into a community space that helps bring the neighborhood together. The organization worked with the city to provide electricity to the trucks so the vendors wouldn’t have to rely on generators.
“We’re taking this slowly. We were hoping to open this spring, but COVID happened and sent a lot of our plans back,” Saavedra said. “We don’t want to have mobs of people show up, so we have Mayor Keller and the city to thank for helping us provide a COVID-safe space for the community.”
Due to recent COVID-19 restrictions, only three food trucks will be selling food in the lot as of right now. Black Iron, Phat Frescas, and Burger Knights will kick off the weekly event which will occur from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays in the lot just south of the La Esquinita market building. Part of those precautions being taken is providing sanitization stations and having staff provide guests with the protective gear they need to gather in a public area.
