Food Truck Park Coming to Seattle

Food trucks are the newest craze across the United States.   Tacos, burgers, and even pasta trucks are in cities across the United States.  However, Steve Katsandres of Seattle is trying to open a beer garden mated with a food truck pot.  There will be seating, drinks, varieties of food, and public bathrooms.  Keep reading to learn more about this new Seattle location. You can learn more at Seattle Met. 

In 1995, Steve Katsandres opened Bad Albert's Tap and Grill, named for his portly feline, on a then-sleepy Ballard Ave. He went on to a variety of food and management roles around town but now, 20 years later, Katsandres and a few partners (all Ballard natives) are bringing something entirely new to the neighborhood.

Ballard Bites and Brew is essentially a beer garden mated with a food truck pod. Katsandres is transforming a vacant lot at 1502 NW 50th Street (in the thick of Ballard's brewery zone) into a parklike space where local drafts will flow and food trucks will take up regular positions—four at a time, rotating in and out by day and night.

Currently Seattle food trucks set up camp in pods (variety, but no seating) or outside a specific establishment, like a brewery (seating and beer, but just one truck at a time). Theoretically the Bites and Brew setup fuses the best of these two worlds: ample seating, beer, variety...and bathrooms. A building dubbed the "draft shack" will house eight taps and a variety of canned beers, while the other side of the building will dispense drive-thru espresso and breakfast sandwiches in the morning. There will be a stage for live music; Katsandres uses the term "park" to describe his creation because he wants it to have a family friendly, neighborhood vibe to it.

Opening something heretofore nonexistent in Seattle can make for some adventures in permitting, but Katsandres and partners hope Ballard Bites and Brew will be open by April. Keep an eye on its Facebook page for updates.