Zocalo Food Park Opens Saturday

Zocalo Food Park before opening. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

Milwaukee’s first food truck park will open its “doors” for the first time Saturday morning.

The Walker’s Point gathering place, Zocalo Food Park, is located 636 S. 6th St., a block north of W. National Ave. The park is being developed by food cart operator Jesus Gonzalez and real estate developer Sean Phelan.

Two lots on each side of the two-story tavern building form the park, while the tavern building is still being redeveloped.

At 7 a.m. Saturday morning, Ruby’s Bagels will begin serving fresh, hand-rolled bagels. The breakfast food purveyor will be joined at 10:30 a.m. by Gonzalez’s Mazorca Tacos cart, Fontelle’s Eatery burger truck, Scratch Ice Cream cart and Asian rice bowl concept Bowl Cut. The latter restaurants will be open until 11 p.m., while Ruby’s will close at 2 p.m. A sixth spot will be occupied by a rotating food truck.

When the bar is complete, the entire complex will include indoor and outdoor seating, a full-service bar, on-site parking, restrooms and a bocce court.

Gonzalez hopes Zocalo becomes not only a gathering place, but an incubator for area food entrepreneurs through the use of an equipped trailer. The first such participant in the program is Daniela Varela of Ruby’s Bagels.

The six-parcel, 0.6-acre site was purchased by Zocalo MKE LLC for $534,000 in April from Mike Eitel‘s Nomad Barrio LLC. Eitel purchased the site for $475,000 in 2017. Eitel had acquired the parcels from Lacroix Auto Sales owner Anthony Lacroix.

Design work on the project is being led by Chris Socha and the team at TKWA UrbanLab, Adam Kirchner of ADK Design is leading the general contracting and Alan Rentmeester of Spire Engineering is providing structural engineering services.

The $1.3 million project received a $520,000 loan from the city-affiliated Milwaukee Economic Development Corporation.

Photos

May Photos