Putney hosts new food truck park

This story by Virginia Ray was first published in The Commons on August 6.

PUTNEY — Julie Winchester had no desire to get involved in the restaurant business.

What she did want was to bring her community together and show visitors what her town has to offer.

And she had a vision that included making Exit 4 off Interstate Highway 91 a destination — maybe even a food truck spot.

After a while, since no one else was stepping up, Winchester did.

Now, Rod’s Food Truck Park is open every Friday and Sunday, from 4 p.m. until dusk or until vendors sell out of food.

“I didn’t want to be the person to pull the trigger on this, but it was like, OK, I guess I have to do it. For me what’s been a little stressful is I’ve never done restaurant businesses,” said the seemingly ever-sunny Winchester.

Winchester works as a dental hygienist and helps her husband Greg with Rod’s Towing and Repair at 40 Main St., which they purchased last year from Greg’s father.

“For those businesses, people make appointments,” she said.

She asked herself, “Are people really going to come?”

They did. “The park has stayed full for the past two weeks for the entire time it’s open,” she said.

Winchester said that multiple vendors have stopped by the garage asking about setting up food trucks but there wasn’t enough space there.

“We tried to give them other suggestions, but it just kind of kept coming back to us,” she said.

So in January, the couple bought the ⅔-acre of green space between Rod’s and 802 Credit Union.

“We were inspired by what the Retreat [Farm] does with its food truck roundup,” said Winchester. “I thought, ‘If Brattleboro can do it, why can’t Putney?’ So we’ve done it.”

So far the park has been full each week with a maximum of six trucks.

Marcel Maxwell, owner of 802 Soul Kitchen, a pop-up kitchen he started in February, was the first vendor who said “yes” to Winchester.

“It meant the world to me that he believed in this vision and Putney,” Winchester said of Maxwell and his southern soul food.

“I love the park; it’s awesome. And it’s going great, probably my second or third biggest turnouts since I started,” said Maxwell, who brings along his 5-year-old son Little Marcel and his best friend each week. “Putney really comes out to support. It’s just a fun place.”

Other vendors at the park are part of Brattleboro’s Afghan refugee community. “Their food is to die for,” Winchester said.

A new vendor would soon be bringing Puerto Rican cuisine, she said.

“All these vendors put their hearts and souls into their food,” Winchester said. “The diversity in the food we’re offering on the property has been beautiful.”

According to Winchester, approximately 600 people came through in the first two weeks.

“It’s been everything I imagined and more,” Winchester said. “I’ve had this vision, seeing Exit 4 being a destination, and I haven’t wanted our town to give up, thinking Putney has just fallen asleep.”

Winchester and her husband travel through many small New England towns, and she said she always thinks, “Putney has everything this town has; we just need to let people know more about what’s here.”

The spring eclipse showed Winchester how much Exit 4 really was “a destination on steroids,” as folks from across New England traveled there for terrific viewing.

“We’d never seen such traffic and so many people,” Winchester said.

Now she said she’s enjoying seeing her vision become a reality.

“It’s been exciting seeing family, friends, and community visiting for hours in the park,” she said.

“It really is a positive gift that Covid gave us of getting back to gathering, like the outside restaurant. It’s been lovely, and the food has been happening organically,” Winchester said.

She said that people told her that it would be too late in the season to start the food truck spot. “But sometimes you can’t believe the things people say,” said Winchester, who measures the park’s success by the success of vendors and the happiness of vendors and community members.

The park — almost completely booked for this season — will close Oct. 31 for the winter, though Winchester has some ideas about a winter solstice ice sculpting event.

In the meantime, “I want everyone in this space to just relax,” she said.

“I don’t want it to be about politics, or all the things that are going wrong in our town,” Winchester said. “I want it to be about the things that are going right in our town.”

Read the story on VTDigger here: Putney hosts new food truck park .