Since Harvest Ridge Winery can only serve — and not cook — food at its cidery location, working with food trucks is the best option to draw in customers that want to eat while they drink cider, said Social Media Manager Sofia Horvath.
”It is neither easier or harder – but does nurture a symbiotic relationship between food trucks and ourselves,” she pointed out.
Food Trucks — or allowing food inside your taproom — can be a way to help foster some business community growth along with encouraging consumers to “have one more” or more while helping support another business along with your own.
At Harvest Ridge’s Delaware location — which is the more established and larger of its two locations — Horvath said they have a food truck on site every weekend.
“We may invite multiple trucks if we are hosting a larger event or expect bigger crowds,” she added. “We may also invite a truck on other, non-weekend days if we see the need.”
Prior to having a food truck Jefferson County Ciderworks had a grill, which is not great for insurance purposes pointed out Katie Greenfield, and then pizza delivery.
“It worked well but I think the appeal wore off,” she said. Now, the cidery has a truck permanently on site that it owns and operates.
“It makes a massive difference in clientele, because we have entire families that can come, rather than those just ‘going to a bar,’ ” Greenfield said.
Food is very important in Fort Wayne, Indiana said Kekionga Cider‘s Tyler Butcher.
”I don’t think there is one brewery/winery/distillery that is production only,” he noted. ”There is almost always a focus on having a kitchen in the facility as well.”
Butch’s cidery has teamed up with a local catering company and it will operate a retail kitchen in the tasting room starting his summer.
”I think it’s better to have a partner that has experience and knowledge of the food industry, rather than try to tackle food yourself,” Butcher said.
In the past, Kekionga has had food trucks out every Friday and Saturday evening for 3-4 hours.
“We didn’t have too much preference on what trucks would come,” Butcher said. ”We have given a lot of opportunities to new trucks. I have noticed that generally BBQ trucks and pizza vendors have done best for us.”
More cideries will share their insights on food trucks in the coming weeks on Cider Corner.
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