Food Truck, Beer Event Planned

Two hot trends in the food world — craft beer and food trucks — will mix it up for a new festival in Mount Pleasant's Park West.

The May 20 event is sponsored by the Town of Mount Pleasant and is an attempt to bring more events to the northern part of town.

"More than half our population lives above the Isle of Palms Connector," said town manager Eric DeMoura.

But most town events — festivals, farmers' markets and live music — are featured at venues in in the southern portion of Mount Pleasant, a trip that can take up to 20 minutes with recent road construction delays.

The food truck and beer rodeo is still in the planning stages, said Ashley Richardson, the town's development and tourism officer.

"We have a handful of vendors secured," she said. Plans call for live music and locally brewed beers and a variety of food trucks.

Richardson plans to cordon off a football field at Park West's recreation complex. Access will be limited to adults of legal drinking age. She pitched the plan to a town council committee on Monday.

The food truck rodeo follows a controversial debate over how to best regulate the mobile food businesses in Mount Pleasant. The town recently launched new rules that require permits for food truck operators.

Early drafts of the plan, which limited how close food trucks could locate to traditional restaurants, were widely panned by the mobile food vendors.

Read full coverage of the food truck debate.

The town eventually enacted restrictions that limited food trucks to retail areas and required them to obtain a town business license, prove Department of Health and Environment Control compliance and prove permission from landowner to set up the truck.