Puyallup Builds On Outdoor Dining, Food Truck Programs

PUYALLUP, WA — Puyallup's curbside café program will be sticking around for at least another year.

According to a news release from the City of Puyallup, the City Council has approved a plan to extend the city's outdoor dining program for an additional year. At that same meeting, the council also voted to make the food truck pilot project into a permanent program.

The city first launched the parklet pilot in April 2021. The program allows downtown Puyallup restaurants to set up curbside seating in front of their businesses, which the city hoped would help support those businesses during the pandemic. Restaurants in particular had been hit hard by the state's COVID-19 regulations, and local leaders say this program helped them stay afloat by letting them host customers when indoor dining was restricted.

“From our perspective on Council, these programs were a tremendous success in helping our local business community,” said Puyallup Mayor Julie Door. “I am glad that we decided to move forward with these programs. But we did ask staff to make a few adjustments to the programs. For the Parklets, we’d like to open them during the winter and see if there is demand. For the Food Trucks, we added a new requirement that they not compete with permitted events in town.”

Seven downtown businesses have signed on for the program: Anthem Coffee & Tea, CasCades, The Forum, Mingle, Perry's, The Rose Restaurant, and Wicked Pie Pizza. Meanwhile, 20 locally owned businesses have signed up for the now-permanent food truck program, which allows licensed and permitted mobile food vendors to operate within the city.

City leaders say, both programs have proved successful in supporting small, local businesses.

“What we heard from our downtown businesses was that these programs were vital to their survival,” said Meredith Neal, Economic Development Director for the City. “Our businesses were devastated by the closures due to COVID, especially those in the restaurant and retail sector. Those businesses were some of the first to close and the last to reopen at full capacity. Being able to take advantage of this program, especially the Parklets, was what helped them weather this unprecedented event. Now that we have approval from Council to move forward, we will start implementing a few new elements that we think the business community will appreciate.”

Following the new extension, the parklet program will now expire on October 31, 2022.