By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com
WALDPORT – The departure of a popular food cart in downtown Waldport isn’t deterring city officials from trying to establish a “pod” of 4-6 such outlets within the next year.
After 7½ years, Michelle and Pat O’Neil are closing their Chubby’s food cart Aug. 28. It’s not because business is slow – they sell out regularly – or that the property along U.S. Highway 101 is for sale.
“We’ve outgrown our 16-foot trailer,” Michelle O’Neil says. “That’s why we’re changing. We’re selling out every day.”
The O’Neil’s are food veterans – he was a manager at Ray’s Markets for years; she at Fred Meyer. Their venture into hamburgers, hot dogs, sandwiches and French fries grew out of the desire to be their own bosses and control their future.
“It’s been a good business,” Michelle O’Neil says. “We’re just trying to get bigger, have more security – but there’s also more risk.”
The Waldport couple have been looking for a “brick and mortar” storefront to move and grow their business. They won’t say where, but have told others that it doesn’t have to be in Waldport or even the central Oregon coast.
The property on which their food cart sits – along with a coffee kiosk and the Green Bike Co-op – is on the market for $379,000 and has attracted lots of lookers but so far no buyers.
Pat O’Neil said the likelihood of a new owner “nudged us to make some decisions that are best for our business.”
Searching for space
City manager Dann Cutter has offered the O’Neil’s a spot in the parking lot of the Community Center should they decide to reopen their food cart in the fall. But the O’Neil’s say that’s not likely to happen.
“I don’t want them to close down and go away,” Cutter said of the city’s offer. “Once they close, it’s hard to bring them back.”
One of the City Council’s goals for 2021 is to help increase “food options” in Waldport. A way to do that is establish a permanent space for a food cart pod somewhere downtown. Cutter says he is “actively looking” for potential spaces for 4-6 carts.
Cutter hopes to get interested vendors together and see what exactly they need. But similar pods elsewhere – many cities have them – provide water, electricity, and restrooms. Cutter envisions a paved lot with a covered seating area with picnic tables in the center of the pod.
“If the city can break even on the project, that would be great,” he said.
In June, Waldport received $247,000 from the Biden administration’s American Rescue Plan, and will get the same amount next June. Some of that could be used to help launch the project, Cutter said.
“This is the type of things they want with that money – economic development,” Cutter said.
The city also believes that a pod of food carts won’t affect the business of the few sit-down restaurants in town. Carts usually attract a different type of customer, aren’t always open in the evening and having more offerings in town brings more people into the city to find meals – be they takeout or sit-down dining.
And, like the O’Neils are trying to do — food carts can also be a stepping stone into traditional restaurants. The owners of Skosh, who bought Vicky’s Big Wheel in downtown Waldport last year, started as a food cart in Walla Walla, Wash. The owners of the recently opened Radical Radish along Hemlock Street are using their food cart to transition into a building they plan to erect overlooking the ocean in downtown Yachats.
“People are interested in more options,” Cutter says. “The people who eat at food carts aren’t necessarily the folks who go inside a restaurant, especially during lunch.”
