ASHEVILLE – Married minutes before, still in his suit, Eliseo Melchor walked out of the Buncombe County Courthouse with his new bride to see a familiar shade of blue. The day was beautiful, mid-October and crisp, but the view was more than clear skies:
It was their favorite food truck — Delish — painted an eye-catching hue, set up just a few dozen feet from the courthouse.
“Once I see that color, I’m like, I know what type of food that is,” Melchor, 23, told the Citizen Times Oct. 17 of the Arden-based Venezuelan street food truck.
In her bridal gown, Damasiurelys Martinez, 21, posed in front of the truck with Melchor, smiling. The Asheville newlyweds ordered empanadas and other favorites to tide them over until they could celebrate with family later that day.
Newlyweds Damasiurelys Martinez, 21, and Eliseo Melchor, 23, pose for a photo after ordering lunch at Delish Food Truck along College Street in Asheville on Oct. 17, 2025.
It was a happy coincidence. One made even more unlikely and fortuitous as Delish, run by Javier Garcia, would not normally have been at such a prime spot in the Central Business District: parked in front of the courthouse and City Hall.
Regulations around food trucks are more restrictive in downtown Asheville than elsewhere in the city. Unless part of a permitted festival or special event, “temporary” food trucks are not allowed downtown at all.
Having started in October, a weekly food truck event, taking place every Friday through December, features a rotating selection of vendors in downtown’s Pack Square Park, intended to highlight local vendors and promote additional activation.
Feedback and foot traffic will then be evaluated. Future considerations could include an expanded event series or program, policy changes or investments in necessary infrastructure, according to an Oct. 14 presentation from staff.
Javier Garcia, owner of Delish Food Truck, speaks with the Asheville Citizen Times inside his truck along College Street in Asheville on Oct. 17, 2025.
Garcia said he does not typically come downtown unless there is an event, given the regulations. It can be a gamble, too, trying out new spaces: A lot of prep work and the possibility of little payoff.
But the pilot program offered a “very visible” spot that drew the lunchtime rush of nearby government workers and caught the eye of tourists.
“I feel like I see more people in the buildings on Fridays now,” Assistant City Manager Ben Woody joked during an Oct. 14 update to council.
It was a “great spot, great response,” Garcia said of the pilot, and he’s heard similar optimism from other participating trucks.
That’s the thing about food trucks, he said: “You go where the people are.”
Newlyweds Damasiurelys Martinez, 21, and Eliseo Melchor, 23, speak with the Asheville Citizen Times at Delish Food Truck along College Street in Asheville on Oct. 17, 2025.
More: New use for vacant Haywood Street lot: A food truck park
More: Asheville food truck owner talks tariffs, inflation’s impact on pricing
What about late night eats?
Taste of Philly Flava, run by Alesha and Darryl Sampson, kicked off the pilot in early October. Originally from Philadelphia, they are based in Marion, and typically move between different breweries and apartment complexes.
Their cheesesteak-centric menu saw a “phenomenal” response at the downtown pilot, Darryl told the Citizen Times Oct. 21.
Alesha and Darryl Sampson, owners of Marion-based food truck, Taste of Philly Flava.
Philly Flava has been invited back later in November. After the success of opening day, the city expanded the offerings from one truck to two.
The pilot is part of a slate of initiatives explored by Asheville City Council to increase foot traffic downtown as it continues to recover from Tropical Storm Helene in September 2024, which triggered a steep decline in visitor spending, leaving many businesses reeling.
Travel industry data from the summer and early fall indicated Asheville’s tourism industry was still lagging, with lodging sales in July and August down over 20%.
The initial request around food trucks was to bring forward more late-night food options, council member Kim Roney said Oct. 14 during an update to City Council, with some operators hoping to serve downtown residents, service workers and visitors who have fewer options after most restaurants close.
Woody said that was something the city would continue to consider after the pilot as it gathers feedback from both users and vendors. At an earlier briefing, he said to get food trucks downtown later at night in other locations would likely mean amending the existing ordinance.
City staff said input from food vendors through an August survey indicated interest in downtown vending, with Friday lunch and dinner hours the most preferred. It had 12 respondents.
Marcus Kirkman, business inclusion manager with the city of Asheville, speaks with the Asheville Citizen Times at Delish Food Truck along College Street in Asheville on Oct. 17, 2025.
The pilot was launched by the city’s business inclusion and Outdoor Special Events offices and is being run through the existing framework, with the city pulling a permit, as it would for an event.
There are 134 food trucks permitted in Buncombe County.
As Marcus Kirkman, the city’s business inclusion manager, told the Citizen Times, the pilot’s response has been enthusiastic, and vendors are interested in expanded opportunities downtown.
Kirkman said they will take the lessons learned and ask: Can we do this again? And if so, will it look the same? Will it look different?
“We’ll come down for the food, but without fail, we will end up having a conversation and speaking to somebody we don’t know, and it turns into a conversation,” he said of the program. “This is what community is and what it looks like.”
The menu for Delish Food Truck is displayed in front of the truck along College Street in Asheville on Oct. 17, 2025.
The end of a 20-year prohibition
Current regulations are the result of a long-fought and hard-won battle by food truck operators in 2011, which opened the doors to downtown food trucks, ending a more than 20-year-old ban in the city center.
The split City Council decision came amid pushback, some opponents fearing the trucks would hurt restaurants downtown or questioning how vendors would be monitored for health and safety.
Suzy Phillips, owner of Gypsy Queen, widely recognized as the pioneer of food trucks in the city, according to past Citizen Times reporting, made the case that vendors would add to the area’s burgeoning culinary scene, and give a chance to small entrepreneurs who lack the cash for a brick-and-mortar restaurant.
“Downtown was the place to be,” Phillips told the Citizen Times in October, reflecting on the fight to get there.
It is hard-going for food truck operators in Asheville, in part because she feels regulations are more restrictive than other cities. She always worked other jobs while she ran the truck and was reliant on steady foot traffic. In winter, the truck is an icebox. During summers, it’s an oven.
“All we wanted was to share our food and start our small business,” she said.
Phillips opened her brick-and-mortar on Patton Avenue in October 2015.
Meghan Rogers, executive director of Asheville Independent Restaurants.
Meghan Rogers, executive director of Asheville Independent Restaurants, said though the organization hasn’t discussed the pilot program specifically, any concerns about competition between downtown restaurants and food truck vendors “were resolved years ago.”
“AIR even has a membership category for food trucks, and many of our members either operate one now or have in the past,” she said in an Oct. 21 email. “We support opportunities for local food entrepreneurs to grow and thrive as well as efforts that bring more people downtown as it continues its post-storm recovery.”
What are current regulations?
As the ordinance stands, while temporary food trucks are allowed on downtown public property through permitted special events, they are not allowed on private property.
This differs from most other non-residential areas of the city where food trucks can get a temporary use permit to operate for 180 days a year, like West Asheville and the River Arts District.
Free-standing gasoline generators are prohibited within the fire district, which encompasses much of the downtown core, further complicating the path for vendors. The pilot is located just outside of the district.
However, downtown properties can be zoned for “permanent” or non-temporary mobile food vending with an approved development plan/permit and by meeting a lengthy list of compliance requirements, like site access, landscaping, buffering, sidewalks, setbacks and permanent electrical power.
This could look like a dedicated food truck lot, like the aptly named “The Lot” which operated for several years on Coxe Avenue. Opened in 2012, it was the first space food trucks could legally set up shop in downtown Asheville, the Citizen Times reported.
There was a flurry of these permits after the ordinance passed, numbering more than two dozen, many for the same sites, but much fewer in recent years.
Merchandisers set up outside of the Billy Strings shows in the “Pit of Despair” the weekends of Feb. 6 and Feb. 14. Feb. 7, 2025.
The city attempted a food truck park pilot program in 2018 at 68 Haywood St., the property sometimes called the “Pit of Despair,” across from Harrah’s Cherokee Center. It ran through 2019, but there was “waning interest,” with feedback that the site did not see enough natural foot traffic to make it worth vendors’ time, said Dana Frankel, the city’s downtown projects manager.
To prepare a permanent site for food trucks can cost close to six figures of infrastructure investment, Woody said in October, “so it’s not necessarily cheap.”
But why else is downtown more restrictive?
In dense, mixed-use areas like downtown and Biltmore Village, noise, trash and lack of restrooms can be a concern to area residents and businesses, Frankel said.
“It’s a way to explore possibilities on a very limited basis,” she said of the pilot program.
The city will do analysis after the program ends Dec. 19 to consider next steps in the spring.
It’s an issue that tends to be a “pretty hot topic,” which is why the city is taking a “baby step” before bringing anything bigger to the table, Frankel said.
More: Asheville delays decision on proposed South Slope event-based social district
More: Salvation Army’s former store on New Leicester Hwy to open as winter shelter Nov. 1
Sarah Honosky is the city government reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA TODAY Network. News Tips? Email shonosky@citizentimes.com or message on Twitter at @slhonosky.
This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Asheville’s food truck pilot brings vendors to downtown. What’s next?
