Business Monday: 5 small companies thrive together in Hilo’s first food truck park

After closing a brick and mortar restaurant in Pāhoa in 2018, Le Schumaker found that a food truck might be a better option for serving her favorite dishes she learned from her mom. 

Schumaker opened the Le Yellow Sub food truck the next year and began serving authentic Vietnamese street food with a local twist while parked outside her son’s house. 

But when she was told to move elsewhere due to parking issues, her son Aaron Watkins helped her look for a safe place to park the food truck and found a lot at 213 Kalanianaʻole Street. Located on the Hilo side of the harbor in front of Kuhio Kalanianʻole Park, the lot also seemed like the perfect place for more than one food truck. 

Thus was born the first food truck park in Hilo, where cuisine from Vietnam, coffee from Kona, pizza by the slice, local fusion sandwiches and organic food grown on the Big Island are all thriving together.

“When you think about it, every island has some sort of food truck lot for people to walk through and I wanted to bring that to Hilo,” Watkins said. “Honestly, Guy Fieri gave me the idea when he did the segment on my mom and Le Yellow Sub.”

In 2021, Le Yellow Sub was featured on the Food Network Show, “Diners, Drive-Inns and Dives,” which stars the celebrity chef. He tasted the chicken lemongrass banh mi and the spring rolls and was impressed by the authenticity of Schumaker’s cooking.

“When Guy asked me how I started cooking, I told him I learned from my mother and grandmother in Vietnam, but now I take tradition and twist with my style,” Schumaker said. “The food truck allows more creativity and I can use produce grown in Hawaiʻi as a substitute for more traditional ingredients.”

When the show segment brought droves of people to Le Yellow Sub, Watkins knew he had to make a food truck lot a reality, so he started by purchasing his own and developing Hilo Ice Coffee. 

While learning the business of coffee for himself, Watkins was also making the food truck lot more appealing for other businesses and visiting other food trucks to see if they were interested in a more permanent location.

“I really wanted to bring diverse food trucks to this space for the community and it took longer than expected, but it was exciting to see the vision come to fruition,” Watkins said. “I think many owners are tired of moving constantly and being able to park somewhere semi-permanently can take away a lot of stress.”

Le Yellow Sub, Hilo Ice Coffee, A & K Fratellis, Duck Fat, Island Organic Cuisine and a bike rental shop now occupy the lot.

Steven Modeer owns A & K Fratellis and personally serves customers his freshly made pizza by the slice or as whole pies every day. He was the first to join Schumaker and Watkins in the food truck park, where there is more competition but also more traffic.

“It’s been great having more people here because more people passing by notice us and will be likely to come by,” Modeer said. “I also enjoy that there is mutual respect and understanding that we won’t step on each other’s toes. Duck Fat would not decide to start making flatbread without at least communicating and the same goes for all of us.”

While they don’t share menu items with fellow food truck chefs, they do help each other and will share food and ingredients.  

“I ran out of basil the other day and Le just gave me a bundle of basil from her garden unprompted,” Modeer said. “Everyone is welcoming to each other and it is nice to see people put in the work to make a living every day.” 

After spending almost two years serving consistently good food at inconsistent locations, Duck Fat food truck finally found a home in March at the food truck park. 

Duck Fat had been moving between the parking lots of Ben Franklin, Autozone and the Kai Store on weekdays with fluctuating hours depending on where they were parked.

“I really like this location a lot more,” head chef Kawai Saniatan said. “We’re saving two hours a day by not having to detach and attach to a truck every day. It’s funny because we werenʻt interested at first, but it has been 100% better. We are able to stay open longer at this location and now we’re getting more regulars and after school traffic as well.”

Duck Fat also has found camaraderie with the fellow food truck owners on the lot and have enjoyed being able to form a little community of people who love to cook good food.

“It has been great meeting all these people that we share this lot with,” Saniatan said. “It has kind of become a family unit rather than five food trucks in a row. We’re all doing what we love. For me, that’s cooking unique, delicious food for the community.”

Watkins said the small businesses understand each other because “we’re all just doing what we can to survive and hopefully grow. Food trucks are so much more accessible for a small business and I don’t see them going away anytime soon.

Hours:

• Le Yellow Sub is open from 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday
• Hilo Ice Coffee is open from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. every day
• A & K Fratellis Pizza is open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. every day
• Duck Fat is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday
• Organic Island Cuisine is open 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday.