When Starland Yard opened their doors a few years back, it was an instant hit. Savannah’s first full blown Food Truck Park has delivered everything this city hoped it would be. A family friendly gathering space with lots of food options to enjoy. The fact that it was primarily food trucks (other than the very popular Pizzeria Vittoria) offered Savannah a ton of variety. You could go back multiple times per week if you wanted to and always have something different to choose from.
It has just worked.
But now Starland Yard has taken a step toward enhancing what they are doing food-wise with the opening of two new permanent eateries in the yard. Uncle June’s and Nixtate have both opened inside the Starland Yard footprint in the last couple of weeks. They aren’t food trucks. They are now permanent fixtures on Savannah’s food scene.
“We just wanted more consistent food options every single day,” is how John Benhase, one of the principals at Starland Yard, puts it.
Don’t worry. The food trucks aren’t going anywhere.
The logic here is to bring more people to the Yard on a consistent basis. Lunch time is generally slower at Starland, especially midweek when the pizzeria doesn’t offer lunch service. They believe more people will mean higher volume overall for everyone, including the food trucks.
“Take Thursday lunch, for example,” Benhase says. “We don’t have pizza. By offering these two new spots, we can have a better Thursday lunch crowd with the food trucks being one option.”
John made it very clear that the food trucks aren’t going anywhere. Slow lunch hours make it tough for multiple food trucks to make decent money. They want it to be worth it for everyone.
“It’s hard to get trucks for a small amount of sales.” he says.
Meanwhile, the attention being paid to day time hours in the Starland area is changing, not only at Starland Yard. Nixtate, the new Mexican concept at Starland Yard, eventually hopes to evolve to morning coffee and pastry service. Next door, Two Tides Brewing Company is building a coffee operation on the ground floor of their space. And we believe the recent closing of Back in the Day Bakery around the corner is going to make way for something else that will draw people into the Starland neighborhood during the day as well.
There are options for mid day bites and sips in the area, but the Starland District is far too popular to only have what we are currently seeing.
Yes, more…lots more, is on the way.
Back inside the Yard, Uncle Junes is serving up sandwiches, salads and a mean looking burger featuring a rye bun and swiss that I have yet to try. Nixtate has kicked off their service with flautas to include beef, chicken, or pork and a few other munchies and desserts. All of it looks fabulous. We are very much looking forward to digging into all of that.
In the meantime, it’s more evolution in Savannah via the Starland District. Long known for its offerings after dark, this is about to become much more of an anytime of the day or night kind of area. And that can only mean good things for everyone involved.
