This little-used Tacoma plaza needs some love. It’ll start with weekly food trucks

A trio of food trucks will park in downtown Tacoma’s Tollefson Plaza around lunchtime every Wednesday this summer starting May 18 as part of a new community program spearheaded by a local business owner.

Vego Eatz, a newer truck focused on vegan comfort foods, will be there with its black bean and Impossible burgers, crunch wraps modeled after Taco Bell’s infamous crunchy quesadilla, loaded fries and Field Roast hot dogs.

Gig Harbor’s Pink Gorilla Espresso will serve drinks, including coffee, frappés and smoothies.

Look also for the bubblegum pink truck belonging to Sugar + Spoon, an edible cookie dough shop run by two University of Washington alums. The brand also has a brick-and-mortar near the Seattle campus.

Event organizer Herschel Wilson hopes they can amass a following that would eventually entice them to open a store here in Tacoma.

The trucks will park 11 a.m.-2 p.m. in the actual plaza — not on the street — in an effort to foster a destination feel, said Wilson, who also runs The Painting Panda Pottery Studio at Freighthouse Square with his wife Noelle.

“We don’t have food halls and different things like that here,” he said, noting the proximity to the University of Washington Tacoma campus. “Let’s at least have something that’s quick and convenient that gives people choices.”

Since moving to Tacoma several years ago, he felt there was a void in city programming that took advantage of existing public spaces — Tollefson Plaza a prime example of a lost opportunity.

It’s “one of the most prominent spots downtown,” said Herschel, but “that plaza has had such a hard time really trying to become its own.”

Named after former mayor Harold M. Tollefson, who served three terms in the ‘50s and ‘60s, the plaza has played host to a popular holiday skating rink (subsequently moved to Point Ruston), a pop-up skate park, and a pickup spot for a test bus route from the Museum District to the Point Defiance Zoo. Most recently, in January 2021 and 2022, it was a stage for live events during the Tacoma Light Trail, a temporary series of art installations downtown.

On most days, it’s just a barren, concrete lot with built-in bleachers.

“There’s so much infrastructure here that’s not utilized,” said Wilson. “I wanted ways to improve it.”

He had been talking with the city to build some sort of “transit mall” near this section of Commerce Street, he explained, but the conversations fell short of progress. Undeterred, he took it upon himself and filed permits for Food Trucks in the Plaza, as he has dubbed the recurring Wednesday event.

ENERGIZE TACOMA

It will be the first edition of Wilson’s grander vision, a series of community programs called Energize Tacoma.

Under that banner, with the help of another Freighthouse vendor with multi-vendor event experience, he plans to host a twice-monthly Sunday makers’ market in the same plaza. A local dodgeball league also has expressed interest in the space for outdoor summer games — presuming they can find a way to keep it safe and contained.

“The best way to get the city to move on this is to get a lot of events going on there. We could do some more things if we only had some more investment,” said Wilson.

Through his food truck endeavor, he recognized one major hurdle for large events at Tollefson: no public restrooms. Food truck vendors will have access to Tacoma Art Museum, but at the Sunday market, for instance, they will have to rent portable restrooms for customer use to satisfy health department and city permit requirements.

He hopes a few successes here will lead to more interest and more events, which he believes will increase foot traffic downtown and, ideally, encourage more businesses to choose this neighborhood. The vision, he added, is to connect the UWT and Museum District side of Pacific Avenue to the strip of restaurants near 7th Street.

“My goal is just to have more people walking around all over downtown,” said Wilson, while also developing programs that help micro-businesses reach the community.

“There’s a lot of lofty goals that I have for the plaza. I really feel like it’s such a beautiful place. It blows my mind it’s not used more.”

FOOD TRUCKS AT TOLLEFSON PLAZA

▪ Pedestrian-only plaza at Pacific Avenue and 17th Street, Tacoma

▪ Wednesdays starting May 18, 11 a.m.-2 p.m.

This story was originally published May 9, 2022 at 5:00 AM.