News Photo by Steve Schulwitz Brandon Chen and Grace Riener organize the service area at their new business, The Unlucky Cat Cafe, near Starlite Beach. The food truck offers Asian fusion-type dishes and specialty coffee and smoothie drinks.

ALPENA — The popularity of mobile food services in Alpena is growing and the pop-up businesses are enjoying success, especially along State Avenue near city parks.

The City of Alpena has always been supportive of food trucks and other mobile businesses. The city updated regulations two years ago to better regulate them. Initially, there were few food trucks to open, but that has changed.

City Planning and Development Director Adam Poll said the increased number of food vendors in the city is exciting and the number of them requesting permits and operating now is encouraging.

“There are several operating now and we are encouraging them,” Poll said. “We went into our Mich-e-ke-wis and Starlite Beach Master Plan knowing we wanted locations for vendors and went in and set up locations with utilities for them ahead of time. Having small businesses to serve the beach crowd is always something we intended to have.”

The Hungry Hippie opened as a trailer behind the miniature golf course on State Avenue, but moved into the old Dairy Queen across the street in May. Poll said that type of business success is something that continues with the other vendors and creates more jobs.

“This can really be a great type of business incubator in regards that some of these businesses can grow from the more mobile or seasonable aspect to operating full-time,” he said. “They can have their own building and enjoy more success from that.”

So far, State Avenue and US-23 South have been the most common place for the food trucks and mobile businesses. Besides The Hungry Hippie, there is also Five Mad Hens, The Unlucky Cat Cafe and several others.

The Unlucky Cat Cafe is open at the former location of The Hungry Hippie and opened for business on June 1. It’s owned by Brandon Chen and Grace Riener, who both have cooking and restaurant experience and dreamed of having a small food location that served Asian Fusion dishes.

They said expectations were minimal when they opened, but now they are busy enough that they are considering hiring help.

“It has went surprisingly well and better than we thought it would to begin with,” Riener said. “There is only the two of us running it and already we are feeling a need to expand or get more help. I think right now there is a call and a need for food trucks. I think people love them.”

Chen said that, eventually, they would like to have a building to couple with the trailer. He said he wants to offer customers something unique that will appeal to many people.

“We eventually want to have a small bar and restaurant and do infused cold brews into our nitro, cold-brewed coffee that we make,” he said. “We would like a little shop like Hungry Hippie did and still keep the food truck for festivals and events around town,” Chen said. “I love how much the Alpena community is growing and all of the festivals, events and gatherings. It brings more people to Alpena and benefits all of the businesses.”

Poll said it costs food mobile food vendors $100 a month to operate their business on city-owned property, but there’s no charge if they can set up on private property. He said operators must prove they have complied with the district health department’s requirements, as well.

Poll said the city and Alpena Downtown Development Authority are considering more changes to where food trucks can operate. He said it is possible there could be more downtown and in other areas of the city where they can park on the street.

“We would really like to see them operate potentially in the right-of-way on the local streets,” Poll said. “It has been something we have looked at and are looking at, but we haven’t been able to do yet, but it is something DDA is looking at, specifically.”

Steve Schulwitz can be reached via email at sschulwitz@thealpenanews.com or by phone at 358-5689. Follow Steve on Twitter ss_alpenanews.