By Madyline Swearing.
Families, vendors, and elected officials gathered in Franklin Park last Saturday (Sept. 27) to kick off the launch of “Park’d,” a month-long food truck fair running alongside the Franklin Park Zoo’s Boston Lights exhibit.
The event, which featured five food trucks, was organized by the City of Boston, the Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism, Zoo New England and CommonWealth Kitchen, a Dorchester-based food business incubator.
“Park’d” food vendors will be at the Blue Hill Avenue entrance of Franklin Park from 6 to 10 p.m. on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays through the first weekend of November.
The food service took months of planning, CommonWealth Kitchen CEO Jen Faigel said, noting that it was bolstered by the success of her incubator’s late-night food truck initiative with the city this summer.
She said that the Zoo Lights exhibit provides the perfect opportunity to offer families and visitors a variety of late-night food options that wouldn’t be available otherwise.
“It’s creating a meaningful opportunity for our businesses to go out to make some money and build their skills and knowledge,” Faigel said. “It helps to keep them moving on that path toward profitability for their business, and when they do well, we do well.”
Along with a rotating selection of food trucks and carts, Park’d features family-friendly activities like cornhole, inflatable soccer, ring toss and face painting from local artist Sully Paints.
In the center of the hustle and bustle, dishing up heaping portions of freshly grilled Mexican corn and a family rice recipe, was Lalu’s Chicken.
Husband-and-wife team Christine and Felipe Ramirez have run Lalu’s through Commonwealth Kitchen for three years. After watching Felipe’s parents run their own brick-and-mortar restaurant for 15 years, and witnessing the massive demand for catering services at Christine’s biotech job, the pair realized they could find an opening in an untapped market.
They’ve since moved into the corporate catering world and have spent evenings and weekends at pop-up events and farmers’ markets. Felipe said Park’d is a chance to tap into the underserved market along the Blue Hill Avenue corridor.
“This is us giving the community the chance [to have] a variety of food to choose from late night, and not just the fried food that’s all over,” Felipe said. “We hope that the community embraces CWK and its members.”
Next to Lalu’s was Boss Town Hot Dogs. Former service industry worker Shema Taylor and veteran Michael Morris started the stand in Tennessee in 2017 before relocating the cart to Boston in 2023 and joining CommonWealth Kitchen in 2024.
Taylor said the company stand prides itself on its menu options, such as plant-based sausages, gluten-free buns and an assortment of condiments, while using locally sourced ingredients from the New England frankfurter company Pearl.
She hopes to expand by offering local baked goods and energy drinks in the future, but for now, her hope is that this event will help to spread awareness about minority-owned businesses and cuisines.
“We want to let other minorities know that you can come out and be your own boss,” Taylor said. “Don’t take a ‘no.’ If you keep at it, it might be a no right now, but just stick with it and keep your eyes on the prize.”
The aim, Faigel said, is to have about 10 food trucks and pushcarts rotate throughout the event, including Bibim Box, Magic Empanadas, and Caribbean Hibachi, as a way to help multiple member businesses build their skill sets and clientele.
State Sen. Liz Miranda was one of the elected officials on hand to welcome the crowd.
“Tonight is not just about feeding your hungry families and yourself, but actually contributing to Roxbury and Dorchester in a meaningful way,” she said. “I’m just really happy that the state did something right.”
Faigel said that while many people may be living through difficult times, supporting local businesses can make a difference.
“We all can feel overwhelmed and disempowered by what’s going on in the world,” she said.
“Opportunities for people to come together with joy, with hope, in celebration of what makes Boston such a wonderful place to live — its diversity … I feel like we all need more moments of that.”
Jeannine Laing and Dawn Morris stopped by the event to grab dinner during one of their daily walks, after learning about it on Facebook.
“We’re always looking for new places to eat,” said Laing, who lives in Codman Square and works for the Franklin Park Tennis Association, a nonprofit that provides free tennis lessons for children and adults. “It’s in such a convenient location.”
Morris, who recently moved from Roxbury to Dorchester and works in communications for the Boston Police Department, said she hopes the community will take advantage of the event while the weather is still nice.
“It’s hard for everybody right now,” Morris said. “We have to support each other whenever possible.”
This story comes from a partnership between the Dorchester Reporter and the Boston University Department of Journalism.
