Truck and Tap brings new concept featuring bar and rotating food trucks to Duluth

The establishment, which was designed to be a neighborhood pub, arrived in September with the unique concept of a rotating food menu from a new food truck coming each day to go with a rotating beer menu.

“People enjoy coming here during sporting events with all of our televisions around the inside,” said Onuma Kaewliam, an employee of Truck and Tap. “It can become a pretty lively atmosphere with people coming here during football games and at night.”

The bookend of a strip of buildings on Main Street, Truck and Tap features a quaint indoor area that is dominated by its bar, which features up to 20 draft beverages, canned beers and bottled wine.

While the facility offers certain architectural classics, such as traditional entryway doors, the pub also has its own style, shown in its garage door-style doors, which gives employees the flexibility to create a more open, indoor-outdoor space depending on the weather.

The outdoor portion of the establishment has tables for customers to sit and view the green space on the city’s Town Green as well as order food directly from the daily food truck.

Initially opened in Woodstock in October 2015, Truck and Tap expanded to Alpharetta in 2017 before arriving in Duluth.

“We wanted to expand it to markets that were similar to Woodstock with people that really cared about their community,” Yurchuck said. “We wanted to be around other great restaurateurs and downtown revitalization and that’s how we found Duluth.”

Yurchuck, who has spent the last five years involved in the beer business, got his start in Woodstock when he opened a growler shop called Barrel and Barley.

Graduating from UGA with a degree in marketing and business entrepreneurship, he opened the shop right out of college.

“At the time I started the business it was when growler shops were taking off and the craft beer scene was really starting to grow,” Yurchuck said. “I was really into it in college and it was a hot market to be in.”

His experience in the craft beer industry led him to partner with Cliff Crider, a real estate professional who was developing a concept of combining food trucks and beer and Mitch Jaffe, CEO of PREP, one of the largest food truck commissaries in the Southeast.

“We got together and hit it off and I said, ‘Hey, I’m in beer, we’ve got a connection with the food industry and we’ve got real estate property along with an idea that we can work on. Let’s try it out in Woodstock.’” Yurchuck said. “We were reserved about what we might be able to do with the concept.”

As a food commissary, PREP gives food trucks networking opportunities by offering booking venues as well as providing a shared kitchen and prep equipment.

Yurchuck said one of the attractive things about Duluth is its community involvement and the activities the city offers its residents, such as Food Truck Fridays, which take place from May to September.

“There is so much community involvement going on there and what the city has done with Parsons Alley and the green space,” Yurchuck said. “They’re investing in the area and making it a destination.”

In December 2016, the Duluth City Council approved a permit to bring Truck and Tap to its current location at 3137 Main St., right on the edge of the Duluth Town Green.

While managing and running any type of business presents challenges, Yurchuck said the ever-changing menu at Truck and Tap has created its own difficulties, from inventory management to scheduling food trucks.

“We have to curate (the beer menu) week in and week out and make sure we’re providing our customers with something new and exciting,” Yurchuck said. “Food trucks are similar in that we have to make sure they’re offering not just cuisine we like but also something our customers like.”

Yurchuck said he tries to book food trucks about a month in advance, though sometimes bookings cancel because of mechanical issues.

“Those trucks put on a lot of miles to get between gigs and they break down all the time,” Yurchuck said. “It would be a miracle with our three locations if we went through a week without a truck on our roster having to cancel a date because of mechanical problems.”

Still, Yurchuck said he attributes the relationships he has built over the past three years with local food trucks to help solve any cancellations that might arise.

And, if all else fails, there’s always the restaurant’s beer offerings, which are hand-chosen every Monday for the upcoming week from a list of more than a thousand beers.

“Selection for beers depends on the season and the location, but mainly it’s just trying to dial in on what styles of beers are going to be popular,” Yurchuck said. “Our mission with our beer program is to introduce people to their next favorite beer.”

Yurchuck said the future of Truck and Tap in Duluth is looking good, and he said the group is looking to incorporate more programming like live music to go along with its weekly schedule of Singo — a combination of song clips and bingo — Mondays and a cornhole league being held Tuesday evenings.

“Here in 2019, we should be doing a bunch of collaborations with some of our local breweries such as Good Word, Currahee and Reformation,” Yurchuck said.

“We’ve got a bunch of breweries nearby our locations and want to get people some unique beers for Truck and Tap.”

Hours for the pub are 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Mondays through Wednesdays, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Thursdays, 11 a.m. to midnight Fridays and Saturdays and 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sundays.

To check out the upcoming food trucks stopping by Truck and Tap or beer menu, visit truckandtap.com/duluth.