Roaming Harvest Opening Restaurant

A local food truck owner who helped pave the way for mobile vendors in Traverse City last year is ready for his next big challenge: opening a brick-and-mortar restaurant in the city's downtown district.

Simon Joseph, who launched “locally focused street food” truck Roaming Harvest in 2012, is preparing to open a new restaurant called Harvest in a 1,600 square-foot brick building in the alley between Union and Cass streets, formerly home to Likam's Bake Shop. The 30-seat business, opening this summer, will feature many of the dishes popularized by Joseph's truck – such as Korean beef tacos and ginger sage hash – plus several new options in a self-seated, counter-service eatery.

“The menu will be our same brand of street food and locally focused food,” explains Joseph, who adds the Roaming Harvest food truck will also remain in operation. “But the restaurant will allow us to do some new and exciting things, to push the boundaries of what we can do.”

The entrepreneur, who says he initially considered expanding by purchasing another truck, had only recently begun entertaining the possibility of opening a restaurant when he “walked out of the back of Brew one day and there was a 'for lease' sign on one of my favorite buildings in Traverse City.”

“I did one circle through and said 'I'll take it,'” Joseph says. The stand-alone nature of the building, its modern industrial décor (whose gray and green colors conveniently mimic those of Joseph's truck) and its close proximity to downtown bars and venues make it an ideal fit for the company's brand, according to the owner.

“It's in a perfect position to service the late-night crowd,” says Joseph. The entrepreneur intends to operate six to seven days a week, staying open as late as 3 a.m. Thursday through Saturday. Situated directly behind Union Street Station, Dillinger's Pub and Bootleggers, Harvest will be “right outside the door” of some of the city's busiest nightspots. (The restaurant itself could eventually become a nightspot; though “not in the plans for year one,” Joseph acknowledges possibly acquiring a liquor license down the road is “on my radar.”)

Ironically, it was the city's willingness to relax its restrictions on food trucks last May that made it possible for Joseph to open a brick-and-mortar restaurant this year. “The new ordinance was integral in our ability to expand,” he says. “Our business has grown exponentially since (last year). And it's allowed others to expand and start new ventures as well.”

Though some restaurant owners protested the city's eased restrictions on mobile vendors, fearing food trucks had unfair market benefits when it came to overhead, rent and taxes, Joseph believes traditional restaurants “have far more advantages than food trucks do” – a key factor in his decision to open one.

“That debate was framed in a way that didn't deal with the facts,” he says. “With a restaurant, you have 'heat and seats' – a place for people to sit and a climate-controlled environment. You have a bigger kitchen. If I was going to expand, I knew I had to go this route.”

The entrepreneur hopes other food truck owners will also continue to benefit from the community's growing embrace of mobile vendors. He'd like to see the city extend its recent expansion of operational hours for food trucks on private property to public property in commercial districts, and says he would “vehemently defend the idea of having food trucks down here in the vicinity of my new venture.”

“Making this step is obviously proof that small entrepreneurs, no matter how small, can always grow,” Joseph says. “I think a rising tide lifts all boats."