AUSTIN, Texas — Food truck enthusiasts can rejoice now that San Marcos once again has a food truck park.

• San Marcos now has new food truck park
• Park has on-site commercial kitchen for truck owners
• Will have walk-up windows to serve foot traffic

It's called the Allo Eatery, and it's located at 801 Chesnut St. The park is bordered by Sessom Creek and located within walking distance to Texas State.

And while there's currently just one truck up and running, several more are slated to join by next month's grand opening.

Humberto Ortiz runs the El Morenito taco truck located at the Allo Eatery. He's following in the footsteps of his brother and mother, who are both in the restaurant industry.

"My mom was like 'come on you can do it too' and I was like, all right, I guess I can do it," Ortiz said.

Food truck owners like Ortiz have several requirements they need to meet in order to stay in business. One of them is finding a commercial kitchen to prepare, cook and sell food.

"Especially when it comes to like cooking tamales and all that, you can't cook that at home," Ortiz said. "The commissary kitchen is going to serve as a central hub for us to be able to cook and make the masa and everything that goes into making the tamales and everything."

Lucky for Ortiz, the building in front of the lot is a commercially shared kitchen. The CoKitchen gives food truck owners an on-site, central location to do the prep work and cooking.

Liz McGhee and Pascal Bourdrea are the owners of both the food truck park and The CoKitchen. With a background in public health, McGhee knows the requirements food truck owners need to meet to pass inspection and keep their trucks up to code.

"You can't really have the food park in this location without the commissary. It's the way that we made the deal with the city, and it's a smarter way to make a food park," McGhee said. "You are cutting out a lot of things that could create issues. Their food can be stored here safely, and it can be transported within a minute, if that."

Bourdrea said the convenience of having a commercial kitchen this close to the trucks will make getting your favorite food easier and will keep the trucks in business longer.

"If they're far away from their commissary kitchen and they run out of something, they're closed for the day. Their cold storage is here, their dry storage is here, all their supplies, their fresh water, their gray water dump — everything. Less than 100 feet away from their truck, so it's pretty convenient for them. They're happy that they have those services right here," Boudrea said.

Ortiz said his brother, who runs La Parrilla, doesn't have this same luxury.

"He has a commissary kitchen with a church. So it's about maybe two to three miles away from where he actually goes. So he has to go park his trailer there, drop the grey water, fill up with regular water, and then go to the commissary kitchen, cook everything, put it in the trailer, hitch the trailer, then go," Ortiz said. "For him it's a lot. For me, it's very easy because everything is here. You got the grey water, you got the fresh water, you got everything. So it's very convenient."

After San Marcos lost its food truck park, The Hitch, a couple years ago, McGhee and Boudrea saw a window of opportunity. 

"San Marcos, it's a very progressive city and food trucks are a progressive type of business," McGhee said. "Culturally it's going to be embraced. We have already had a really good amount of positive affirmation from students and folks coming in. They're happy that there's going to be some variety and the food truck culture is back in San Marcos."

In addition to the food truck park, McGhee and Boudrea are also creating walk-up windows inside The CoKitchen. These will be for aspiring bakers and entrepreneurs that are reserving kitchen space to serve fresh pastries and other product from.

"A lot of folks that are entrepreneurs need a commercial kitchen. This provides them the opportunity to have the actual brick and mortar and not have to pay those upfront costs. So they pay an hourly rental fee and are able to produce a product," McGhee said "What kind of set us apart the most is the fact that we're able to provide vending windows to a really large amount of public. Great foot traffic that opens up for these folks to not only make what they need to make in the kitchen that's licensed, but to also be able to launch their product."

While the Allo Eatery is open already, the grand opening will be held next month.