SALEM, OR – After an enthusiastic start, followed by a slow summer, food cart owners at Salem’s first food cart pod say business is picking back up and the pod is catching on.

The pod behind Barrel & Keg on Broadway Street NE got its start on March 1. Barrel and Keg opened a few weeks later on March 27.

“Salem has really been receptive to the food trucks,” said Barrel & Keg owner Shannon Klopfenstein.

There’s a monthly rotation of food carts in the pod with some staying and some leaving and there’s a great relationship between Barrel & Keg’s patrons and the food cart owners, Klopfenstein said.

Initially, most of the food cart pod’s customers came from Barrel & Keg but slowly things have changed, said Klopfenstein and the food cart owners who have been there from the pod’s beginning.

The ratio has flipped, said Josh Parker, owner of Pyro Pizza. “We’re getting a lot of business from people ordering to take meals home, or on break from work, or people attending meetings at the nearby Broadway Commons,” he said.

“It’s been really great for families and for workers in the area and for after work group functions,” Klopfenstein said.

Find the entire article at statesmanjournal.com [here]