A 9-foot-high Adirondack chair and a row of freshly built wooden picnic tables have just been put into place along Route 179 as Burlington’s first food truck park takes shape.
Owners Neal Winn and Brendan Casey plan what they think might be a first for Connecticut: A food truck center where the cuisine is the key attraction.
“It’s a novel concept, a dedicated food truck park that’s not based on anything else,” Winn said Tuesday. “Most food truck parks are an addendum to something else, like a place with craft beers. We want the food to be the main attraction. And we want it to be an elevated food truck experience; it’s not going to be anything like a carnival or fair at all.”
The partners’ BCNW Development LLC, based in New Hartford, bought the land for $125,000 in April 2024.
After several seasons of work preparing the site just across Route 179 from the Farmington River, Winn and Casey are hoping to open River Glenn in the next two to four weeks. They envision a spot where people can sample foods from nearly a half-dozen vendors in an attractive surrounding.
They’re not revealing which vendors have signed on, but said River Glenn will host five trucks at a time. Two or three will be anchors that stay for the season, and the others may rotate in and out.
The partners offered slots to Burlington and Canton vendors first, and want to create a business that’s got a feel of community. They hired Chad McCormick of Winsted’s CM Carpentry to build the wooden picnic tables and benches. In the mid-90s heat Wednesday afternoon, Winn, Casey and McCormick were all working at the property.
“We lost a couple of months because of the rain in the spring, so we’re really working to get open in the next two to four weeks,” Winn said. “We’re hoping closer to two.”
River Glenn is being laid out on 3 acres that had been brush and trees on the west side of Route 179 about two-thirds of a mile north of the Route 4 intersection. The site is a short distance south from Canton’s popular Collinsville section, and about 3 miles to the southeast is the Unionville section of Farmington.
But Burlington, a town with relatively few dining options for a population of nearly 10,000, offers no nearby competitor. One of its most popular restaurants, Sabrina’s, closed in early July.
River Glenn tentatively plans to be open for coffee in the morning, and has posted hours of 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. weekdays, 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Saturdays and 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Sundays.
McCormick and Casey said motorists on Route 179 have been slowing down and sometimes pulling over when they see the oversized Adirondack chair that McCormick delivered last week. Casey predicted it will be a hit attraction.
“That’s definitely going to be the social media picture spot,” he said.
Winn said the long-term goal is to add amenities and perhaps find similar under-used or unused properties in attractive Connecticut locations for similar food truck parks.
