As Black Friday shoppers scurry to cash in on post-Thanksgiving deals today, Jordan Sherrod and Chris Beaty, the owners of the brand-new Haymount Truck Stop — Fayetteville’s first food truck court and bar, in the heart of the Haymount neighborhood — are crossing their fingers for a smooth opening day.
Haymount Truck Stop revamps the former auto repair shop on the corner of Morganton Road and Broadfoot Avenue. The food truck court will have a rotating selection of local food, beverage and dessert trucks, as well as a cocktail bar, several large patio areas and a variety of classic outdoor and arcade games. Local artists and vendors will also be invited to showcase their products at the venue, which can hold up to 150 people and is available for private party booking.
“The mentality with this place from the beginning has always been to have a great place for people to come and hang out, and a cool environment,” Sherrod told CityView. “But then also to benefit the community and the local businesses.”
Sherrod, who first had the idea for the food court in the early days of the pandemic, pitches it as a remedy for the scarcity of outdoor patio bars and gathering places in Fayetteville. He also envisions it as a boost to the walkability of the neighborhood.
“When I first moved here, I was just kind of surprised that there's good weather pretty much all year round, and there's just not a good patio bar,” Sherrod said. “So that was kind of the beginning of just kicking around the idea of a place.”
Co-owner Sherrod is deeply familiar with the neighborhood in which he’s operating business — he lives in Haymount with his wife and kids — and he envisions it as a local “community hangout spot” and family-friendly establishment. When Sherrod and Beaty closed on the property in 2021, they wanted to keep the existing structure, which stands out amid surrounding buildings.
“For people that have lived here for a long time, this has been a kind of a stable place, and so we wanted to keep the footprint and the building as much as we could, and kind of keep the aesthetic so that we didn't really change the look of Haymount, we just added to it,” Sherrod said. “So we're really happy to be able to keep the building.”
Sherrod described the establishment’s theme as retro-futurism, a nod to the golden age of truck stops in the 1960s, which often reflected the aesthetic of the space race. The name also reflects the era, when roadside diners and truck stops were a common sight along America's highways.
“Cars kind of looked like spaceships, and they kind of had this idea of the future,” Sherrod said of the 1960s era. “And I always found that era fascinating.”
As he set out to make his business dream a reality, Sherrod encountered some difficulties. Namely, Fayetteville did not have an ordinance allowing for food truck venues as the primary business purpose. But that didn't deter him, and he worked with city staff and officials — who he said were already rethinking food truck laws — on an amended ordinance that would accommodate the business and set the parameters for future food truck courts.
“So we stepped into, it seemed, what was an already existing conversation in the city,” Sherrod said. “So I think we lucked out, and we got a lot of traction with what we were doing because they realized the need for it.”
The owners also added suggested requirements into the ordinance like electrical hookups, bathroom facilities and trash disposal to ensure that the venue would not “put a stress and strain” on other local businesses, Sherrod said. The ordinance was passed before Sherrod and Beaty closed on the property in 2021.
For the Haymount Food Truck owners, the business is about more than just providing a nice place for people of all ages to enjoy themselves. It’s also about creating a space for local artists, businesses and chefs to thrive and display their best work, Sherrod said.
“Fayetteville has a lot to offer, and I think there's some really cool people here,” Sherrod said. “And what I'm excited about is being able to be a place where we can showcase some of these really cool people that are in Fayetteville.”
Contact Evey Weisblat at eweisblat@cityviewnc.com or 216-527-3608.
