One makes the drinks. One brings the food. How Columbia breweries, food trucks became ‘symbiotic’

Wooden picnic tables, golden string lights, flowing conversation and chilled glasses of tap beer adorn WECO Bottle and Biergarten’s expansive outdoor porch and yard.

But the community-favorite taproom wouldn’t be complete without the ever-rotating selection of food trucks that park out back.

As breweries and food trucks continue to rise in popularity nationwide, their stories are growing together. Many of the Midlands’ breweries and bottle shops, including West Columbia’s WECO, Lexington’s Hazelwood Brewery, Greene Street’s Columbia Craft Brewing Company and Devine Street’s Craft and Draft, invite different food trucks in each day to please hungry customers.

They aren’t the only hangout spots that have taken notice of the growing local food truck scene — places like North Main’s Vino Garage also have a rotating flow of food trucks to supplement their wine and beer selections.

“Food trucks and breweries basically are synonymous with each other,” said Matt Rodgers, the owner of Lexington’s Hazelwood Brewery.

The partnership allows breweries and bottle shops to focus on what they do best — brewing and serving craft beer — while small business food trucks gain exposure and get the ability to show off their cuisine to different groups of customers.

“A lot of (breweries) don’t have kitchens,” Josh Rogerson of Parabellum Mobile Eats said. “And we don’t have tables and chairs and a customer base that knows where to find us consistently. So it created this beautiful, symbiotic relationship.”

Working with food trucks allows biergartens to bring in an ever-changing menu to complement their seasonal drinks and rotating beverage options.

“They bring new food all the time, just like breweries are always creating new beers and rotating out seasonal products,” Rodgers said. “I think it embodies the craft beer industry with creativity.”

With hundreds of beers on tap and different food trucks each week, customers can keep coming to their favorite spots without ever repeating their meal combinations, Rodgers said.

“You can make the experience what you want it to be,” said Chad Scott, owner of Cha Cha’s Pop Up Kitchen and the kitchen manager at Tasty as Fit restaurant on Millwood Avenue. “With the different food trucks that go to them, it can be a different experience every time.”

But the business pairing, which may now seem innate and commonplace, is relatively new to Columbia.

When the longstanding Wurst Wagon German cuisine food truck opened in 2013, there were only about five other trucks in the capital city, according to owner Gerard Lin.

And even though food trucks “grew with the breweries,” according to Lin, different licensing regulations throughout the greater Columbia area prohibited food trucks from selling at breweries regularly until recently.

Now that food trucks can frequent local breweries, well-established trucks and new entrepreneurs alike are able to reach a variety of customer bases.

“Since we’re mobile, we have to be found,” Lin said.

Often, breweries end up with an international menu.

“It’s a great fit because they’re able to (focus on) serving beers,” said Austin Benz, owner of the year-old Cheese and Thank You grilled cheese food truck. “And (the food truck partners) have the best rotating menu in town. One day they have Mexican food, then grilled cheese, paella — I think it really offers them a lot more opportunity to feed different crowds.”

Joaquin and Lira Mendiola, owners of Babcha Korean Food Truck, are using their opportunities at WECO to get as many people to try Korean food as possible.

“That’s the most refreshing thing about it, is seeing people who let us know our food is good,” Mendiola said.

Customers have started coming to the bottle shops when their favorite trucks are working and tend to stay for longer and order more drinks when their bellies are full, owners say.

“We’re reaching out to their fans and vice versa,” Hazelwood’s Rodgers said. “We help each other — one hand washes the other.”

Parabellum Mobile Eats, which serves “elevated-bar food” from former chefs at Saluda’s fine dining restaurant in Five Points, has only been operating since the beginning of the year and already has a “great reputation,” Rodgers said.

Parabellum owners Rogerson and Alex Runyan followed advice from Benz, the Cheese and Thank You owner, and reached out to places such as WECO, Columbia Craft and Craft and Draft.

They said they knew their truck would succeed when Hazelwood reached out to them first.

“That was one of the coolest things ever — to be a two-month old business and have somebody reach out to you,” Rogerson said. “That was the turning point.”

Brewery and biergarten owners said the partnership with food trucks is largely about giving people a shot and listening to customer feedback to decide who gets a spot on the weekly or monthly food truck schedule. Still, the beginning of their partnership can be nerve wracking for both businesses.

“You’re lumped into one experience when the customer comes in,” WECO owner Phillip Blair said. “If one side is not holding up their side of the bargain, it makes the other side look bad.”

But there have been more positive experiences than negative, and hosting food trucks is just what WECO does now, Blair said.

“Columbia is burgeoning with a lot of creative people,” Rodgers said. “We’ve got many options, and I’m still yet to meet all of the food trucks.”