It has been a highlight of the summer – under the hot sun a flurry of food trucks have stamped a new identity on the Aberdeen beach front.
Where fish and chip vendors and ice cream vans once proliferated, the Fittie end of the beach Esplanade now boasts plant-based burgers, loaded fries and flat whites.
You can still get a battered fish, but it’s as likely to be fully vegan as it is haddock.
But proposed changes to the way the food trucks are marshaled by Aberdeen City Council threaten to throw a shadow over this beach revolution.
Currently, Fittie food trucks, along with other street vendors in the city, renew the license they get from the council to trade once a year at a cost of just £195, according to city budget rules.
Under proposals going in front of Aberdeen’s licensing committee on September 6, that renewal will happen every three years. A council spokesperson did not reveal what the new cost would be.
Aberdeen City Council say the move is to bring street vendors in line with other licensed business under its remit.
And while the change would lessen paperwork for existing food trucks, there is concern the three-year license will mean a bigger upfront fee. This could discourage the type of young, independent chef drawn to food trucks for their low barrier to entry.
“It becomes a question of whether it’s actually viable to run a business there,” says Graham Mitchell, the man behind the Hungry Beast food truck, which opened at Fittie last month.
Graham has years of hospitality experience behind him, and is opening up his own restaurant Tarragon in the Rosemount area in the coming months.
But he says more inexperienced chefs use the beach as a starting point, helped by the low upfront costs.
A food truck community on Aberdeen beach
The influx of new ideas has created a vibrant food scene down at Fittie that is attracting people in droves, Graham adds.
He’s strongly in favour of anything that can help cultivate that as it brings even more people down to the beach, which he says is a win for everyone.
“You’ve got the vegan place there, Roots, you’ve now got the micro bakery [Food Story], you’ve got Project Pizza, and also me with my burgers and loaded fries. It’s great as its created a massive food community down there and brought the footfall to the beach.
“Now, people drive down to the beach just to get food.”
Support for the food trucks even comes from the bricks-and-mortar restaurants along the Esplanade, despite their direct competition.
Two people from businesses there welcomed the competition even though street vendors generally don’t pay the business rates that restaurants are exposed to.
“They’re a really positive thing,” says Martin McAuley, the director of Watermelon Catering, which operates The Pier restaurant on the Esplanade and Cafe Ahoy on Beach Boulevard.
“Over the years the beach has lacked investment and anything that can bring more people down, which the food trucks do, is great for the beach.”
One owner who declined to go on record questioned why only the restaurants pay rates that go towards keeping the beachfront clean of food waste.
However, Graham maintains the arrival of the food trucks can benefit everybody.
“If the food vendors are taking customers away from the opposite end of the beach [the restaurants], then it is up to them to change their business to attract them back,” the Hungry Beast owner says. “We’re all in it to make a profit.”
A tyranny of choice for Aberdeen beach-goers
Meanwhile, down on the beach, it’s the dog-walkers, afternoon joggers and Sunday strollers that are benefitting from the explosion of Fittie food trucks – even though for some, they’re proving too much of a temptation.
“It’s a bit of a nightmare!” says Campbell Scott with a laugh.
Campbell knows the food trucks better than most – he runs his Scot Surf surfing business out of a trailer in between plant-based specialists Roots and Hungry Beast.
He admits he has tried out all of trucks.
“There’s just so many varieties,” he explains. “And yes, I’m enjoying them too much.”
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