Koi Saechao saw the sign at the empty lot on the corner of MLK and 16th streets, and she knew right away that this oddly forlorn place was her big chance to break into Merced’s growing Main Street scene.
The real estate banner marked the future site of “Downtown Grubs” — a plaza designed for mobile food trucks on a half acre of highly-visible commercial land next to one of the city’s busiest intersections.
“People would tell me: ‘Hey, you need to go where the money is at,’” Saechao explains. “They would say, ‘You need to get closer to town.’ So when I saw they were looking for food trucks, I was like ‘Oh wow, this is perfect.’ So I called them up.”
Saechao is better known as the Egg Roll Lady, and she’s been operating a startup food truck in north Merced for about a year now. However, later this month, she plans to move to the Downtown Grubs site and join several other food truck vendors who will set up shop in the hopes of making lots of money.
Mercedians know the plaza as the former Kentucky Fried Chicken spot, along with the old Ranch Restaurant next door. The Ranch was the first to close in 2010, and then KFC followed suit in 2018. The buildings were subsequently torn down at the start of the covid pandemic, leaving an empty corner that has seen better days. More than half of the surrounding commercial properties are empty too, including the large footprint where Minerva Furniture once stood before a fire gutted the building nearly a year ago.
Nevertheless, local developers are aiming to revitalize the corner and make it another vibrant part of Downtown Merced.
“We wanted to provide a safe community gathering place with licensed food truck vendors who are going to follow all the business, health and safety requirements,” says Ernie Ochoa, the manager who handles all the commercial leases on the property for Keller Williams Merced. (Moe Jawad, also of Keller Williams, is the owner/developer behind the project.)
Ochoa adds, “I think the best attribute of this food truck plaza is our hours of operation. The city approved us to be open from 6 a.m. to 3 a.m. We’re going to serve a hungry late night crowd. Most of the restaurants downtown close around 8 o’clock, so we are going to accommodate more people into the night, and early in the morning, when you can grab a coffee or a healthy fruit drink.”
The plaza will be able to hold 10 food trucks. The Egg Roll Lady is coming, as well as the Alegre Coffee Company. There’s also a seafood truck, a couple taco/Mexican cuisine trucks, and an “aguas frescas” (fruit flavored drinks) truck on the way.
Last week, new pavement was added to the lot, and some 25 parking spaces are being outlined. Lighting and signage will also be added. The trucks will be aligned in a circular format, with shaded seating in the middle. There will be no public restroom onsite; however, food truck workers will have access to facilities inside an existing building nearby.
Ochoa says the plaza is expected to open sometime in late August or early September, but Koi Saechao, Egg Roll Lady, says she is planning her start date on Aug. 15, if the site was ready to go.
It’s been quite the journey for the 45-year-old Saechao, who came to this country as an infant from Thailand during a family immigration supported by a sponsor. She has lived in Seattle, Sacramento, and Merced. It was here where she eventually started working at Mercy Hospital as a medical office assistant. She worked at the campus on North G Street since it opened 15 years ago.
One day, Saechao was inspired to do a little “side hustle” and she brought a large batch of homemade egg rolls to sell to the hospital staff.
“I sold out in like half an hour,” she recalls. “One lady was a little upset that she wasn’t able to try them. She was like, ‘If you make egg rolls, you have to make a lot because this is what happens.’ … So that got me thinking.”
The funny thing: Saechao says she never had a particular passion for egg rolls before. She didn’t think people would love them. It was just a culinary tradition passed on by parents and grandparents. But surprisingly, they were like gold when she offered them up. She started making more and more, until finally she was swept up with the entrepreneurial spirit. With the help of her husband, Paul Saelee, she soon had a food truck of her own, and people were calling her the Egg Roll Lady.
She parked the truck just a block away from the hospital, on Sandpiper Avenue, with the support of Dr. Vikram Lakireddy, and the nearby medical offices.
Her sales have skyrocketed over the past year, but Saechao sees the need to grow the business, extend the hours, and reach more people.
“I know a lot of people near the hospital are not happy I’m moving downtown. Some are sad that I am leaving. They say, ‘No, we love your food. You can’t move.’ … I tell them if it doesn’t work on MLK, I will come back.”
The Egg Roll Lady expects to be open at the new Downtown Grubs site from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. or whenever she sells out of food for the day. At some point in the afternoon, she says, “I’m always sold out.”
Saechao says she is excited about the move downtown, and hopeful about the future.
“So we’ll see how it goes,” she says with a smile.
Meanwhile, Downtown Grubs is not the only food truck plaza in town. Another one called Valley Eats just opened up at 1997 W. Olive Avenue. There are about seven food trucks there offering everything from tacos to barbecue to ice cream.
Get ready Merced. Food truck plazas have arrived!