Celebrating the best in food, Soho Food Park is considered one of Utah's premier food parks. Throughout the summer months, 65 food trucks run through the Holladay location, and no two nights are the same. The inviting atmosphere, friendly community, and assurance of delicious and diverse cuisine from six food trucks each night have all contributed to the food park’s community success.

Established in 2015 in the heart of Holladay, the original developer and owner of Soho, Mark Olsen, sold the park in 2018 to Shree Sharma, Craig Hale and Holladay resident Ben Hale. The new owners made several improvements to the food park, including offering free Wi-Fi, which has attracted more customers to the park and encouraged sharing the unique outdoor dining experience on social media.

Soho manager Mark Young has been scheduling and inviting the trucks to the park since 2017. Food trucks are invited by invitation only. Once a month, Young anonymously visits the trucks of new applicants to see if the food is of high quality, unique and will meet the needs and likes of the park customers. He makes an effort to consider new trucks coming into the business, but is sure to offer invitations to the most popular trucks in the Salt Lake Valley.  

“I make it a point to speak with all the customers at the park and ask them about how their meal is and what food they enjoy most,” Young said. “Most customers now know me and will give me their honest opinion of what’s good about the park and what isn’t. Over the years, I’ve had to uninvite trucks to ensure no matter what truck a customer eats from it’s going to be a quality meal.” 

Young says he schedules 588 truck appointments during the park season and rotates 65 food trucks through the park six days a week. “I try to balance the schedule to ensure all trucks do well. The most popular trucks are scheduled several times a month. New and less popular trucks are scheduled once a month.”

Several food trucks at Soho have won state and national awards and endorsements for their superior food preparation and variety of tantalizing cuisine.

Suzy Young, owner of Suzy Thai has been in the food truck business since 2016. Young immigrated to the United States from Thailand in 1993. In general, she felt most Thai food available in the U.S. had been Americanized, and she decided there was a need to share her traditional Thai cuisine. 

Young invested in a new Mercedes van and made the necessary renovations to alter the van into a food truck. She installed a DVD player so when business was slow, she could sit and watch a movie. The DVD player has sat silent for seven years. From day one, Young has been flooded with customers. She goes and goes, serving on average 135 customers nightly and is well out of food by the time the park closes.

She planned to change the Thai menu every day so customers could experience a wide variety of delicious dishes. However, as her clientele grew, she learned that customers would return for the same menu items and were disappointed when certain food items were no longer available. As a result, today her menu items include her customers favorites and most are gluten and dairy free. One popular dish is the Massaman, which is simmered in a coconut cream-based curry and loaded with chunks of chicken, carrots, potatoes and onions—all hand chopped and prepared by Young. The savory curry is served over a bed of aromatic Thai Jasmine rice. Her award-winning mango sticky rice boasts of sweet Thai mango served on coconut infused sticky rice, topped with rich coconut cream and garnished with an edible Thai orchid. 

Suzy Thai has won the prestigious "Best of State" award for several years in the Thai Restaurant category even though the Thai meals are served from a food truck. Regular customers include celebrities such as Karl Malone, for whom she caters twice a year, as well as individuals flying private aircraft into Utah just to get a bowl of Suzy Thai mango sticky rice.  

Suzy Thai’s main focus is customer satisfaction. “What makes me happy is when customers tell me how much they enjoy the food,” Young said. “I really don’t think about the profit. I think about ways I can make the customer happy.”

 When Guy Fieri from the Food Network stopped by Nana’s Sonoran Hot Dogs, he was so impressed with the bacon-wrapped dog served on a grilled bun that he took a permanent marker and signed the truck, endorsing it.

Freshies lobster roll can rival Red’s Eats lobster shack known for serving the best lobster roll in Maine. 

According to Freshies food truck manager Graham Olsen, lobster is flown in fresh from Maine every other day. The company has been in business for 10 years; and, in addition to a food truck, has brick-and-mortar locations in Park City and Salt Lake.

“We serve about 80 lobster rolls a night. It’s our most popular food item on the menu,” Olsen said. Most lobster rolls are served cold with mayo and dill. “What makes Freshies rolls exceptional is the lobster meat is warmed with mayo and a hot clarified butter drizzle. The mayo isn’t mixed into the meat, avoiding smothering the flavor of the lobster.”

The World’s Best Corndogs can be found frequently at the Soho Food Park. Chris Tomczyk, the owner of the Salt Lake franchise, has been working for the company for four years and purchased his own franchise one year ago. 

“What sets our corndogs apart is the batter and the honey drizzle,” Tomczyk said. “Honey sounds weird to many people, but it works.” 

An outdoor misting system adds to the comfort of park visitors during the hot summer months, by keeping them cool and happy while they enjoy their meals at the picnic tables. People visit the park Monday through Saturday from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. to meet family and friends and enjoy some of the best award-winning food in Utah.

For those interested in learning more about the Soho Food Park or the food truck schedule visit sohofoodpark.com λ