Pali Park Food District logo
Milwaukee will gain a new food truck park this summer. Pali Park will occupy a space at the hinge between Downtown and the Lower East Side, 1652 N. Water Street. The building on the site once housed Moto-Scoot, a repair shop for motorcycles and scooters, but the structure is only part of a larger facility housing eight-10 food trucks and an outdoor park for hanging out and listening to live music.
The name Pali Park has a double meaning. Pali is short for Palestinian, the heritage of the project’s partners, Murad and Mazin Hamdan and Ramzey Huneidi. And, as Huneidi adds, “Everyone will be a pal around here. Pali Park will bring a warm, welcoming space to the city. We want everybody—Downtown, East Side and Harambee—to come together as one big community, having a good time in a nice spot.” With an estimated 16,000 cars passing the location daily, Pali Park may become a magnet for the whole city.
Señor Gordito’s (Mexican), ShawarMama (Middle Eastern) and Bodega Bagels (New York deli) have already signed on for what promises to be a taste of the world on Milwaukee’s Lower East Side. “There will be a wide variety of food trucks—food is a universal language,” Huneidi says.
The old Moto-Scoot building will be remodeled with garage doors open on warm days and closed in the winter for an intimate space in the cold season. The actual park of Pali Park will be landscaped with trees, bushes and strings of overhead lights. There will be a stage for live musicians, envisioned by Huneidi as a place for “Milwaukee’s aspiring artists. Everybody deserves a chance, which is what Pali Park stands for.” The owners are also looking for an artist to paint a mural.
Pali Park is slated to open in mid July.
