Rohnert Park to End Tasty Tuesdays, Tentatively

Rohnert Park's ambitious idea, partly aimed at steering people away from drive-thru fast food spots and chain restaurants, and creating a feeling of downtown, has fizzled — at least for now. 

Officials Tuesday released the three final dates for the outdoor market, dubbed Tasty Tuesdays: Aug. 16, Sept. 20 and Oct. 18, down to just the third Tuesday a month instead of weekly.

Rohnert Park  Feb. 1, following similar events in Santa Rosa, and , all with many of the same vendors. 

Food trucks may have just been a fad, said Guy Miller, Rohnert Park's recreation services manager. The vendors and producers who roamed counties from Marin, to Sonoma and Napa, and set up shop on abandoned street corners and parking lots became instantly popular amongst locals. But, here at least, many of the vendors have moved on, Miller said.

"We were getting about 400 people during lunchtime at first, and now it's more like 75," Miller said. "The business owners really aren't making as much money as they wanted to."

But for Laure Tatman, the city's market manager, who spearheaded both Tasty Tuesdays and the Friday Night Farmers Market, it was a learning experience.

Tatman attributed the decline in business to not enough word of mouth, an area that lacks foot traffic, vendors and producers moving on to other larger markets during summertime and the .

"It really was a learning experience for me," Tatman said. "It was difficult to get business people out during their lunch breaks ... it was hard to get enough foot traffic."

"Then, when the other bigger Farmers Markets started opening in June, the vendors went there," she added. "I understand, this is a business."

Tatman said after the final Tasty Tuesday in October, she will revisit doing it again starting in March.

Editor's note: The remaining three Tasty Tuesday events will be themed, and also have local producers and the food trucks. For Tuesday, Aug. 16, bring unwanted children's clothes or sports equipment to trade. Tatman said it was "back to school" that inspired her. September's theme is still up in the air, and October's will be 'harvest.'