On Wednesday, Sept. 23, a Marin Independent Journal photographer caught customers stopping for lunch at the Humble Cheeseburger truck. The truck was parked at Corte Madera Town Park, not Menke Park, where it opened a little over a year earlier.
That move sums up the change. Eight days earlier, the Town Council made park food vendors a permanent part of Corte Madera's code. The trial began in the Old Square, but the permanent rules give Town Park the most room. Menke Park keeps one spot. Town Park gets up to four.
A Trial Built Around One Outlet
On Nov. 4, 2024, the Town Council approved a one-year pilot. It let small vendors sell from four parking spots next to Piccolo Pavilion in Menke Park. The setup was basic. Amy Lyle, the town's community development director, told the Redwood Bark that the town had no water to offer vendors and only a little electricity. Vendors would pay a small fee for the parking spaces and the power.
The electrical outlet at Piccolo Pavilion is why the pilot started there. The same report said that outlet made Menke Park a better fit for vendors than spots like Town Park.
The idea goes back further than the pilot. According to the Marin IJ, it grew out of a 2016 parks and recreation master plan survey. In that survey, residents asked for more activity in the historic downtown known as the Old Square, and many suggested food trucks.
Here's how the trial played out:
- November 2024. The council approves the Menke Park pilot. It has one applicant so far, local baker Amy Hughes, who proposed the idea.
- July 2025. Humble Cheeseburger opens beside Piccolo Pavilion in the Menke Park lot at 220 Corte Madera Ave.
- September 2025. Hughes's coffee trailer, Town Buzz Café, was expected to open around this time.
- Sept. 15, 2026. The council votes 4-0 to overhaul the commercial code, with Councilmember James Andrews absent.
- Sept. 23, 2026. Humble Cheeseburger is photographed serving lunch at Town Park.
The Truck That Proved the Idea
Humble Cheeseburger belongs to Umar Baporia. He grew up in Marin, went to Tam High, and lives in Mill Valley. He sold his limousine business before starting the truck. It serves smashburgers made with halal Harris Ranch beef, pressed with salt, mustard and grilled onions, and served on a Martin's potato roll with pickle rounds and house sauce. The fries are shoestring cut, and the sodas come from Alameda Soda Co. in Berkeley.
Baporia tested the concept with pop-ups at his children's school and at local events. Corte Madera's micro-business pilot then gave him a place to launch.
In July 2025, the truck ran Tuesday through Saturday at Menke Park. That schedule is from more than a year ago and from a different park. The September photo puts the truck at Town Park, and no current hours have been published. Check the truck's Instagram, @humblecheeseburger, before you walk over.
What the Permanent Code Allows
The Marin IJ's report on the Sept. 15 vote lists where vendors can now operate:
| Location | Vendors allowed under the new code | What the reporting shows so far |
|---|---|---|
| Town Park | Up to four | Humble Cheeseburger photographed here Sept. 23, 2026 |
| Menke Park | One | Town Buzz Café has applied for this spot |
| San Clemente Park | One | No vendor identified in the reporting |
| One additional site | One, with a use permit | Location not specified |
Town Park now has four times the room of Menke Park. In 2024, the outlet at Piccolo Pavilion was the reason to start in the Old Square. Two years later, the park that once looked harder to supply has the most permitted spots in town.
Lyle has said the town isn't counting on heavy demand.
"I don't think we're expecting a flood of food trucks."
That's what she told the IJ, which added that the town isn't worried about drawing too many vendors. So four spots at Town Park is an upper limit, not a promise of four trucks.
The reporting doesn't say when the new code takes effect or what hours and rules park vendors will follow. For now, the clearest description is that the council approved it.
The Coffee Cart Still Waiting at Piccolo Pavilion
The one Menke Park spot is the one that matters most to the person who started all this. Amy Hughes is a local gluten-free baker and cooking teacher. She was the first to propose a mobile food business in the park.
Her plan, Town Buzz Café, is a trailer serving morning coffee and baked goods from two parking spaces at Piccolo Pavilion. Customers could sit under the pavilion with their coffee. "People need a place where they can come together on common grounds and be in the moment and enjoy the park and company," Hughes told the Redwood Bark in 2024.
At the Sept. 15 meeting, several residents spoke in support of her Menke Park coffee cart application. Hughes told the council the park is underused and that her business would help fill that gap. "There's like all these people and they want to hang out in parks," she said.
The reporting doesn't say whether her permit has been approved or when she'll open. Under the new code, a coffee trailer would hold the only vendor spot in the Old Square, while the lunch trucks spread out at Town Park.
Menke Park Gets a Full Lineup This Saturday
Menke Park gets plenty of food this weekend anyway. Corte Madera Oktoberfest runs Saturday, Oct. 10, from noon to 5 p.m. at Menke Park and Old Corte Madera Square, 220 Corte Madera Ave.
According to the Visit Marin listing, here's what to expect:
- Food: Pig in a Pickle, Zonda Fine Meat and Kito's Taco Shop
- Music: the Corte Madera Town Band, Grand Isle Fire Brigade and Bubba's Taxi
- For kids: games, crafts and face painting
- Tickets: $35 in advance with five beer tastes, $40 at the door, $15 for non-drinkers 12 and older, and free for children under 12
Tickets are sold through the Corte Madera Beautification Committee's Oktoberfest page. Saturday shows the kind of crowd the 2016 survey asked for in the Old Square. The new code is meant to bring some of that activity on regular weekdays.
The Same Vote Reaches Restaurant Patios Too
The food truck rules were one part of a bigger change. "This is basically an overhaul of our commercial zoning code," Lyle told the IJ.
The code updates the rules for outdoor dining and outdoor fitness classes. It also lets restaurants and studios open in commercial districts without a conditional use permit. Outdoor dining on private property no longer needs its own parking if it's under 500 square feet.
Parking has come up at every stage. In 2024, people raised concerns about the Menke Park pilot's effect on parking. This September, Councilmember Pat Ravasio supported the changes but asked staff to keep in mind the parking concerns raised by residents and existing businesses.
Town Manager Adam Wolff said he first looked at updating these codes when he joined the town in 2014. "I think this will make a big difference in the flexibility for our businesses to actually create the types of the environments we're hoping to have here in town," he said.
The pilot started with four parking spots by the Old Square's pavilion. It ends with up to four trucks at Town Park, one at San Clemente Park and one coffee cart still waiting for Piccolo Pavilion.
We follow Corte Madera's day-to-day changes as closely as its home sales, including which parks fill up at lunchtime and which corners are about to get busier. If you'd like to talk about how the town is changing, the McArthur Love Team is happy to share what we're seeing. Contact Us.
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