Ed Martinelli and Matt Martinelli owned and managed Le Virage Restaurant in Walnut Creek for 34 years until it burned down.

The restaurant closed down in 2005 and was sitting vacant for seven years. Late August of 2012 the vacant restaurant caught fire for unknown reasons.

Matt Martinelli was very young when his dad ran Le Virage but was often there helping around the restaurant.  The family to this day is still unsure of how the restaurant burned down.

“I’ve always wanted to work with my dad with the space that we have, now I can put the space we have to good use,” he said.

Matt Martinelli, who is studying business administration at California State University, East Bay, says the Martinelli’s will be back in business bringing a new food truck market into Walnut Creek called theBEND.

Matt Martinelli will be in charge of the market with a little help from his dad, Ed Martinelli. It will be located on 2211 North Main Street, near the Walnut Creek BART station.

The city forced the Martinelli’s to demolish the burned building and would not let them do anything with that space because they wanted to leave it as a historical place. They tried parking cars there but the city would not let them, according to Ed Martinelli.

After pondering what to do with the space they came up with the concept of doing a food truck site. The Martinelli’s proposed the idea to the city and they approved as long as they made some improvements to the lot.

Matt Martinelli and Ed Martinelli have been in the process of getting everything together and getting city approval since last May. The process has been going quickly but they have to wait for the final approval Feb. 26.

“I think it’ll be a very big success because there aren’t any food places around, the nearest one is a quarter mile away,” Matt Martinelli said. “I expect there to be 90 per cent foot traffic since theBEND is so close to many businesses.”

Food trucks provide affordable on-the-go eats, without having to sit down in a fancy restaurant. People can enjoy anything from tater tots and bacon to gourmet Vietnamese food.  According to The San Francisco Business Times there are 232 food trucks in the Bay Area as of 2013.

The Martinelli’s plan to have eight trucks a day on site Monday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Friday nights there will be live music from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.

“Just the other day I signed on another food truck that was on campus, everything seems to be falling into place,” said Matt Martinelli. “I’m very excited for everything to come together.”

The scheduled start of theBEND is Mar. 29.