Ben Mathieu takes his lunch from I’d Wrap That food truck back to his car Tuesday at Popo’s Food Truck Park on Kennedy Memorial Drive in Waterville. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

WATERVILLE — It was raining torrents Tuesday afternoon, but that didn’t stop loyal food truck patrons from pulling into the brand new PoPo’s Food Truck Park on Kennedy Memorial Drive.

They fled their cars and trucks and ducked under awnings for everything from Caribbean comfort food to barbecue pulled pork and rice bowls.

“Today we’re buying Dr Pepper pulled pork, Mexican street corn and fried s’mores cheesecake wrap,” Ben Mathieu, of Waterville, said. “It is good.”

He was ordering from his favorite food truck, I’d Wrap That, operated by Aaron Begin, of Waterville, who was cooking up all sorts of offerings, including french fries and burgers.

“I chase this guy around,” Mathieu said. “It’s always a new dish or wrap. Very unique flavors. We’re big fans of street corn burritos.”

Begin has parked his food truck at the North Street park and near the football field at Waterville Senior High School, among other places, but he sees the new food truck park as a good place to draw customers.

“So far, it’s worked out really well,” he said. “Today’s my second day. It was so busy on opening day.”

The food truck park’s soft opening was Saturday at 121 Kennedy Memorial Drive by owners Zhanpo “PoPo” Lu and her husband, Linjie Gu, who plan to open their own food truck in June when the park will hold a grand opening.

Their food truck, Jay’s Dumpling Truck, will feature traditional Chinese food including boiled and steamed dumplings. They have worked for several months to prepare the site for opening, including building a 6-foot-tall stockade fence around the park, which formerly was a grassy field and now is a leveled and gravel parking lot.

Popo’s Food Truck Park owner Popo Lu hands out balloons during Saturday’s soft opening day at the park on Kennedy Memorial Drive in Waterville. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

They will host up to six food trucks and be open seven days a week, with some trucks being on site several days in a row when they are not at prearranged events. The park opens at 11 a.m. and the last food truck closes at 7 or 8 p.m.

“We opened three trucks Saturday, and I think over 500 people came,” Lu said Tuesday. “It was very organized. People just followed the signs and parked. We had a great day.”

Lu said she has a Waterville Food Truck Park page on Facebook that’s only two weeks old and it already has more than 1,500 followers.

At Rita’s Catering food truck, Sage Cassidy, the business’s catering manager, said things were going well.

“The most popular dish is pulled pork and mac and cheese,” she said. “We’re about sold out. Mac and cheese is popular. We also do grilled quesadillas, steak bombs. I’ve seen raving Facebook reviews for the park. I’ve heard great things so far.”

She said Rita’s truck will be at the park at least four days a week. It also caters weddings, birthday parties, concerts and other events.

“I’m very impressed with this,” Cassidy said.

Mark Jawahir said he parks his food truck, Caribbean Comfort, in various places including Augusta and Bangor, but he plans to be at PoPo’s food park at least three or four days a week. He serves up culinary delights such as Jamaican beef or pork patty, jerk chicken and rasta pasta, and Bunjal pork and rice and peas.

He came to Maine four years ago from New York City, where food trucks are everywhere and one can pick and choose from all sorts of fare on one street, he said.

“This is the only food truck park in Maine that I know of,” he said. “I think it’s a good idea and I think it’s going to take off.”

Jawahir said he grew up loving food and did a lot of grilling in the backyard, but didn’t imagine he would one day have a food truck.

When he came to Maine, he worked as a Subaru technician at Charlie’s in Augusta and his wife, Pameela Bisram is an OB-GYN physician at Redington-Fairview General Hospital in Skowhegan. He decided to try a food truck on weekends and loved it so much, he decided to do it full time.

“It’s a lot of work,” he said. “It’s still a lot of fun. Pretty much everything we offer, we make ourselves. My wife and I develop recipes.”

Ruth Carter writes the menu on the chalkboard of her Mama Ruth’s food truck Saturday at Popo’s Food Truck Park on Kennedy Memorial Drive. Carter said she sells home-style comfort food made with love, heart and soul. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

At Mama Ruth’s food truck, Ruth Carter was cooking up everything from rice bowls to chicken broccoli Alfredo.

Carter said the food truck business is new to her. She tried opening her truck at her Madison home but business was slow, unlike at PoPo’s.

“So far, so good,” she said. “It’s been three days. I couldn’t have asked for a better location. It’s going to be a great summer, a great season. I’m super excited.”