At the red taco truck at 201 MS-12 W, the cashier hands you a pager with your order and buzzes you when the food is ready. The Reflector reviewed it in March and wrote up the shrimp quesadilla, the enchiladas and the burritos. The truck kept Monday-through-Saturday hours, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. 44 Takeout lists the same Highway 12 address on its website: 201 Hwy 12, at Designer Gallery.
Both trucks are now moving into buildings. Taqueria La Morenita is headed to University Drive, and 44 Takeout is becoming a bar and grill in the Cotton District. A year ago, a yellow truck on the other side of town made the same move. In Starkville, a parking lot on Highway 12 has become the cheapest place to prove a restaurant works. The trucks that build a following there are the ones taking over the town's empty dining rooms.
The yellow truck went first
Arnoldo Camarena started selling tortas, tacos and burritos from a bright yellow food truck in Starkville. Nearly a year later, in November 2025, The Dispatch reported that his business, La Paisanita, was moving into a full restaurant at 106 Avenue of Patriots.
He took over a building that had been sitting empty. The paper noted that 106 Avenue of Patriots had been vacant for more than two years after OMG Grillhouse closed. Columnist Mary Pollitz also counted the town's Mexican restaurants that week and made La Paisanita the 10th in Starkville, or the 11th if you count Taco Bell. A truck in the 10th slot of a crowded category still had enough regulars to fill a dining room that two years of vacancy hadn't filled.
Less than a year later, the restaurant drew attention from outside Mississippi. America's Best Restaurants, a media and marketing company based in Florence, Kentucky, scheduled its ABR Roadshow at La Paisanita on Oct. 16. The Dispatch noted that the public was welcome to watch the filming and that the episode would be posted on social media later. Camarena said in a press release that the feature was "an exciting opportunity for us to showcase the uniqueness of our restaurant."
Two more trucks are following the same route this fall
La Paisanita's path from truck to building is now repeating. Here is where things stand for the two trucks moving indoors and for one barbecue spot that skipped the truck stage, based on the latest Dispatch reports from October:
| Business | Where it started | New address | Previous tenant | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dawg House 44 Bar and Grill | 44 Takeout truck, 201 Hwy 12 at Designer Gallery | 19 Page Ave., Cotton District | NutriGroove | Aiming to open by homecoming, Nov. 7 |
| Taqueria La Morenita | Red truck at 201 MS-12 W; restaurant in Sturgis at 2803 MS-12 | 401 University Drive, Suite 2, Midtown | Godfather's Pizza | No opening date announced |
| Pit Haus | Owner Jimmy Sherrod's 1028 W/Mo-Jams BBQ in Columbus | 1444 Louisville Road | Big Chief Barbecue | Open |
Dawg House 44. Latoya Weaver runs 44 Takeout. Its menu leans on gourmet burgers, Philly steaks, po-boys, catfish, tenders and wings, according to its vendor profile for this summer's Summer Breeze event. The same profile says the truck takes its name from a basketball jersey number that family members have shared. Weaver told The Dispatch that a standalone restaurant had been a long-held dream. When the Page Avenue space opened up, her team started building the concept right away. The new menu adds loaded hot dogs, nachos, baked potatoes and salads, plus a full bar, all aimed at game days and weekend nights. Homecoming on Saturday is the target date, so check before you walk over.
The name will sound familiar to some longtime residents. A separate business, Dawg House Sports Grill, moved into the old State Theatre at 217 East Main St. in 2014 with a planned July 1 opening. It closed in June 2016, The Dispatch reported at the time. The two businesses aren't connected. The new one is on Page Avenue.
Taqueria La Morenita. This one comes to Starkville already established. It runs a restaurant in Sturgis at 2803 MS-12. It announced on Facebook that it would open a location in the former Godfather's Pizza at 401 University Drive. The Dispatch's Oct. 22 business column ran the post's thank-you to "everyone who has supported us, loved our food and been part of our journey." No opening date has been announced yet.
Why the trucks keep landing in old restaurant rooms
All three businesses in the table moved into spaces that were already built as restaurants. La Paisanita did the same thing at the former OMG Grillhouse. The pattern on the operator side is just as consistent. Each one arrived with customers it had already earned somewhere else: a truck on Highway 12, a restaurant in Sturgis, or a barbecue business in Columbus.
Pit Haus is the version without a truck. Jimmy Sherrod opened 1028 W/Mo-Jams BBQ in Columbus in 2020 and now runs Pit Haus in the Louisville Road building that Big Chief Barbecue opened in 2024. The menu covers catfish plates, barbecue nachos, ribs, rib tips, oxtail and greens. Hours are 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. on Sunday, per The Dispatch. Sherrod's track record came from another city. The trucks build theirs in a Starkville parking lot.
A dining room carries more risk than a truck does, and one Eckford address shows how often a Starkville restaurant room has turned over.
105 Eckford, four changes in seven years
Here is how the building at 105 Eckford Drive has changed hands, as The Dispatch covered it:
- 2019. Eric Hallberg was running The Breakfast Club at 105 Eckford Drive. (The Dispatch, March 2019)
- 2023. The Joint, a Texas barbecue concept, renovated the former Breakfast Club building and opened there that summer. (The Dispatch, June 2023)
- September 2024. The Joint announced a move to the Jackson area. The Breakfast Club closed its Research Park location and planned to return to Eckford. (The Dispatch, September 2024)
- February 2026. Trey Spencer opened Jive Turkey Breakfast Club at the address. It closed temporarily after less than six months. In September, building owner Eric Hallberg confirmed the closure was permanent. Spencer is looking for a new location for the concept. (The Dispatch, Sept. 24)
- November 2026, at the earliest. Hallberg is planning a new restaurant of his own there, called Hallberg's. The Oct. 1 story gives the address as 105 Eckford Lane. He filed formation paperwork with the Secretary of State's office on Aug. 27. Over the years he has also been behind Cappe's, Chicken Salad Chick and The Breakfast Club in Starkville. (The Dispatch, Oct. 1)
Hallberg kept the plan loose when The Dispatch asked. "We are very vague, … trying to get a plan," he wrote in a text message, adding that November was the earliest the restaurant could open. Until the doors open, treat Hallberg's as a plan.
Eckford shows the side of the business that a truck avoids. A room comes with a lease, a build-out and a lot of fixed costs, and this one has changed concepts four times in seven years if Hallberg's opens as planned. A truck can try a menu out in a parking lot first.
Who's still parked out front
Moving to a building hasn't emptied the lots. Taqueria El Pipis serves tacos, loaded nachos and quesabirria at 300 MS-12 from 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday. The owner, Pipi, recommended the quesabirria to The Reflector, describing it as "like a taco and quesadilla" with birria oil for dipping. Whole Bean Coffee Co., run by Mississippi State graduate Mallory Halfacre, parks at 113C MLK Dr. West. It serves coffee, dirty sodas, build-your-own drinks, muffins and bagels, and Halfacre's most-recommended drink is the Biscoff cookie latte.
Fixed restaurants keep coming to Highway 12 too. Wing Gold is open at 210 Hwy. 12, Suite G, serving fried chicken, pizza and wings. Hours are 10:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 10:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and noon to 9:30 p.m. Sunday.
Homecoming weekend makes a good loop: the trucks on Highway 12, Pit Haus on Louisville Road, La Paisanita on Avenue of Patriots, and a stop on Page Avenue to see whether Dawg House 44 made its Nov. 7 target.
Behind each of these openings is a building that changed hands: a vacant grillhouse, a pizza place that closed a while back, a former smoothie shop. If you own a commercial space in Starkville, or you're running a food truck and thinking about a dining room, Delta-Gulf Real Estate Corporation helps owners and small businesses with retail leasing and sales across the Golden Triangle. We're glad to talk through what a space like these is worth to the next tenant. Explore Our Properties.
