Transient vendors seem to come and go, but the Bin 612’s late-night window suggests there is staying power in the late-night street vendor market. 
The scene is something of a phenomenon of cultural importance for the Starkville area. Thursday through Saturday night around 1 a.m.  the bars empty and the streets fill with people. They flock to the music playing at the cigar shop right next to the late night window. Many haul their coolers out and make a late night of it.
Chip Donald, a line chef at Bin 612, said the late-night window is successful because of different people and reasons. 
“Ty and Paul (Brasfield, of Restaurant Tyler) put it together, the community and the police support the late night scene. It is what you want after you leave the bar, food and music. And that’s why it has flourished and will continue to flourish,” Donald said.
Paul Brasfield, chef de cuisine for Bin 612 and Restaurant Tyler, said this is just the beginning. He said they plan to have a food truck positioned somewhere closer to downtown. 
“We still want the food trucks,” Brasfield said, “You see a healthy food truck scene in a lot of college towns, so why not here? In these food-truck-friendly towns they vend to the street. People can walk right up and essentially be in your restaurant, and that is what we have tried to create with the Bin late-night window. We believe the food truck and food window scene is just taking off. Pretty soon everyone will be doing this in some way or another.”
Transient vendors have seen some trouble in the past. Despite their apparent popularity during big weekends, food trucks do not have the staying power that the Bin has created with the late night window.
Clint Campbell is a manager in a local kitchen who used to run Tom and Mel’s Quik Fire Café, a late-night food trailer, on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights from fall 2010 to spring 2011. He said he fondly remembers frantically getting off work with his friend and business partner, Everett Hill, to hurry down to the Cotton District to set up the food truck and serve the hungry bar-goers until as late as four in the morning some nights.
“We had a great spot behind the Bin,” Campbell said. “We rented the trailer from Ty, and he would let us plug into the Bin. That was before they did the late-night window.”
Campbell said the operation was run out of his house. He said they would prep early in the afternoon and pack a fridge he had at the house that was dedicated solely to Tom and Mel’s. They also had to get the trailer parked at Bin 612 before the night got too busy. After they got off work they would load the prepared food in some big coolers, drive it to the parked trailer and open the kitchen.
“It was a lot of hassle, and by the time that summer ended and fall rolled around and we had to decide if we wanted to do it again, we just decided we didn’t have it in us,” Campbell said.
Campbell said he misses food vending and mentioned that he would like to look into getting an actual food truck and making it his full-time job. 
“I’m ready to get back into it. My wife can get a minority small business loan and we can start from there. I’m not sure if it will be the old Tom and Mel’s, but I would certainly love to get back into it with Everett,” he said.
Since then, the city has passed an ordinance to help transient vendors gain legitimacy. While many parts of the ordinance pertaining to transient vendors have been around since the 1970s, Division 2 licensed street vendors were allowed more places to park in 2012. The ordinance also allowed them to stay in one place for up to 12 hours.
Dalton Healy, co-owner of the Cigar Lounge of Starkville in the Cotton District, said he loves the various street vendors that set up shop on game weekends and during the festivals. He said they usually set something up outside their building as well. 
“You can have two small business mentalities; you can be Wal-Mart and muscle everyone out or you help each other and encourage growth in the community. We like the food trucks and the Bin’s late night window,” Healy said.
Students love the food trucks and the late night windows. Tyler “Big Jones” Jones said the food window is essential after a night out. 
“It’s frigging awesome. You are always hungry after the bar, you know. You might not be able to go home with somebody but you can go home with cheese fries,” Jones said
Donald said, “Hell, I eat it on my night off.”
Brasfield said the menu options keep customers excited and coming back for more.
“Everyone is talking about cheese fries. They can’t get enough of it. We have a new item called the “Freight Train.” It’s fries topped with a chicken on a stick topped with cheese, covered in bacon,” Brasfield said.
“I think I could compete. We had an exciting menu that we kept fresh. We did pulled pork when we played Arkansas, fried gator when we played Florida and redneck beignets, which are basically fried biscuits with powdered sugar.”
Campbell said  the Bin’s late night window may be a threat to the already unstable state of food trucks, at least in the Cotton District, but he remained optimistic. 
“I want to get back into it for sure,” Campbell said. “I want an actual food truck that I can take to the Cotton District on busy nights, but also take around the area and the state. I want to be able to set up out of town or go cater a church event in their parking lot.”
No matter how it is cut, street vendors are an exciting wild card in the Starkville business scene and they are ready to grow and keep innovating.