Food Truck Setback: What Can Be Done?

There is a market for food trucks in the "outskirts" of downtown too.
Like say, 17th and Jefferson.... the folks that work in some of the warehouses, and such have nothing in the nearby vicinity. Except McD's.

Don't think in only terms of she she cosmopolitan trends, but also far reaching to those who could use the service! ..

Passing this on from the Louisville Street Food (Lil Cheezers) Facebook page (from yesterday):

"Had a great meeting with the Mayors staff today, this is actually an issue that has been on their radar in the last few months. They knew all about the permitting problems and were very receptive to our delimma. They have already spoken with administrators at the various permitting departments and this could be an issue with a relatively quick and easy fix."

"If you don't already, please fan Mayor Fischers page. I was treated with the utmost of respect and they showed a real interest in seeing small business grow."

So far, so good.

There is a market for food trucks in the "outskirts" of downtown too.
Like say, 17th and Jefferson.... the folks that work in some of the warehouses, and such have nothing in the nearby vicinity. Except McD's.

Don't think in only terms of she she cosmopolitan trends, but also far reaching to those who could use the service! ..

Absolutely! My friend initially started tossing around the idea because we were working together in Okolona and there wasn't a lot around that we could get to during our 30 minute lunch break. By the time you got to the McD's and waited on your order, even if they moved fast, you had to eat in the car as you drove back and usually only had a few minutes to get back to your desk. If someone did a lunch truck in that business park with a few decent offerings and reasonable prices, they'd rake in a bundle!

I have a friend that will be very interested in the outcome. She's been wanting to do a breakfast/dessert/coffee truck targeted at downtown business but all the red tape has swayed her to look into a different path for getting her desserts out there.

I wonder how many other people are in the same boat?

The regulations have been screwed up for years and have either kept places from opening or forced them to close. If everyone on this forum knew that, then the representatives surely had to. It has been such an issue, Marsha wrote a piece about it 4 months ago. I still find it amusing that things are finally moving along when a friend of a policy maker decides he/she wants to open a truck.

I was trying to open a food truck before I took the job of Blind Pig GM, but was told by the Health Dept. in no uncertain terms that it "wasn't going to happen." I was interested in the fight but got a better offer

Edit: I should clarify that I'm really glad things worked out the way they did, but I do side/relate with those food truck folks!

Louisville Metro Councilman Jerry Miller of District 19 just offered to sponser the amendment to the ordinance if the Mayor is on board. One of his constituents wants to do a mobile food truck.

So we can change the ordinance when our friends will benefit. I'm glad it is happening, just angered it was probably spawned from the "Good Ol Boys" network.

Just wanted to clear the air in regards to this issue: I have been in the process of starting a wood fired pizza oven food truck since last year. I researched and recognized that there were many challenges ahead in regards to compliance. We ( MozzaPi Neapolitan Pizzeria ) decided to be pragmatic in regards to the environment and attack this business issue from several fronts.

1. Work with the health department to see what was required in regards to compliance and under what codes we could operate from. (of which I have had many phone calls and personally went down to the office to talk face to face with them)

2. Acquire a commissary kitchen relationship so that we could operate under a catering license (which however prevents us from serving to the general public "Specific group of people at a specific event" )

3. Open a brick and mortar complementing business on Bardstown Road http://www.mozzapi.com opening latter this summer.

4. Become an event driven business (falls under the catering license and keeps from having to find large groups of "Public" happenings to make the model work)

5. Every first Tuesday my Councilman Jerry Miller has open meetings at the Anchorage Cafe, for his constituents. I view Jerry as my representation and access to metro government and have been making him aware of the food truck challenge for some time. He has taken this issue on board as part of him doing his job and listening to the people that have elected him.

There are many issues that are in front of the metro government that effect everyone of us. I show up every Tuesday and lobby my thoughts on current issues that directly effect me and others. While social networking has really advanced representation by surfacing sentiment in regards to issues, my approach is to verbally tell government what I think the first Tuesday of every month. No good old boys networking going on here.... Just an entrepreneur trying to get things moving through the system that is provided for us to.

Justin
I wonder how many other people are in the same boat?

The regulations have been screwed up for years and have either kept places from opening or forced them to close. If everyone on this forum knew that, then the representatives surely had to. It has been such an issue, Marsha wrote a piece about it 4 months ago. I still find it amusing that things are finally moving along when a friend of a policy maker decides he/she wants to open a truck.

K here is the deal. Back in 2009 Councilwoman Madonna Flood sponsered Ordinance 57 because the streets of her district were flooded with pop up vendors selling swap meet Nikes, fake Tu-Pac shirts and velvet Elvis portraits. She was tired of seeing her district look like a flea market so she sponsered this ordinance regulating vendors and peddlers. The city approved said ordinance not realizing that with the word "food" listed in there that local city ordinance unlawfully took the power away from the Ky Mobile Food Unit permit that is issued to you at the state level. For some reason or another the Inspections, Permits and Licenses division started using the department of Alcohol and Beverage Control to police up mobile food vendors that were not compliant with the IPL.

Cut to my meeting at the Mayors office where Brandon, Fischers Policy Analyst, had already been working on the problem. He recognized that the ordinance was an issue and wants it gone OR modified in such a way where it doesnt have anything to do with KY State Licensed Mobile Food Units.
He called and spoke with Glen Smith at ABC and from what I understand IPL is now taking a back seat from State Issued Mobile Food Units until the ordinance is amended or stricken.

I spoke with another food trucker today who has spoken with Glen Smith on Monday and got the same answer that I have been hearing elsewhere. I received a call from Glen while I was in the Mayors office and his voicemail was very polite and he expressed an interest in working something out. I have returned the call to ask some direct questions and am still waiting for a reply.

But from the way it seems, as long as you are health department inspected and pay the 120 bucks a year for a mobile food permit then you can operate on commercial property as long as you are invited.

GAME ON!

This just opens up the door for many other things I want to do with food trucks around here.

1. Annual or semi annual street food festival showcasing all different kinds of american and ethnic street cuisine including both traditional and fusion. Encouraging local restaurants to come out and participate, local shops and food trucks, trailers and push carts full of food.

2. A POD (Place of Destination) that I can set up. A rentable vacant lot where a congregation of food trucks can build during the times they dont have events or other bookings. A go-to destination for us where people know there will always be a rotating variety of good, inexpensive food.

3. Lil Cheezers is the truck but I want to use Louisvillestreetfood.com to organize event calendars and location information for all the local food trucks, posting their menu and whereabouts so people can have 1 local reference on where to find those trucks. There are people out there that dont use Facebook and Twitter and this allows us to reach that population of people as well.

I cant wait for all these things to start happening. I want to get the ball rolling on everything so we can pave the way for more people to get into this industry around here. If by policing the organization ourselves we can keep out the "transient vendors" and keep a group of known local small business operators together.

Congrats on the good news Matt. I look forward to seeing you out there!! With all of the BS though, I probably would have gone with the "Breaking Bad" concept, and turned it into a "mobile meth lab". SERIOUSLY just kidding , good luck

Congrats on the good news Matt. I look forward to seeing you out there!! With all of the BS though, I probably would have gone with the "Breaking Bad" concept, and turned it into a "mobile meth lab". SERIOUSLY just kidding , good luck

dont think for a minute that I wouldnt have changed the name every few months and painted the truck... Underground Grilled Cheese, Fromunda Grilled Cheese, Sneaky Cheeze. Anything... I would have gone BANDIT, BURT REYNOLDS STYLE get someone in a souped up Honda running chaser for me

I had all kinds of loopholes I was going to exploit, I had it all mapped out but this is all good news, I would rather operate legitimately with no fear of getting policed up or shut down.

Timely article: So you want to start a food truck?

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/15/us/15 ... &seid=auto

Interesting article about food trucks in Washington, DC: http://washingtonexaminer.com/local/dc/2011/04/restaurants-food-trucks-duel-over-location

Just got back from Record Store Day at Ear X-tacy, where Lil Cheezers was parked. There was a line from the time I got there till I left. I had a delicious Caprese with added fresh spinach. Loved it. Things were going slowly - perhaps because of the family that came and got 12 sandwiches - but people were more than willing to wait. John Timmons (of Ear X) said he wants to keep having them there - great for business. Love it.