Moveable feasts returning to downtown
City lets food trucks operate with a license, sets up five special parking zones
Above: Expect more frequent downtown sightings of food trucks – like this mobile soup purveyor, Souperfreaks – now that City Hall has eased restrictions and pledged friendlier treatment.
At first banished from downtown, Baltimore’s fledgling fleet of food trucks is being welcomed back, with new rules announced yesterday at a packed meeting of the city Board of Licenses for Street Vendors.
Decadent red velvet cupcakes, custom-grilled burgers, gazpacho with goat cheese, bal’mer crab rolls – fare like that sold from funky-painted food trucks had prompted complaints from brick-and-mortar restaurants earlier this year, followed by enforcement action from city officials and howls of protest from foodies when the trucks were given the boot.
Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake’s new rules are meant to reverse all that.
Gone is the restriction that food trucks must be 300 feet away from a retail location that sells a similar product. Now, food trucks are asked to use common sense and courtesy when parking near businesses that might sell similar foods.
Properly permitted food trucks will be allowed to operate downtown and vend from “any valid parking location in Baltimore City.” The new rules also create a food truck parking zone pilot program that will be overseen by the mayor’s office.
Questions remain about how all this will actually work. Will the trucks get to be in the various zones on a first-come, first-served basis? The Vendors Board is working with the newly-formed truck vendors’ association to craft a process for accessing spaces in accordance with the new regulations. City officials say they are hoping for civility on all sides.
“In getting this off the ground, we are stepping out in good faith with the expectation that folks are going to do everything they can do to make this work,” board member and director of Baltimore City’s Office of Civil Rights and Wage Enforcement, Alvin Gillard, said.
$375 Vendors’ License
The food trucks are home to some of the city’s most mouthwatering culinary creations, but were banned from the downtown business area earlier this year. The board had shut down several of the food trucks, citing a lack of proper permitting. On one particularly bad day, a food truck was chased away from a spot near Johns Hopkins Hospital, sought refuge at Harbor East, and then was driven off from there.
In addition to licenses from the state and Baltimore City Health Department, all food truck vendors must now have a street vendor’s license issued by the Street Vendors Board.
Standing-room only at a meeting of the Baltimore Board of Licenses for Street Vendors meeting, where loosened rules for food trucks were announced. (Photo by Alexandra Wilding)
Fewer than 10 food trucks applied for the new license, which will be available for vendors to pick up on Friday to start operating under the new regulations. The cost of the new license is $375, Gillard said.
Food truck owners were elated with changes.
“City government has done something right,” said Irene Smith, owner of the Souper Freaks food truck. “I’m always a skeptic … but it seems pretty good.”
The city is betting that the food truck vendors can get along with traditional restaurants because they have more in common with them than differences, Smith said.
“I would never do anything to destroy another person’s business,” Smith said. “I’m in this with them.”
Not Always a Great Climate for Food Trucks
Last month, Smith wasn’t as excited when Gillard shut down her business, citing lack of proper permitting, and supporters speculated about which restaurateur had been behind it.
Smith had presented a mobile vendor’s license to Gillard, but Gillard said that Smith needed an on-street vendor’s license or risk a fine, Smith said.
On the same day, another food truck, Iced Gems, which sells cupcakes, had a similar experience with Gillard and was asked to shut down, according to the Baltimore Sun.
The "ka-ching" of a food truck sale, at the Kooper's Burger Wagon, parked at the Rotunda in north Baltimore.
A few months ago, the City Solicitor decided that the Street Vendors Board would oversee food trucks. The board decided that trucks would not be able to operate downtown and that they all would require a Street Vendors License, according to the newspaper.
The city defined the downtown as anything between Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. on the west, Centre Street on the north, Fallsway on the east, and Pratt St. on the south, according to current city food truck vending regulations.
The city granted food trucks a two-week grace period, from May 12 until May 26, to submit applications to bring them into compliance with the new requirements.
Five Special Zones
Each of the five food truck zones created as part of the city’s pilot program will be marked with signs that say: “Food Truck Zone, 9 a.m.- 3 p.m.” Without proper permitting, trucks will be towed. The zones are:
500 block of St. Paul Place and St. Paul St. (East side of the street. Two trucks.)
1900 block of E. Monument St. (South side of the street. One truck.) (Serving the Johns Hopkins medical complex)
500 block of W. Baltimore St. (South side of the street. One truck.)
300 block of S. Charles St. (West side of the street. One truck.)
400 block of E. Fayette St. (North side of the street. Three trucks.)
A summer mayoral fellow has been assigned to review all current vending practices and regulation of food trucks, carts, merchandise tables, etc., in Baltimore, and will review best practices in other cities. Recommendations will be presented to Rawlings-Blake in August, Gillard said.
Baltimore Food Trucks – a one-stop spot on Twitter to find the feeds for area food trucks. Readers please let us know if there are other good resources.