Food Truck Laws
i agree with you. Portland's food truck/stand scene blew me away. is it the city laws that make it hard to replicate here in seattle?
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That may be part of it, as I understand it, although a year ago the City passed regulations that permits trucks to vend from public streets, with some restrictions. http://www.seattle.gov/council/clark/street_food_vending.htm Formerly, it was limited to private property.
About SEA, this article explains: "More restrictive are the city’s requirements that carts return to a commissary kitchen every day, prohibit them from remaining overnight, and prevent them from being near other food businesses. Portland’s rules say nothing on any of these subjects." http://daily.sightline.org/2012/03/15...
The article goes on to explain the paltry number of permits that have been issued by SEA since the new laws last year, and the tendency of some mobile food businesses to stick to suburban areas, possibly to avoid the red tape associated with the city.
There have been other reports that the Wash. Restaurant Association is a heavy lobby that has spawned a captive state-level advisory board that has raised additional regulatory obstacles to the type of food that can be permissably prepared or sold on the street.
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re: equinoise
The situation here is actually a lot better than some places--they say in Manhattan it's virtually impossible to launch a truck, with all of the rules NYC has. And I just read here on CH that Montreal is only now doing an experiment, letting a very few trucks operate, to see how it goes. Usually it IS the restaurant lobby behind the restrictions.
The recent Saveur article made me want to try Portland's carts again; I go to Portland for work and haven't liked a single thing I've had from the downtown food carts. But it sounds like the pods out in the neighborhoods might have the real goods.
Another vote for Matt's--the oyster po'boy and shrimp and grits. I also like El Camion (multiple locations).
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re: equinoise
What's even worse is that if you want to do business in King county, the commissary must be located there (the reverse is not true), and you're not actually allowed to do any real cooking or food prep on the truck itself -- and there are few if any commissary kitchens available for rent in King County and no resources to help you find them. All veg prep has to be done in the commissary. All proteins over one inch thick have to be cooked in the commissary. The truck can only be used for holding or re-heating unless you limit yourself to typical truck foods.
I've been trying to launch a truck for two years now but after reading the King Co Health Codes, I've given up. I simply can't do the type of food I want.
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re: acgold7
that's horrible. my buddy runs a food truck in orange county and i think its a great way to expand the palette of Seattle's general food scene with new and inventive and specialized dishes and cuisines. with rent so high especially on the Eastside, you're stuck with a lot of franchisees and resources spent on rent and location then instead of food.
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re: acgold7
Agreed that the requirements in Seattle are better than other places. It's hard too to compare Seattle to Portland, where in Portland the health laws are so lax that people can cook out of their own homes. Hopefully as food trucks get more and more respected in this community, the laws will get better. If you all want to follow my commentary on issues such as this, I have started a blog about food trucks in Seattle and I very much welcome dialogue. Please check it out at secretsaucekitchens.com.
In regards to the best food trucks in Seattle, the Seattle Met magazine recently ran a feature on food trucks and they have a good list of the top food trucks in Seattle. My votes are for Where Ya At Matt, Big Food, and Off the Rez. The Box over on the east side is also tasty. The Seattle Met article can be found here: http://www.seattlemet.com/eat-and-dri...
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re: acgold7
Yes, this makes me sad to hear you are not going forward with launching a food truck due to the restrictive nature of the health department regulations. I am writing a post about this subject in my blog and would welcome more of your thoughts; blog should be posted within the hour.
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re: acgold7
Putting on my sleazy lawyer hat here.
What about food fairs like Bite of Seattle? What are the logistics/legalities involved in putting up something like that? If the requirements for putting on a food fair / festival is less stringent than a food truck - what if, say, you put up a one-vendor food fair...?
This is a topic I have much interest in.
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re: HungWeiLo
As I recall -- don't quote me on this -- the regs are different but no less stringent in their own way. I'm not opposed to public safety but some of this stuff is just nuts.
Some time when you have a month to kill, head over to the King Co Health Dept website and go through the million or so contradictory PDFs they have for download with all the regs.... you'll go blind and crazy at the same time.
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re: bighound
The prohibition is against proteins over one inch thick, so I think anything you can do in a deep fryer should be okay. Certainly many people have and use deep fryers and do frozen fries and the like aboard trucks with no problem, to my knowledge.
Fried items really have to be done to order and couldn't possibly be pre-done in a commissary, could they? They make special fryers for mobile units, I think, with special safety clamp-down covers which you secure while in motion.
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