Long lines extended from several of the trucks that were serving food at the Pechanga Resort and Casino’s first Pechanga Food Truck Festival last year. Riverside County Supervisor Kevin Jeffries wants the county to consider allowing food trucks to legally operate throughout the year, not just at festivals. — Don Boomer

When Bill Gould’s Murrieta coffee shop went belly up in 2009 as the recession tightened its grip on Riverside County, he made plans to open a restaurant on wheels. That is, until he found out about the county’s ban on food trucks.

“At that point I threw my arms up and said, ‘Forget it,’” Gould recalled. “I couldn’t understand the reasoning why. I still don’t understand.”

Bill, Jeney, and Apryl Gould, stand in their garden at their home in Menifee. The Goulds would like to run a food truck if the county repeals its prohibition against food trucks. www.andrewfoulkphotography.com

Because of the ban, he never purchased a truck. But others did.

“I know people who have food trucks and don’t even use them. They’re parked,” the 36-year-old Menifee man said in a telephone interview Wednesday.

That may change.

County Supervisor Kevin Jeffries, working to make good on a campaign promise to promote small businesses, intends to roll out by June a measure to repeal the ban and establish ground rules for the safe operation of food trucks. Formal adoption likely would come later in the year.

“We are the last county, I believe, in Southern California that bans food trucks from being in the county unless they’re at a festival,” Jeffries said at last week’s Board of Supervisors meeting.

The board unanimously gave the green light to hold a festival outside the County Administrative Center in Riverside on June 25. Jeffries said the one-day event is meant to be a demonstration that leads to a long-term policy change.

“We hope to kick off a change in the viewing of how food trucks can operate here in the future,” he said.

The majority appeared to support the concept.

“I think it’s time to give this serious consideration in our county,” said Supervisor Marion Ashley.

Supervisor Jeff Stone of Temecula wasn’t so sure.

“We have a number of restaurants, especially in the southwestern area, that have invested either millions of dollars in their own facilities or in rent at big-rent spaces,” Stone said.

He said he didn’t want to give an unfair advantage to their competitors.

By comparison, Elma Eaton, co-owner of California Cart Builder in Lake Elsinore, a food-truck manufacturer, said fully equipped 24-foot-long trucks sell for about $120,000.

Stone, a pharmacist, said he also worries about the potential for spreading food-borne diseases. He said operators in other places have at times abused the privilege of cooking and selling hot food from a mobile kitchen, and monitoring their activities could become overwhelming for the county.

“It becomes so large that even code enforcement and environmental health can’t wrap their arms around it, and you have a lot of illegal, unregulated food trucks out there that can potentially cause food poisoning and many other problems,” he said. “I certainly will remain open-minded but very skeptical.”

Jeffries said he would address those concerns.

“Our office is moving very slowly and cautiously,” he said.

Lynne Wilder, program chief for the Environmental Health Department’s food division, said the prohibition has been in place since at least the 1980s.

It’s not a blanket ban. Wilder said vendors may prepare and sell hot dogs, coffee, churros, popcorn and snow cones, and they can sell prepackaged food. They may not, however, prepare in a truck kitchen hamburgers, chicken, fish and full-on meals.

Wilder said exceptions are made for special events such as the Temecula Valley Balloon & Wine Festival.

Restrictions aim to prevent the spread of illness, spilling of hot grease and illegal dumping of waste water, as well as promote general sanitation, Wilder said. She said her department will work with Jeffries to ensure those goals are met with a relaxing of the rules.

An ordinance would apply countywide, she said, but cities could adopt specific requirements for operating within their boundaries.

Rodney and Elma Eaton, the owners of California Cart Builder, welcome a repeal.

“I think it would make a huge difference,” Elma Eaton said in a telephone interview. “We manufacture something in a county where it can’t be used. It’s like making moonshine in a dry county.”

The couple is in the process of moving the firm’s sales office to Dallas.

Eaton said they sell to customers all over the region and nation. Even so, she said, a county ordinance change would boost sales to potential local customers who now back off when they learn the rules.

“We get lots of calls,” she said. “People call and say they have this great idea and no one’s doing it. And we tell them no one’s doing it because it’s illegal.”

If full-scale food production in a vehicle becomes legal in Riverside County, Gould said he will run right out and get a truck.

The Menifee man said he already has a menu in mind: one that specializes in gluten-free dishes.

Gould predicted the policy change would spur much economic activity.

“That would be a great opportunity for a lot of entrepreneurs to get out there and test the waters,” he said.

http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/apr/28/jeffries-food-truck-ban-riverside-county/

Gourmet food trucks have become a familiar presence in the county’s urban neighborhoods, suburban office parks, even on military bases. But now they’ve invaded downtown San Diego, and the reception — at least from local restaurateurs — hasn’t been exactly welcoming.

A weekly street closure that began this month to accommodate a special gathering of food trucks just steps from the Gaslamp Quarter has prompted cries of foul play from nearby businesses, who regard the mobile vendors as interlopers.

The trucks, they argue, are taking advantage of the extensive investment the historic district has made in marketing the area without making any financial contributions of their own.

Food truck operators counter that downtown represents yet another financially lucrative location where they can ply their mobile trade while satisfying the needs of time-pressed consumers looking for affordable, gourmet cuisine.

“When I came to San Diego in May of last year, I spent a lot of time doing market research and talking to operators down here, and what I heard from them is they got harassed by a lot of the police officers downtown, probably induced by the restaurants,” said Christian Murcia, owner of two food trucks and a company, Curbside Bites, which helped launch the downtown gathering.

Before venturing into downtown, Murcia had been content to roam the county’s suburbs in his white and red Crepes Bonaparte truck peddling made-to-order caprese, Brie and Nutella crepes.

“In San Diego, we wanted to first test the waters to see if we would have a problem parking our trucks down there, but now we’ve started these weekly street closures so we’d have an organized way to have food trucks and it wouldn’t be a free for all with trucks parking on the streets.”

In the last six months, Murcia has gained a toehold in downtown, where he parks his trucks on Friday and Saturday nights, selling food into the early morning hours. And in addition to the Thursday evening gathering on J Street between 3rd and 4th avenues, he’s launched a lunchtime food truck assembly on Wednesdays, in downtown, just north of Little Italy.

FOOD TRUCK EVENTS

Downtown, Columbia neighborhood: B Street between India and Columbia streets, Wednesdays, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Gaslamp Quarter: J Street between Third and Fourth avenues, Thursdays, 5:30 to 9 p.m.

What the Gaslamp restaurant owners say is especially vexing is that they weren’t even notified that a weekly street closure was being planned for an area that is typically congested on Thursday nights and where open parking spaces are scarce.

“I think it’s unbelievable that the city would block off the street and take away vital parking for the businesses without consulting them first,” said Philip Paccione, owner of Jolt’n Joe’s, a sports grill and event center, which he believes has suffered a 10 percent loss in sales since the weekly gathering of half a dozen trucks began.

“They don’t have the same restrictions and rent and overhead costs I have yet they can park right next door, sell at a cheaper price and steal our customers. They’re city-sanctioned squatters.”

The city’s special events department only requires that applicants notify those surrounding businesses and residents that are “directly impacted,” a definition that City Council President Todd Gloria believes may be too narrow.

He and other members of the City Council received emails from theGaslamp Quarter Association’s executive director, Jimmy Parker, who complained that area businesses were unfairly ignored when decisions were made to close J Street for a food truck assembly.

The city, he groused, should recognize the long-standing efforts made by area businesses and residents to revitalize the district and “protect them from those that look only to steal what they have built and continue to try to maintain.”

Gloria acknowledged he has to straddle a fine line between supporting the pioneering work of Gaslamp Quarter entrepreneurs while also helping promote new activities in the area that could bring more visitors to downtown.

“Rightly or wrongly, these trucks don’t pay into the assessment districts or pay for special events but are able to piggyback off those prior improvements, so I see that concern,” said Gloria, who is meeting with stakeholders to consider policy changes governing street parking and special food truck assemblies. “But I also see there’s some potential for synergy between brick and mortar restaurants and a food truck.”

Murcia said he’s made diplomatic overtures to various Gaslamp restaurants, suggesting they do some cross-promotion, especially since the trucks don’t sell alcohol, but he was rebuffed. While Murcia’s organized forays into downtown are perfectly legal, as are his weekend stops in the Gaslamp, he was concerned early on that surrounding businesses might try to dismantle the weekly events, so he launched a petition drive that he says has drawn some 700 signatures of support.

On a recent warm Thursday evening, the food truck meet-up of a half-dozen vendors got off to a slow start, but gradually, the street filled with couples out for an evening stroll, people just off work walking their dogs, and families grabbing a quick bite to eat. They grazed on quick-serve gourmet fare, from pesto fries and chicken parmigiana to lobster grilled cheese and house-made bratwurst with caramelized onions.

Marko Pavlinovic, owner of Mangia Mangia Mobile and a regular participant at the downtown gathering, said it makes perfect sense for small operators like himself to take advantage of high-traffic areas like the Gaslamp. The money isn’t huge, but the $300 to $400 he makes in a night there helps his bottom line, he says.

“One of the restaurant owners came to me taking pictures and he said, ‘I’m taking pictures because we want you out of here,’” Pavlinovic said. “So I talked to him. and said, ‘Let’s try to be realistic. We’re just a little food truck that makes a few hundred dollars in sales. I come down here once a week for a few hours, how can I possibly hurt your business?

“And then we started communicating nicely.”

http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/apr/24/food-trucks-restaurants-shoedowndowntown/

SAN MARCOS — Gourmet food trucks will soon be a fixture at the San Marcos Farmers Market from 4 to 7 p.m. every Wednesday.

The farmers market is teaming up with Curbside Bites, a gourmet food truck booking service with more than 250 individually owned gourmet food trucks in Southern California.

The line-up of food trucks includes Crepes Bonaparte, which was featured on the Food Network as a contestant on The Great Food Truck Race in 2011, New York on Rye and Mangia Mangia.

Each week’s lineup of trucks can be found at curbsidebites.com/calendar/.

The farmers market is open two days a week, from 3 to 7 p.m. Wednesdays and from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sundays. It’s on the Cal State San Marcos campus, 333 S. Twin Oaks Valley Road.

Free parking is available in Lot B during market hours.

http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/apr/19/food-trucks-coming-to-s-m-farmers-market/

Would you eat from your favorite food truck if you knew that it received a fail grade in health?

Today, people in San Diego have now shifted their concerns to food control. Years ago San Diego became one of the first counties to require a grading system by health inspectors. With such easy grading scales of “A,” “B,” “C,” customers can find the regulations assuring to determine a safe place to eat.

After such success, San Diego decided to try to further develop their Health and Safety grade card program by including Food Trucks. With this strong move, “the County will become one of the first in the nation to expand this public health service to cover the growing food-truck industry”(San Diego County News Center).

This requirement seems significant for the growing number of people munching down the food they buy from the trucks. Over 1100 mobile food operations remain in business throughout San Diego. A testimony from one of the owners shows that they understand the importance of keeping the businesses sanitary for the customers.

The regulations require the mobile food trucks to comply with the same health and safety regulations restaurants comply with. According to Heather Buomo, an Environmental Health Specialist, the “Major violations would be the same as the major risk factors for a food borne illness, so again time and temperature control, sanitation, and also employee hygiene. Making sure the food handlers are washing their hands and not working when they are ill.” (San Diego County News Center).

After all, the food the employers cook, touch, and serve in those trucks remains the same food you put in your mouth. You as a customer cannot see what goes on in the kitchen, so what credibility can you rely on to know whether a food vendor looks safe enough to eat at?

Photos courtesy of Karen Green via Flickr.

http://www.sdentertainer.com/dining/food-trucks-in-san-diego-getting-graded-on-cleanliness/

SAN DIEGO — As the community gears up for the annual Dining Out for Life event next month, The San Diego LGBT Community Center will host Food Truck Fierceness on Thursday, March 21 from 5-8 pm.

The Center’s parking lot will be filled with some of San Diego’s favorite food trucks, including Chop Soo-ey, Mad Mantis, Not So Fast!, Pearson’s Cajun, Two For The Road and Burger Lounge. As participants dine and enjoy the various selections from the food trucks, they will be entertained by the “Dining Out Divas” who will keep the party pumping with “dragioke” and special performances.

Hillcrest Brewing Company will have a beer garden set up on site to try their selection of locally brewed beers.

The event benefits The Center’s HIV/AIDS programs and services.

The Center is located at 3909 Centre St. in Hillcrest.

More information is HERE.

Dining Out For Life San Diego will take place on Thursday, April 25.

http://sdgln.com/causes/2013/03/20/food-truck-fierceness-kick-annual-dining-out-life

Chico Castillas of Chubby’s food truck, Supervisor Ron Roberts, Rosa Garrett and her husband Chris of Maui Wowi smoothie cart gather for the first letter grades.

San Diego food trucks will receive letter grades from county inspectors starting this month.

Local food truck Chubby’s and the Maui Wowi food cart received the first letter grades from the environmental health department on Tuesday morning.

“It’s a historic day for the food industry,” said San Diego County Supervisor Ron Roberts. “And it’s a very good day for the customers.”

Last year, Roberts helped pass the ordinance requiring letter grades for mobile prepared food facilities. He said with the new grades, the county has managed to tailor the system to the uniqueness of mobile businesses.

Food trucks have always been subject to inspection – but the former process used to be pass/fail instead of the grading program.

Chicho Casillas of Chubby’s food truck said inspectors used to drop by sometimes up to once a month to check the mobile kitchens. Now, the eateries will receive the same treatment as restaurants with a food safety expert arriving unannounced once to three times a year.

It will take about two months for all 500+ mobile vendors in the county to receive their inspection complete with letter decals displaying the A, B or C grade, according to Supervising Environmental Health Specialist Heather Buonomo.

The food truck placards will also feature a QR code that people can scan on their phones. The code will demonstrate when the last inspection occurred and what points were docked.

This is a new feature for the grading program in San Diego, and could soon be seen on restaurant signs as well.

Casillas said he’s happy his truck Chubby’s was the first to receive the first A because it demonstrates their compliance with health and safety regulations.

“It shows customers that we are committed to serving great food,” he said.

The letter grades are on a point system, with 90-100 points earning the top score. Any vendor earning less than 79 points will not be allowed to operate.

“What we’d like is to see everyone with A’s,” said Roberts.

Casillas agreed, saying visible grades that it will also make people feel more comfortable eating at food carts.

“If you’d see a C I’d be concerned though,” Casillas said. “I’d keep walking.”

http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/Food-Trucks-Letter-Grades-san-diego-195439951.html

SAN DIEGO – Food trucks in San Diego County began receiving letter grades with similar standards as local restaurants.

San Diego County Supervisor Ron Roberts handed out the first decals Tuesday morning.

“We want our people to concentrate not on whether to order, but on what to order,” Supervisor Roberts said. “We want to take that question out of their minds so they can feel confident.”

Thanks to the county, business may heat up for Rich Huarte, who serves up traditional deli style favorites in his “New York on Rye” gourmet food truck.

Even though he’s a stickler when it comes to cleanliness, he just can’t reach some older diners.

“Some people are afraid of trucks,” Huarte said. “If you go outside of a certain demographic, they’re worried.”

Now that food trucks will display letter grades just like restaurants, Huarte hopes skeptics will be reassured.

“It tells people, this is a professional clean kitchen. You can trust the food on here and you can trust the chef on this truck,” Huarte said.

Here’s how it works: A, B and C grades are given on a scale of 0 to 100 points.

The county Department of Environmental Health will conduct annual and surprise inspections of all 250 food trucks and 300 food carts during the year.

The inspections will be tailored to mobile kitchen and environmental health specialists will be looking for proper storage temperatures, cooking temperatures and sanitation.

“As an inspector, what we look for are any risk factors that could lead to foodborne illness,” Environmental Health Specialist Heather Buonomo said. “Anytime there is a major risk factor, that violation is going to be corrected on site.”

http://fox5sandiego.com/2013/03/05/county-starts-grading-food-trucks/#axzz2MoHUAgsr

Food trucks have undergone a renaissance in recent years. Their numbers have exploded. Many have gone gourmet serving everything from Chinese food to crepes – becoming the chic place to eat at trendy events around town.

But one thing they haven’t been is graded by San Diego County’s health department. Today that changes, as San Diego County announces the start ofletter-grading for food trucks, just like the grades handed out for restaurants.

The move makes San Diego County one of the first in the nation to expand the grading of food service to cover the growing food-truck industry.

Heather Buonomo, the supervising environmental health specialist for the County of San Diego, told KPBS that food trucks have always been safe.

“They have been safe, we have been inspecting them for a long time,” she said. “And what’s exciting about this is now the consumers are going to know that it’s safe. That card in the window allows them to make the educated choice.”

But Troy Johnson, the dining critic and editor-at-large at San Diego Magazine, said for him, “food trucks have always been a little bit of a dodgier experience.”

“But that’s part of the thrill!” he said.

He added that the letter grades could make more people eat at food carts because they’ll feel safer.

“So a whole new audience who are a little bit scared of food trucks are now going to feel more comfortable eating there,” he said.

Rosie and Chris Garret own a San Diego Maui Wowi, a food cart that serves smoothies and coffee. They received one of the first letter grades from the county.

“The events that we’re at are mobile events and you walk by and you’re not sure, how good is this stuff, how safe is it,” Garret said. “You see the A on my cart, you know I’ve been inspected by the health dept and you know you can feel comfortable coming to me.”

The county inspects around 1,100 mobile food operations in the region, of which 550 sell to the public, but the opearators were not previousl required to display the results, Supervisor Ron Roberts said in July when the ordinance was passed. Restaurants generally display their blue letter grade on a placard in a front window.

Under the ordinance, the food trucks will receive decals instead of cards so the grades can’t be transferred among vehicles.

San Diego County Supervisor Ron Roberts came up with the proposal about a year ago.

“We had some concerns being expressed and we saw some operators that we didn’t think were necessarily doing it with a best practices approach,” Roberts said.

http://www.kpbs.org/news/2013/mar/05/sd-county-restaurant-grading-systems-goes-mobile/

The San Diego Public Market is steadily building towards their goal of creating a year-round marketplace with shops for farms, food artisans, chefs and restaurants. Tenant proposals are coming in and the market hopes to begin construction soon and launch the permanent stalls by mid-2013.

They hosted a successful debut Taste of the Market event earlier this month, and have just shared their plans for a family-friendly food fest that’ll fill the 22,000 square foot space with some of San Diego’s best street food.

Sunday, March 24 at 6 p.m., is their first annual Street Food Market. Event co-chairs, chefs Melissa Mayer and Andrew Spurgin, tell Eater that they’re planning on bringing the outside in; attendees — they’re hoping for 500 — will be able to stroll through scenes set to invoke city life (bike clubs, park benches, streetlights and fire hydrants) and experience the sights and smells of an authentic street food market.

To that end, the organizers are inviting some of their Barrio Logan neighbors to the party, including Las Cuatro Milpas, a tamale stand, tortilla makers and a churro cart. Joining them will be stalls representing cuisines from every corner of the globe, some chef’ed by San Diego and Baja’s finest. Among those confirmed to participate are Javier Plascencia (Mision 19), Jason Knibb(NINE-TEN), Matt Gordon (Urban Solace), MIHO Gastrotruck’s Stand and Deliver, Carnitas’ Snack Snack, Antonio Friscia (Gaijin Noodle & Sake House) and Viva Pops; the plan is to enlist at least 40 chefs and restaurants from San Diego and Baja.

http://sandiego.eater.com/archives/2013/02/19/street-food-comes-to-san-diego-public-market.php

A wide variety of gourmet foods will be available at a food truck festival on Saturday in 4S Ranch.

These include ethnic foods and desserts from 10 trucks. Two — Devilicious and Under the Crust — have appeared as contestants on the Food Network’s “Great Food Truck Race,” said festival director Scott Lucksanalamai.

“Food trucks have been the biggest boom in San Diego, with 40 specialty trucks (based in the county),” he said, adding all those participating in the event are county-based.

The President’s Day Weekend Gourmet Food Truck Festival will be 11:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 16 at Maranatha Chapel’s parking lot, 10752 Coastwood Road in 4S Ranch. In addition to the food, there will be around a dozen arts and crafts vendors, music entertainment and a kids zone.A portion of the festival’s proceeds will go to Maranatha Chapel’s student missions, which include missionary work throughout the United States and overseas, according to Lucksanalamai.

Admission is $5 per person, with children under 6 years admitted for free. The price does not include food, which must be purchased from the trucks. There is a 50 percent admission discount for active duty military families of up to five members. Military ID must be shown at the gate to receive the discount, he said. Cash and credit cards will be accepted.

Those who purchase tickets online at www.pdayfoodtruckfest.com can save money as well. The “couples special” of two admissions plus 10 game tickets, valued at $15, is available for $12. A “raffle and kids zone pack” of four admission tickets plus five raffle tickets and 30 kids zone tickets is $26. A “family pack” of four admission plus 40 game tickets is valued at $40, but is being sold online for $30.

Lucksanalamai said at the festival the raffle and game tickets will be sold for 50 cents each. Carnival-style games and kiddie rides will require various numbers of tickets.

Regarding the main attraction — the food — there will be a wide assortment of offerings from the 10 trucks. Lucksanalamai said Devilicious specializes in sandwiches, including a lobster grilled cheese variety, while Under the Crust offers mini dessert pies. Green Go specializes in grilled cheese, Two for the Road offers “comfort, Americana style food,” Not so fast! appeals to those who are health food oriented and Mangia! Mangia! specializes in Italian food. Pierogi Truck offers Hungarian and Polish food, while Sweet Treats offers desserts. Dang Brother Pizza Co. makes wood-fire pizza and Underdogs Castro Truck will have various items featuring sausage.

As of Tuesday, more than 650 admission tickets were sold for the festival, but Lucksanalamai said he expects the inaugural event to have “a really good turnout” of 1,800 to 2,200.

http://www.pomeradonews.com/2013/02/13/food-truck-festival-coming-saturday-to-4s-ranch/