The Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington, which launched its own e-mail campaign last week to promote passage of the vending regulations, had no immediate comment on the number of food trucks that the city plans for popular vending sites. In an interview last week, Andrew Kline, legislative consultant for the group, expressed concern that the city would allow more trucks in mobile roadway vending zones than the association would like.
The trucks have argued that they’re a community-building group operating in the best interest of the city, even if many of them are based outside of it. If that’s the case, they should embrace the chance to reach out to more communities than just the downtown lunch crowd. And with a June 22 deadline to vote on the matter, we could see a drastically different summer of food if things don’t break a certain way.
Skip Farragut Friday and get to the Fairgrounds by Nationals Park if you can swing it—Truckeroo is back. As always, there’ll be a couple dozen of your favorite food trucks, beer and margs at the bar, cornhole, and live music. Free. 11 to 11.
Gourmet lunch trucks have become big business in the nation’s capital during the past three years — so big that traditional restaurants are pressuring the city to restrict where and how long they can park.
Officially, food trucks are regulated under the city’s “ice cream rule,” which prohibits mobile vendors from parking unless there is a gaggle of customers ready to line up and make a purchase. It also outlaws trucks from parking on blocks where the sidewalk is narrower than 10 feet.
If we were to vote today on these regulations, I can tell you that these regulations are not going to pass,” Orange said during the seven-and-a-half-hour-long hearing. “I think what we have been able to do today is push people to the point where these regulations, with some minor tweaks, can move forward and we can get this in place before the end of this calendar year
In the four years since Fojol Bros. started to feed the masses gathered for President Obama’s first inauguration, the D.C. streets have welcomed close to 200 food trucks.
We love food trucks! We have some good regulations on the table, but we need to look at something that works for everyone. We need to give the people of D.C. more choices and encourage the food truck business to boost.
The regulations proposed by Gray would formalize where and when food truck can vend, offering them more certainty as to where they can park and how long they can remain.
The Washington Post reported that the regulations will allow at least three spaces for trucks at each mobile vending zone and still impose the rule requiring 10 feet of “unobstructed” sidewalk next to any parking space not part of a mobile roadway vending zone.
