Who: Frank and Paul Tripi of Frank Gourmet Hot Dogs

Where:  Mondays: (alternating) Larkin Center

Tuesdays: Dinner on Hertel [North Park & Saranac]

Thursdays: (alternating) First Niagara Center / Dinner on Elmwood

Fridays: Roswell Park & Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus

Saturdays: Outside Cecelias & Acropolis

Artvoice: How long did it take to make this food truck happen? Why did you decide to do a gourmet hot dog truck?

Frank: We’ve been working on this for about five years. Most people want to own a bar or restaurant at some point in their lives. I’ve been working in restaurants since I was 16 from here to New York City and back. From fine dining to neighborhood dive bars. I’ve always been into it, and I’ve always been into hot dogs and sausages. When I’m drunk and want something quick it’s what I gravitate toward. I thought this would work in Buffalo. Besides ketchup and mustard places like Ted’s and Louie’s, there is nobody out there who is really putting a gourmet twist on hot dogs. We were thinking a brick and mortar place at first but the point of entry was much higher than doing the truck, and this has worked out.

Artvoice: How did you come up with the menu?

Frank: A lot of trial and error. A couple of the menu items were just what we thought would work and we went for it. We had a couple focus groups before we opened. We tried to get the most brutally honest people we could. We weren’t sure about the Holy Moly at first [guacamole, sriracha, cilantro] but now it’s our second best seller. We weren’t sure about the Violet Beauregrade either [Blueberry BBQ sauce, onion crunch, cheddar]. It took us four different BBQ sauces to get it right but now we have it down. We like to just mess around and eat. We were in a lot better shape before we started this. As we go on, the menu is going to evolve and get more adventurous.

Artvoice: Where do your ingredients come from?

Paul: Right now our hot dogs are Sahlen’s. We get our vegetables from farmers markets as much as we can. We make our own veggie dogs [any dog can be ordered as a veggie dog]. We get one sausage from Omega Deli, which is a small local guy. No one knows about him, he only makes sausages once a week, and we’re the only one he does a big batch for. We’ve used Spar’s for their Flying Bison Beer Brats when we were at Beerology.

Artvoice: Thats cool, so you experiment based on where you’re parked too?

Paul: Yeah, depending on the event and what we need we can work in specific ingredients. We have a few contacts in New York that specialize in really funky sausages and we’re going to work those in there too. Like lamb sausages and more gamey meats. We just thought to start, you gotta do Sahlen’s because it’s Buffalo.

Artvoice: Where do your sauces come from? You mentioned the Blueberry BBQ sauce, but you also have a Tijuana Hot Cream Cheese.

Frank: We make it all. The relish, pickles, coleslaw, baked beans too. Paul makes the Tijuana Cream Cheese and the Blueberry BBQ. We hand cut the fries every morning. We pick up our bread from a baker every day, it’s a little bigger but thats because it’s actually made by a person. Besides like casing hotdogs and grinding sausages, we make everything else. And the places we get the meat from are the ones people love.

Artvoice: Do you like it when other trucks are around? Is the competition good?

Frank: Sometimes, but we like being solo. It’s cool when we do the big rodeos and it’s everybody, but to have someone park in front of us for a dinner shift it’s sucks. We’ve worked certain spots all winter.

Artvoice: Is there a lot of competition to lay claim to certain spots?

Frank: Yeah, the other day we were here [at the corner of Elmwood and Lafayette] and one of the trucks was a stones throw away, so the people walking down could see him before us. If someone was parking in this exact spot on a Thursday I might have to get out of the truck. I think we’re the two largest truck guys, so nobody will be poaching our spots.

Find Frank now on Twitter: @FindFrankNow

http://blogs.artvoice.com/avdaily/2013/05/17/meet-paul-and-frank-and-their-dogs/

Trucks battle at “Canalside Food Fight”

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) – An all out food war was underway at the Canalside Saturday, among several local trucks.

“Canalside Food Fight” kicked off a season-long cooking competition between several food trucks. The organizers of Buffalo Soup-Fest started the series.

Event organizer, Matt Carlucci said, “We just want to show off the future of Buffalo, all in one spot.”

The future, includes the rising number of mobile food vendors, and the continuing development of the Canalside.

Chefs in seven trucks competed against each other using a Pan-American Exposition as inspiration for their dishes.

What were some of the contestants serving up with the inspirational ingredient?

Competitor Brenden Haggerty from the Whole Hog food truck said, “We did a little bit of research and we found an old menu they served to President McKinnley during the Pan American Expo.”

Kelly Brewer from the Sweet Hearth food truck said, “I am going to make an old-fashioned ice cream float.”

Michael Dimmer, from the Black Market food truck said he was making, “Cracker-jack fritter. It’s inspired by Cracker Jack, popcorn and peanuts everywhere at the Pan-American Exposition.”

News 4′s Ed Drantch was one of the celebrity judges who said picking a winner wasn’t too complicated. He said, “If it tastes good, it’s going to get points.”

When the points were counted for, the Black Market food truck took third place while the Sweet Hearth took second.

The winner was the Whole Hog food truck with the dish that was once served to President McKinnley in Buffalo during the Pan-American Expo.

http://www.wivb.com/dpp/news/local/trucks-battle-at-canalside-food-fight

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) – A letter from Schwan’s, a popular food truck service, was recently sent to its customers regarding the recall of Rich’s food products.

Rich Products Corporation, one of Schwan’s suppliers announced a recall pertaining to several of their food products last week. More than 20 people throughout the country became sick from consuming food from Rich’s corporation.

Although Schwan’s has received no illness complaints, they are still asking its customers to return Schwan’s® LiveSmart™ Baked Mozzarella Bites and Schwan’s® LiveSmart™ Mini Meatball Sandwiches to their Schwan’s sales representative.

The company is also expanding their voluntary recall and including all Mozarella Bites sold by Market Day.

For more information on this widespread recall, visit the Centers for Disease and Prevention Control website

Rich Products notified Schwan’s of the recall due to a possible E. Coli contamination.

Schwan’s say’s their Home Service will credit their customers account with the cost of the product.

For anyone with questions, call at 1-866-972-4926. To learn more about the Rich  Products Corporation recall, visit www.farmrich.com.

http://www.wivb.com/dpp/news/local/rich-recall-affects-schwans-products

You’d think that a restaurateur would welcome some competition. You’d think that a diner, when confronted with a popular hamburger food truck, would make a better hamburger to compete. Or tout the fact that it serves booze. You’d think that a person with a monopoly on food on Buffalo’s Outer Harbor would have some self-awareness about it.

According to Jill Terreri in the Buffalo News, Buffalo restaurateur Tucker Curtin wants Buffalo’s food trucks to operate under much more stringent regulations than any other food business in town, than they operate under currently, and than most trucks in most cities operate. Tucker Curtin owns the Steer, Lake Effect Diner, and Dug’s Dive – all three reasonably forgettable purveyors of mediocre crap, sometimes done up in a trendy way.

Curtin, whose restaurants I will never again patronize, retained counsel to agitate for rules that include:

- no food truck may operate within 100 feet of any private property of any sort without express permission of the owner or tenants;

- no food truck may park within 25 feet of a hydrant, intersection, or driveway to a lot with more than 10 spots;

- all food trucks must have a restaurant license.

- all food truck workers must have a peddler’s license. Everyone from the kid who heats up your tortilla to the person who writes the ticket;

- that trucks operate under special restrictions on Elmwood and Hertel, not just Buffalo Place;

The trucks in Buffalo pay a $1,000 fee for an annual permit for the privilege of serving food from a mobile unit that has none of the advantages of brick and mortar restaurants. This is about three times what trucks pay in most other cities, and the restrictions effectively forbid them from operating where the people are. Buffalo Place and downtown Buffalo is effectively cut off to them unless they pay another thousand-plus-dollar permit fee –  for the privilege of an inconvenient spot far from where people are.  On Elmwood and Hertel, it’s not easy finding a legal spot when people are out and about.

Curtin’s motives are unknown, but what he is attempting to accomplish amounts to nothing more than protectionism and anticompetitive behavior in a town not noted for its business friendliness or open-mindedness. The fact that the current ordinance was passed was amazing. The fact that it’s too restrictive and too expensive is something that needs to be remedied – not worsened. Tucker Curtin’s restaurants aren’t able to compete effectively with sliders from the Knight Slider truck, so he is going to war.

I don’t quite want to hear about how Curtin has the right to say or lobby for what he wants. I don’t quite want to hear that he may have a point. He does have the right to agitate for what he wants, and I have a right to despise what he wants and to criticize it. Likewise, I don’t think he has a point at all. If your restaurant serves food that is so forgettably mediocre that a slider truck cleans your clock, maybe you should step up your game instead of lobbying your pals on the Common Council to punish your competition. It is, quite frankly, a prime example of what’s wrong with Buffalo.

http://blogs.artvoice.com/avdaily/2013/03/26/tucker-curtin-versus-the-food-trucks/

No rational person can disagree: food trucks are the best thing to happen to the Buffalo food scene in the last decade.

http://www.buffalorising.com/2013/03/common-council-looks-to-revise-food-truck-rules.html

Credit theroamingbuffalo.org
Regulations are now set for food trucks like The Roaming Buffalo.

Buffalo’s array of food trucks received another year Tuesday as Common Council members approved new licenses and lower fees.

When council members went from a meeting of the Legislation Committee to a special meeting of the Council, they stayed silent and voted unanimously and quickly for the licenses. Under the new system, renewing operators will pay $500 dollars a year and new trucks will pay $800 effective Monday.

Roaming Buffalo owner Chris Taylor says that will bring out new truck operators who have been waiting to see what the fees would be. Taylor says the initial operating fee was a jolt when the city legalized the trucks.

“I didn’t expect the $1,000 fee when I first started, so it hurt us for a while. We had to hold off on buying certain things for the truck that would help my business. Hiring employees was definitely put off with the higher fees,” Taylor said.

There was much discussion during the committee meeting, with lawyers and restaurateurs dueling over how well the food trucks were doing and how much they are affecting brick and mortar restaurants.

The move didn’t pass without protest. Restaurateur Tucker Curtin told the Legislation Committee there are safety risks with the trucks.

“These folks are carrying around two 100-pound tanks of propane. This can become very dangerous. There’s been a number of explosions across the country. We’ve had explosions here with propane tanks in residential areas, as well as the four blocks that were taken out 10 or 20 years ago,” Curtin said.

Councilmember Joe Golombek says both sides had worked out their differences.

“The gist of it is is that it keeps a good ordinance that has worked reasonably well over the past 15 months. It keeps it moving forward and it lowers the fee by 50 percent so that as of April 1, instead of paying $1,000 the food trucks for renewals would have to pay $500,” Golombek said.

Food truck operators say this gives some certainty and also cuts their fees. Several new trucks are apparently ready to join those already on the road, now that costs and rules are clear.

http://news.wbfo.org/post/license-fees-lowered-buffalo-food-trucks

BUFFALO, N.Y. — It wasn’t long ago when food trucks began to show up around Western New York.  But if the City of Buffalo’s high feescontinue, several of them say they could go out of business.

Several owners are upset over the high permit fees they have to pay to be able to operate in Buffalo.  Owners met with the city’s legislation committee Tuesday to voice their opinion that paying $1,000 for city approval, and then another $1,000 to get the same license renewed each year is exhorbitant.

“It feels like they are taking advantage of us.  And, as a result of these fees, some one my colleagues have been put out of business.  They have sold their businesses, or are calling it quits.  It’s cumbersome enough to start a business in New York State, we don’t need the city making it harder for us,” said Peter Cimino with Lloyd Taco Truck.

No decision has been made.  But some of the city legislators we spoke with said they would be open to lowering the fee.

http://www.wgrz.com/news/article/205568/1/Food-Truck-Owners-Lobby-Lawmakers-to-Lower-Fees

As Christian Willmott serves customers such as Holly Buczek, left, and Colleen Maciag from his Black Market Food Truck at a parking lot in Amherst, debate intensifies on whether rules and fees in the town, the city and maybe elsewhere could threaten such businesses.

Care to sample chocolate bread pudding with bourbon caramel sauce served up by The Sweet Hearth’s funky green-and-white food truck in your neighborhood?

Want to try Lloyd’s “tricked out nachos” while out on the town?

Do you want to sink your teeth into a gourmet slider served hot off the Knight Slider’s sleek black kitchen on wheels?

That may all depend on what happens in Buffalo and Amherst over the next few weeks as they grapple with what to do about food trucks – from how much they should be charged to operate to where and when they can do so.

Despite their popularity nationwide, food trucks are still relatively new to the Buffalo area, and in many communities, peddling laws written to govern door-to-door salesmen, some dating from the early 1900s, are the closest things on the books to a regulation for these mobile kitchens.

But elected officials and food truck operators say that’s just not going to work for this 21st century phenomenon.

Truck owners worry that if other towns and villages follow Buffalo and Amherst’s lead and set up their own sets of fees and rules, they’ll be severely limited on where they can operate.

“The cost to operate a food truck in Western New York is going to be astronomical,” said Peter V. Cimino, a principal with Lloyd Taco Truck, which opened for business in 2010.

Truck owners say their business is difficult as it is, pointing to two of their colleagues who have put their trucks up for sale.

Buffalo is weighing a renewal of a food truck ordinance enacted in January 2012 and expiring April 1. The new ordinance is much like the old one, but would reduce the $1,000 permit fee to $500 for trucks that paid the $1,000 fee last year. Like the existing ordinance, operators of new trucks would be charged $1,000 for their first permit.

In addition, a 100-foot restriction from any open kitchen is also maintained in the renewal. A hearing will be held at 2 p.m. Tuesday in Buffalo Common Council chambers.

Amherst is the first suburb to follow in Buffalo’s footsteps by requiring food truck permits, and is considering new regulations. A proposed law up for public discussion April 8 at Town Hall would be more restrictive, in some ways, than Buffalo’s permit.

Lovers of food-on-wheels would have more difficulty finding food trucks on streets in Amherst, late in the evening or near intersections under the draft law recently released.

While there aren’t any restrictions on food trucks in private parking lots, where the trucks do the most business in town, food trucks would be forbidden from operating for more than an hour on streets.

“We don’t want these folks just setting up shop and staking out an area for an indeterminate amount of time,” said Building Commissioner Thomas C. Ketchum, who authored the proposed food truck permit law.

The trucks don’t want to be anywhere all day, said lawyer Mitchell M. Stenger, who represents a coalition of mobile food vendors. They typically set up for two hours at a location, but restricting them to an hour is too onerous, he said.

The Amherst proposal also doesn’t allow trucks to be parked within 60 feet of any intersection for traffic safety and visibility reasons, and, like Buffalo, they can’t be located within 100 feet of any open kitchen without permission. Unlike Buffalo, the trucks would also have to shut down by 9 p.m. in residential neighborhoods and 11 p.m. in nonresidential areas.

“We were concerned about how this played into any nuisance activities in the evening,” Ketchum said.

Amherst’s annual permit would require a $500 fee for the first truck and $250 for each additional truck operating in town.

The town was motivated to create a specific food truck permit after the embarrassment of last fall when town police and code-enforcement officers shut down food trucks, turned away hungry patrons and endangered a food truck fundraising event for the City Mission because of an outdated “peddling and soliciting” law.

The new laws are designed to be more practical, community leaders said, while still protecting brick-and-mortar restaurants.

“These rules really need to be looked at,” said Tucker Curtin, who owns the Steer restaurant and Lake Effect Diner in University Heights and is urging the Council to increase regulations on the trucks.

While some are concerned, other city restaurants welcome and partner with food truck businesses. North Council Member Joseph Golombek Jr., who has taken the lead on the food truck issue in the Council, said he has “received very, very few serious complaints about the trucks.”

Other suburban communities don’t yet require formal permits but are taking intermediate steps.

The Village of Williamsville is considering whether it should impose its own permit requirements on food trucks since the proposed Amherst law would not apply within village limits. Mayor Brian J. Kulpa said he’s conscious of “overregulating” food trucks but worries about the impact on brick-and-mortar businesses. He’s asking the Williamsville Business Association for its input.

“There is some anxiety from our restaurant owners about it,” he said.

West Seneca has set up a system for allowing the trucks onto town property, and has allowed one truck to set up at Town Hall and the highway garage for 90 minutes at a time. So far, there are no permit fees, but the trucks have to write to the town to request where they would like to serve and provide proof of insurance.

“It’s kind of like a look-and-see thing,” said Supervisor Sheila M. Meegan “It’s something the town is not saying no to.”

So far, Meegan has heard from just one restaurant owner about the trucks, which welcomed the competition, she said.

Officials of both communities said they couldn’t imagine charging steep fees like Buffalo and Amherst are considering.

“We wouldn’t ask for that much,” Meegan said of Buffalo’s $1,000 fee. “That wouldn’t help the vendor.”

Ayoub “Mike” Abboud, owner of the Knight Slider food truck that was shut down by Amherst police last fall, said all the restrictions were excessive and way beyond local government mandates to protect public health and safety. “It just doesn’t seem right,” he said.

Kelly Brewer, owner The Sweet Hearth dessert truck, said she used to do more business in Amherst than anywhere else but was forced to scale back after the fall. She has turned down several requests from Amherst businesses to come to town, calling the fees in Buffalo and Amherst “ridiculous.”

“The permit fees,” she said, “are the biggest obstacle for me to earn a living and grow my business.”

http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130322/CITYANDREGION/130329730/1010

Hearing on fate of Buffalo food trucks

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) – Time is running out on Buffalo’s great food truck experiment and city officials are trying to figure out if they should extend the regulations that were passed a year-and-a-half ago or change them.

City officials set vendor fees at a thousand dollars a truck per year. The trucks also have to stay at least 100 feet away from the closest traditional brick-and-mortar restaurant.

At a Common Council committee hearing Tuesday, Buffalo’s fees were compared with other cities. Rochester operators only pay $750 a year and in the nation’s capital, it is only $100. New York City only charges food truck vendors $200 for a two-year permit, but there are additional costs, and the trucks are restricted to certain parking areas.

More than a dozen food truck operators were at the hearing to argue for lower fees, saying the high cost of doing business has shut down a few trucks already. But brick-and-mortar businesses counter their costs are higher than food truck operators, and it’s unfair competition.

“Food trucks are here to stay, despite what some of you might think. So stop treating us like a thorn in your side because that will only cause you further frustration,” said Peter Cimino, owner of Lloyd Taco Truck.

Restaurant owner Tucker Curtin countered, “As the president of the business association up by Main Street, I had a number of complaints from the brick-and-mortars up and down the neighborhood that they were losing a hundred bucks, losing a couple hundred bucks. Tucker what can you do about? I don’t know what to do about it.”

City officials have until April 1 to renew the food truck rules, change them or extend the deadline. Some brick-and-mortar restaurant owners are calling for even more regulations of their four-wheeled competition.

http://www.wivb.com/dpp/news/buffalo/hearing-on-fate-of-buffalo-food-trucks?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wivb_local+(WIVB.com+-+Local+News)

Today at 2pm, Buffalo’s Food Trucks will be at the Common Council as the city’s legislature debates how the food truck law might be changed. The law sunsets in April and in the past 12 months, not a single complaint has been lodged from any source against any truck.

The trucks, however, find themselves up against some intransigent lawmakers and some brick and mortar restaurants that believe they have the right to regulate and control what the trucks do and how they do it. Also on the agenda is expanding access to downtown Buffalo Place locations and freeing Canalside up to the trucks.

If you enjoy buying food from Buffalo’s food trucks, please come and show your support.

Because in the end, this isn’t about whether or not the law is fair for the trucks or fair for the restaurants – this is about you. This is about you telling the city, the trucks, and the brick & mortars – I like having a choice; I like the product that the trucks offer and I want more access to more trucks – not more restrictive access to fewer trucks. We’ve already lost the Cheesy Chick grilled cheese food truck due in part to the high cost of doing business across multiple municipalities in WNY.

Buffalo charges trucks $1,000 per year, while it costs a restaurant between $175 – 325 per year to hold a take out license. The city claims that it needs to charge trucks $1,000 per year because of the administrative costs involved, yet refuses to release a breakdown of those costs.

Ultimately, it might be time for a regionwide statute that is applicable to all municipalities in Erie County with a single fee paid. You want to encourage and help entrepreneurship in western New York? Then this should be the test case.

But for the time being, please show your support for your favorite food trucks. They need it, and the city’s lawmakers need to understand that this isn’t only about the trucks and the restaurants – it’s about you.

http://blogs.artvoice.com/avdaily/2013/03/12/tuesday-show-your-support-for-buffalos-food-trucks/