City Council approved this pilot by an 8 – 1 vote. Some food truck owners say they welcome the program, but feel it could use some revisions.

“We’re really a different kind of food truck, I think. Previously, food trucks were thought of as festivals you crank it out, that’s it,” said Veronica McClive.

It’s a growing business McClive takes pride in being a part of.

“We want to be on the street. We want be doing lunches dinners and breakfast, just like a restaurant but on wheels.”

She owns Le Petit Poutine. It’s one of about 25 food truck owners in Rochester and she is happy that city council is opening up its downtown to their business.

“We are happy that the city is opening a conversation with us so we are excited that progress is being made. It sounds like councilmembers are generally favorable and excited about trucks.”

Tuesday night, council members approved a pilot program for the food trucks to set up shop in three different locations downtown. They include include State Street and Morrie Silver Way, Andrews and Front Street, and Broad Street and South Avenue.

“I suppose in some respects, we are a little behind the game, because most major cities have already developed a policy and regulations for food truck vending, particularly in their center cities,” said councilmember Carolee Conklin.

Food truck owners say the downside is there’s only room for six food trucks: two at each location, first come first serve.

“This is not a fair system for us to work with. So I ask that we revisit the situation and try to find another way to assign spots in some way,” said Paul Vroman, Brick-N-Motor food truck owner.

Not to mention a $750 fee. Food truck owner Arthur Rothfuss questions if it’s worth it.

“The city is collecting $750 which is the same price that a cart pays for an entire year. They get six months, they get a guaranteed spot. We get 25 trucks fighting for six spots,” said Rothfuss.

The pilot program starts June 1st and goes for seven months. Then, it’s up for evaluation.

“We do hope we can be a big part of the discussion afterwards,” said McClive.

City Council says the pilot program ends next year. Council will then meet with fire, police and the Clerk’s Office to review and evaluate the program, then it will make recommendations for a full year of licensing.

http://rochester.ynn.com/content/top_stories/664558/city-council-approves-food-truck-plan/

James Battaglia | Messenger Post Media Brick n Motor co-owner Nathan Hurtt serves up one of the food truck’s trademark B-N-M Burgers at an April 20 event.

Rochester, N.Y. — Food trucks have enjoyed an increasing popularity in Rochester over the past year. Brick-N-Motor, a 7-month-old truck offering a rotating menu of gourmet foods, is at the forefront of the latest movement to bring those trucks into the suburbs legally.

Paul Vroman, Brick-N-Motor’s co-owner, appeared before the Henrietta Town Board with his business partner, Nathan Hurtt, on April 17 to request the special permit that would allow the truck to operate within the town. In a move that came as a surprise to the vendors, the board postponed its decision until its May 1 meeting.

“We’re excited that they didn’t say no,” Vroman said. “We’re not doing this to become known as those guys who opened up Henrietta or to give Henrietta a hard time, we’re doing this because we want to make a living. I think Henrietta is willing to work with us.”

James Battaglia | Messenger Post Media Diners gather around Le Petit Poutine, a food truck that serves french fries and cheese curds smothered in gravy, at a recent event.

MEALS ON WHEELS
Food trucks, while popular for years in other parts of the country, are relatively new to the Rochester area, and the laws concerning their operation in Monroe County are vague.

“The biggest hurdle right now is coming together and agreeing collectively on what’s good business, what’s legal, and what’s fair, not just for us, but for future and current property owners in the towns and cities,” Vroman said.

Brick-N-Motor opened in October and operated out of the Eagle’s Landing Business Park in Henrietta during select hours for six months. Vroman said he made sure he had permission from the property owner and met all necessary health and insurance requirements before selling food there.

“We thought we were OK,” Vroman said. “We were misinformed.”

On March 15, Vroman received a cease and desist notice. The Town of Henrietta would not allow the truck to sell food without the proper vending permit.

James Battaglia | Messenger Post Media Inside the Le Petit Poutine food truck, co-operators Ronnie McClive (left) and Lizzie Clapp prepare fresh poutine for hungry customers.

INTO THE SUBURBS
Rochester-area food truck operators formed the Food Truck Alliance in October to help deal with the problems vendors encounter whenever they need permission to operate in a new area.

“I think it was born out of confusion,” said Ronnie McClive, who co-operates Le Petit Poutine, a popular food truck that exclusively sells the Canadian specialty. “More often than not we were talking to the same departments and getting a lot of different answers.”

Though those in the alliance are technically in competition with one another, Vroman said they all benefit from working together.

“If we’re one collective sound body, we’re taken more seriously,” he said.

The alliance is currently focusing on an experimental effort that would allow food trucks to operate downtown for six months this summer, after which point the city would collect feedback from the vendors, residents, and local business owners.

The vendors don’t want to be confined to the city, though.

“You name a suburb, and we’re going to try to go there,” Vroman said. “That’s in the name of our business. We’re mobile.”

Le Petit Poutine has already established itself in Brighton, where the truck can be found almost every week at the Brighton Farmer’s Market on Idlewood Road.

“We get a great following, and it’s all families,” McClive said of the Brighton crowds. “We want to be able to see those customers more frequently by expanding into places like Brighton and Pittsford and Henrietta.”

FUTURE OF FOOD TRUCKS
At the April 18 meeting, Henrietta Town Board members expressed concern that allowing food trucks to operate in town could negatively impact restaurant owners who invested in property there.

“It’s something we anticipate and try to combat as best we can,” McClive said. “The last thing food trucks want is to be named the person who rolled up in front of your door and stole your business.”

Vroman said it wouldn’t be good for his business to operate so close to a similar business.

“We like to go to places that are secluded from an area where there is food,” he said. “I understand that Henrietta is very populated with restaurants, but that doesn’t mean when you’re in Henrietta you are close to one or have the time to go to a sit-down restaurant.”

Whether or not food trucks negatively affect traditional restaurants’ business, they continue to grow in popularity locally. Starting a food truck, Vroman said, is “a great opportunity for a young entrepreneur or somebody who wants to start a small business, and if the suburbs shut us out, the market will become saturated very quickly.”

“It’s fun, it’s funky, it’s the hot thing,” Vroman said. “Now is the time to do it.”

Should the Henrietta Town Board make a decision regarding food trucks at its meeting on Wednesday, May 1, it could set an important precedent for how such applications are handled in the future.

“I think the reason they didn’t give us (the permit) is that they need to figure out a way to legislate us, because they know that if they let us in, we will not be the only ones,” Vroman said.

http://www.irondequoitpost.com/features/x91989946/Food-trucks-fight-for-the-right-to-roll-in-the-suburbs

]]> http://www.mobilefoodnews.com/2013/04/rochester-ny-food-trucks-fight-for-the-right-to-roll-in-the-suburbs/feed/ 0 http://www.mobilefoodnews.com/2013/04/henrietta-ny-food-truck-pessimistic-about-henrietta-permit/ http://www.mobilefoodnews.com/2013/04/henrietta-ny-food-truck-pessimistic-about-henrietta-permit/#comments Thu, 18 Apr 2013 15:00:44 +0000 MFN Editor #1 http://www.mobilefoodnews.com/?p=49379 By Rachel Barnhart | 13Wham.com

via facebook

http://www.13wham.com/news/local/story/Food-Truck-Pessimistic-About-Henrietta-Permit/bp4fo7NQaEGKz4vfjpVZQQ.cspx

Marty’s Meats parks its protein-centric menu in a Pittsford office complex. / PHOTO BY KAREN MILTNER

For anyone hoping this installment of Cheap Eats would make your Irish eyes (and stomach) smile in time for St. Patrick’s Day, an apology. Green just didn’t match my appetite this week.

But at least the lunch I’m going to tell you about was cooked by an Irishman, a very tall former RazorSharks player named Marty O’Sullivan. And even better, the “protein-centric” menu from Marty’s Meats is very beer-friendly.

Depending on the time of day when you find this new food truck will determine whether it’s BYO or not. Marty’s Meats parks at office complexes during the daytime, and outside bars in the evenings.

I caught up with Marty’s at the parking lot of 3750 Monroe Ave. in Pittsford. The blue truck with city skyline graphic on the side was easy to spot. So, too, were the clump of office workers lined up to get hot sandwiches. Like most mobile vending, calling ahead to order will save you time in line (especially smart when the weather is nasty), but hanging outside in the sunshine is not a bad option either.

It’s a no-brainer to say that this is mainly a carnivore’s carnival. While beef and chicken get ample play on the small, rotating sandwich menu, pork seems to take the spotlight. On my midweek visit, there was an Italian sausage patty option, a pulled pork sandwich called the Carolina, and a PLT, or pork belly, lettuce and tomato, and a grilled cheese with bacon.

Sandwiches are $6 to $8, and come with Marty’s outstanding house-made potato chips, which are on a first-come, first-served basis. Made at Marty’s home-base kitchen each morning before hitting the road, the chips are in limited supply, so line up early.

Vegetarians, you are not entirely out of luck here as Marty’s carries a veggie burger daily (black bean with Provolone on the day of my visit). There is also a daily soup ($3) and salad entrée ($6 to $7), which O’Sullivan tries to keep meat-free. Two small cookies packed in a plastic bag with a pink bow are just $1.

I had the sweet and tangy Carolina, which had some apple-carrot coleslaw as a garnish and was packed in a hoagy roll with a generous amount of potato chips in the sandwich and on the side (how I pity any latecomer who missed out). The chocolate chip cookies were saved for later.

As much as I appreciated the diversity of sandwich options, which included grilled beef tips with giardiniera (Italian-style pickled vegetables) and Provolone, a burger and cheesesteak option, Marty’s late-night and breakfast/market menus suggested on the website offer more interesting stuff, such as tacos, a DIY trash plate (you pick the proteins to be plopped on the macaroni salad and tater tots), chili hot dogs, bacon and cheese waffles and cayenne-coated s’mores.

What I most appreciate about food trucks is how they try to push the envelope of daily eating, including pushing our idea of what we should be eating.

http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20130313/ENT0305/303130015

Elizabeth Clapp of Rochester, co-owner of Le Petit Poutine, right, serves an order of the popular item to Lauren and Jesse Vorras of Penfield at the Food Truck Rodeo held at the Rochester Public Market on Oct. 4. / SHAWN DOWD/staff photographer

Innovative Restaurant Supply is holding a Five Year Anniversary Celebration on Nov. 15, 16 and 17 at 900 Jefferson Road (the Genesee Regional Market), Henrietta.

There will be samples and food demonstrations all three days, including:

• Cake pop demonstration by Sweet Art Bakery from 1 to 3 p.m. Nov. 15.

• Food Truck Roundup from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Nov. 17 with Lettuce B. Frank, Le Petit Poutine, Brick & Motor and other mobile food businesses.

http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20121108/ENT0303/311080013/Restaurant-supply-store-celebrate-Food-Truck-Roundup-demos?gcheck=1&nclick_check=1

Food Truck Rodeo will bring our community’s eclectic array of mobile food stands together at the Market on Thursday, June 21, from 5 to 9 p.m.

Just about everything and anything that is served from the back of a truck will be featured, from food vendors including La Petit Poutine, The Sammich Guy, Cheese & Confused, Potatoes to Go and more.

And as part of Rochester Real Beer Week, members of the Upstate Homebrewers Association will hold a summer beers competition with Rohrbach’s and other local micro-brewers serving suds from their trucks in a beer garden.

In addition, local performers will be on hand to add music to the munching. The night will be filled with music from local street musicians such as The Public Market Band!

If you are planning to hang around for a while we recommend bringing some lawn chairs or even a fold out table. There won’t be any other seating available, so unless you’re an avid stander, pack accordingly.

The Food Truck Rodeo is sponsored by MDesignTrucks of Rochester along with The Market District Business Association.

For more information, call the Market Office at 428-6907.

Gure Jama’s new kitchen has a stove, sink and refrigerator, like kitchens in most restaurants.

However, his kitchen has something other local restaurants don’t.

Wheels.

In late October, Jama hit Rochester’s streets serving up food from his Blue Nile food truck.

“I like to cook,” he says. “And being in a truck makes it easy to bring the food to the customers.”

He likes to cook Middle Eastern and African food, so that’s what is on the menu.

That includes a shawarma sandwich, which is similar to a gyro. It features chicken and vegetables wrapped in a pita bread.

“It is fast food, but it is fresh food. We cook it fresh,” Jama says.

The Blue Nile truck is currently open for business day and night in two Rochester parking lots.

It opens at 10 a.m. by the Sinclair gas station at 205 Sixth St. S.W. and serves there until 6 p.m. Then it goes to Broadway Grocery at 1005 N. Broadway, where it serves food until midnight.

SHAWN DOWD staff photographer

When Jessica Toner was a kid, she loved the shaved ices and slushies she got at fairs and festivals.

Now, as a young mother of twin toddlers, the city resident wanted to share that cool joy with her girls, but without the high-fructose corn syrup, artificial colors and other ingredients that she consumed by default years ago.

So Toner, a devoted locavore, bought a shaved ice maker, began making simple syrups with fresh fruit and vegetable juices and purees from local farms and her backyard garden. For sweetening, she used sugar, honey and other natural sweeteners.

Wanting to share the cool treats with other like-minded families, she and her husband, Mike, purchased and refurbished a 1964 Shasta

Trailer. Snow Daze, as their mobile shaved ice business is called, is now drawing lines at the Sunday Brighton Farmers Market and the Thursday evening South Wedge Farmers Market.

Flavors include orange pineapple, peach oolong (made with seconds from a local fruit farmer), tart cherry and Concord grape (also locally sourced).

“It’s definitely not your average snow cone,” says Chad Oliveiri, a first-time Snow Daze customer at the South Wedge Farmers Market. “These things taste as good as they look.”

Touting a flowery apron, vintage 1950s and ’60s kitchenalia and a sweet gee-gosh demeanor, Toner could be Rochester’s June Cleaver of the 21st-century food truck movement.

“The idea of food trucks intrigues me. I want to inspire other small-food entrepreneurs to do the same,” says Toner, who also runs Artistic Eats, a food distribution business, with her husband.

Toner has been studying the food truck movement in other cities, and she believes it’s Rochester’s turn to get rolling. She joins a growing and creative convoy of mobile food vendors who are scanning Craigslist for old delivery trucks or vans, outfitting them with miniature kitchens, then coming up with original recipes.

All that’s left is to navigate to festivals, farmers markets, fairs, nightclub districts after hours and wherever else they can find street-food fans willing to line up and eat without a table.

Larger metros have been vrooming with motorized street foods for several years. The National Restaurant Association reports that Los Angeles County has at least 4,000. Minneapolis approved a food truck ordinance this year, and Portland, Ore., has created a designated park for food trucks.

New York City has a form just to get on the waiting list for a mobile food unit permit, and crackdowns on the rising number of illegally parked trucks are becoming more common as their numbers multiply. Pressure from Buffalo’s brick-and-mortar restaurants recently led Common Council to delay approval of the city’s first roaming food truck law.

According to a new guide book titled Food Trucks, by Chicago food writer Heather Shouse, two social forces are responsible for putting street food on wheels. The first is the recession, which has made low overhead appealing to entrepreneurs and cheap meals attractive to consumers. Second, social media has melded an immediate bond between truck and customer, as Tweets and Facebook postings keep hungry customers informed about daily menus, locations and upcoming events.

Food trucks have gained visibility and respectability in other venues as well. Last year, the Food Network launched a reality show about the trend called The Great Food Truck Race. And this year’s National Restaurant Association’s annual convention included several sessions on the emerging mobile food niche.

Toner would like to organize a western New York food truck bazaar, where foodies could enjoy a moveable feast.

It’s difficult to know exactly how many food trucks are operating in our area right now. The Monroe County Health Department has about 175 mobile food units on the books. The majority are sidewalk pushcarts, says spokesman John Ricci, noting that their records do not differentiate between sidewalk carts and food trucks.

As a food production facility, food trucks and trailers in Rochester must follow the same local, state and federal regulations that other food businesses do.

While the early wave of food truckers were known for roving appearances at different locations and Tweeting their whereabouts to eager customers, Rochester’s fleet is more inclined to go to a single designated location or event and sell from there. In downtown Rochester, an annual lottery determines the spot, and once it is secured, you cannot go elsewhere unless you get a new permit, says Rochester city clerk Dan Karin.

The city has been approached by potential new vendors regarding different selling locations.

“The key issue is, can we find a spot for them that won’t cause a traffic problem,” says Karin. He urges people interested in truck vending to check with their municipality before investing in a vehicle.

When food trucks cross into another municipality, they have to get approvals from the individual town, says Jill Stolt. Her company, Yum Runners, hopes to spawn a fleet of food trucks in western New York. Her company also helps potential independent food truckers navigate the nascent street-food renaissance and regulations.

“Each town is different in permit cost (her research shows a range of $100 to $700), timeframe to get the permit (one week to two months) and cooperation level. If I were to generalize, most towns do not want the trucks on the streets, as they are worried about the dangers of obstructing traffic flow,” Stolt wrote in a Q&A last winter.

Vendors who ask for guidance from municipalities don’t always get the answers they want to hear. While Bill Klingensmith, who hauls his cart of pre-brewed Bona Fide Coffee each Wednesday by bicycle to the Foodlink Farmers Market, finds it easy to get into farmers markets and festivals, he is less hopeful about true street vending.

“If I buy a (solicitor’s) permit and want to change location, I have to buy another permit. The city says one permit per location. Then they came back and said that I can write in and officially change the location of my permit, but that takes time. … It’s a bit of organizational bureaucracy.”

Last year, Yum Runners put The Gourmet Waffler truck out on the road as a prototype. Painted bright yellow and orange with a Tin Man mascot with a waffle face and a spoon and fork for hands, The Gourmet Waffler truck sold Belgian waffles and fruity toppings at the Rochester Public Market, Fall into Canandaigua Festival, the Capt. Redbeard’s Pirate and Seafood Festival on Honeoye Lake, the Naples Grape Festival and other venues and events.

“The visual on the truck is very important. The wow factor of the graphics goes a long way in attracting your market,” says Stolt.

Stolt says The Gourmet Waffler is scheduled for several upcoming events, such as the new Greentopia Festival in September. Her business plan is to have at least nine Yum Runners trucks selling a variety of gourmet, all-natural foods by 2012.

Those who have gotten into food trucking the past couple years have done so for various reasons.

Builder Tony Simone started his Tuscan Wood Fired Pizza Catering operation last year as a way to market the customized brick ovens he likes to make and sell. Showing up at the Xerox Rochester International Jazz Festival, the Finger Lakes Wine Festival and soon to hit the NASCAR circuit with his 900-degree oven, Simone, aka Tony Tomatoes, finds he “is getting more calls for his (pizza oven making) business doing the (food) festivals” than other home and garden or builders’ trade shows he has done in the past.

For Casper DeMauro, owner of Casper’s Street Dogs Grill & Catering, making burgers, hots and Garbage Plates from a 1969 Chevrolet P30 van is the ultimate in food service freedom.

“It’s too hard to wait for someone to show up at a restaurant. If I don’t like my neighbors, I just move,” he says. The truck can often be found at Durand-Eastman Park beach. As Simone and DeMauro can attest, food trucks are an ideal catering venue for corporate events and private parties. Though Toner did not include catering in her initial business plan, she now wants to market herself to weddings and graduation parties.

Rick Ramos of Lynez’s Frozen Delights, which sells at various locations, including The Father’s House church in Chili, hopes that his food truck, which specializes in Spanish and Italian ices, will evolve into a restaurant.

Brenda and Junius Tyler of Dooster’s BBQ & Catering went from a backyard Weber grill to a traveling smoker and tent setup to a truck that pulls the smoker.

They tried parking at the intersection of Mt. Read Boulevard and Buffalo Road but found it took too long to sell out their foods. Events, catering and festivals are more lucrative.

For Valerie Elston, her boyfriend Seamus Clapp and his sister Elizabeth Clapp, a food truck was the most affordable and efficient way for them to realize their dream of serving poutine — Canada’s artery-clogging trilogy of french fries, gravy and cheese curds — to the masses. Now a mainstay at the Rochester Public Market, the Le Petit Poutine truck was launched with an investment of less than $10,000. With a brisk schedule of festivals, Elston predicts that by fall the business will turn a profit.

Their examples are inspiring other street food vendors and restaurants to follow suit.

Helen Serafine of Flippin’ Birds, a vendor of grilled Cornish game hens with dirty rice at Bands on the Bricks, says finding a truck is essential to the future of her business.

When vending at events without one, she says, “the setup and breakdown are too hard. We absolutely have to get a truck.”

http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20110814/LIVING/108140301/Food-trucks-reshaping-street-eats-Rochester