Cincinnati City Council has made a move that will allow more of the city’s food trucks to serve customers in Over-the-Rhine and other neighborhoods, Soapbox Cincinnati reports.

The Mobile Food Vending Program, which was first piloted in 2010, was passed into law last week, and in 30 days it will allow new food truck zones in Over-the-Rhine as well as a streamlined application for vendors.

Food truck zones have been in place at Fifth and Race streets, Court Street and Sawyer Point since the program began. They have been expanded to include Fountain Square, the University area, Washington Park and Over-the-Rhine. The law change will set up new breakfast and lunch food truck zones at Washington Park for three trucks and a night zone in OTR at 12th and Clay streets for two trucks.

The organization was interested in OTR because of its relationship with 3CDC and desire to promote Washington Park as a lunch spot. Bistro tables and chairs will be set up to encourage its use. The late-night scene in the neighborhood will also provide new opportunities for food truck owners.

In addition to the new locations, the $25 application fee for food truck operation has been lifted and the $1,000 permit fee can now either be paid in full or split into two payments of $600.

The new food truck zones will be launched during a lunch event on May 17.

http://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/morning_call/2013/04/food-trucks-find-home-in-over-the-rhine.html

Many locals are familiar with Taste of Cincinnati, but for the 35th year, there are a few changes to the event. New features include the Taste of Cincinnati Experience; Tastings, Tappings and Tours by Christian Moerlein; and Food Truck Alley.
“For one weekend, Taste of Cincinnati is the biggest nightclub in town,” says Patrick Sheeran, VP at the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber. “With food, drink, music, rides and games, there’s truly something for everyone.”

Taste of Cincinnati will be held May 25-27 along Fifth Street from Vine to Broadway, and will feature food and drink from 45 area restaurants as well as 70 live entertainment acts. There will also be various rides and games; admission to the event is free.

Taste will feature 10 of Cincinnati’s signature restaurants, including 20 Brix, Ruth’s Chris Steak House, Daveed’s, Orchid’s, The Palace, Tano and Graeter’s, which will feature intimate dining and live music. Chefs from participating restaurants will be on-site for three-hour increments each day, and representatives will also be in the area with samplings and cooking demonstrations. Taste will be located in P&G Gardents at Fifth and Sycamore streets.

Christian Moerlein is now the official beer of Taste of Cincinnati. The brewery will be serving up a handful of its signature beers at the Moerlein Beer Garden on Fountain Square, plus specialty kegs of dry hopped cask-conditioned ales—“Pins and Firkins”—that will be tapped every two hours. Taste of Cincinnati visitors will be offered free one-hour tours of the Christian Moerlein Production Craft Brewery at 1621 Moore Street in Over-the-Rhine.

“Christian Moerlein has deep roots in the city, and has become a resurgent brand,” Sheeran says. “It fits with the event, plus the city is in the midst of a resurgence itself.”

Gold Start Chili Mobile

Taste of Cincinnati is also adding food trucks to the event—local food trucks will be taking over North Broadway just off of Fifth Street. Food Truck Alley will feature food from Café de Wheels, C’est Cheese, EAT Mobile Dining, Gold Star Chili Mobile, Mellow Mushroom and Sugarsnap!

Sugar Snap

Apart from adding new events, Taste of Cincinnati will be making a $10,000 donation to the Midwest Culinary Institute at Cincinnati State to refurbish its teaching kitchens. The money for the donation will come from the fee local restaurants pay to be part of Taste of Cincinnati, and the event will then match that amount.

“Here in Cincinnati, many of the city’s best restaurants employ graduates of Cincinnati State,” Sheeran says. “We want to help the school, so we can continue to have the great food we have here in town.”

http://www.soapboxmedia.com/devnews/042313tasteofcincinnati.aspx

Credit Mark Heyne / WVXU
Mobile food trucks will soon have more vending options

Cincinnati’s food truck program is expanding. City Council is expected to vote Wednesday to add more vendor parking spaces.

Councilwoman Laure Quinlivan says spots are being added near the nightlife areas in Over-the-Rhine (12th and Clay streets) and day-time vending spots are being created near Washington Park.

“The reason we’re not doing it in the evening,” says Quinlivan, “is because 3CDC… they are going to be programing the park every night. They will be working with food trucks but they wanted to have some control of their events with loading and bands, etc.”

Quinlivan says 3CDC is committing to only work with food trucks that participate in the city’s Mobile Food Vending Program. Almost 30 food trucks are currently enrolled with five more expected to join soon.

Council is also expected to make the program permanent rather than requiring a yearly vote to allow mobile vending.

http://www.wvxu.org/post/mobile-food-vending-expanding-cincinnati

Thinkstock
Mr. Hanton’s Handwiches offers about 30 different hot dog options.

A Cincinnati food truck that has been serving the area since 2010 plans a brick-and-mortar location for U Square at the Loop, Soapbox Cincinnati reports.

Mr. Hanton’s Handwiches, owned by Brian and Awilda Hinton, is expected to open the last week of May and celebrate an official grand opening around June 13.

The menu at the restaurant will differ slightly from the food truck, with some items taking on a new form.

The Hintons opened their first storefront in White Oak more than a year ago. The space is now closed but used as a commissary to serve as a preparation location for their food trailer, parties and events.

Awilda left her full-time job at Procter & Gamble Co. to run the restaurant and Brian will be focusing on the mobile business.

Mr. Hanton’s offers about 30 different hotdog options and the option to create your own hotdog.

Construction at U Square at the Loop is nearing completion. The mixed-use site will open to tenants on Aug. 1.

http://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/morning_call/2013/04/food-truck-plans-u-square-at-the-loop.html

With shows like the Food Network’s The Great Food Truck Race, food on wheels has evolved from trend to craze in big cities all across the country. Cincinnati is home to 28 food trucks and trailers, and 11 of them have recently joined the Cincinnati Food Truck Association, a nonprofit that aims to reinvent food truck vending.

In 2010, Café de Wheels was the only food truck in town; in 2011, Taco Azul popped on the scene. And last year, there was a huge boom in the local food truck business.

“Food trucks are the fastest growing sector of the food industry, and it’s growing here,” says Emily Frank, 38, of C’est Cheese. She also serves as CFTA’s president. “People are excited about food trucks.”

With so many trucks, there was a need for a unified voice to represent them. In June 2010, the Mobile Food Vendor Pilot Program, which was strongly supported by City Councilmember Laure Quinlivan, was born.

The Pilot Program allowed food trucks and trailers to serve street food in certain areas of downtown’s Central Business District on a first-come, first-served basis, with proper permits. Food trucks were allowed one to two spaces in Sawyer Point, six spaces at Court Street Market and 12 spaces in a parking lot at Fifth and Race Streets.

Building off the Pilot Program, a group of UC urban planning students who were interested in food hubs held a meeting for food truck owners and operators in September. The students got everyone talking, but since they were only working on the project for a semester, it was up to the food truck owners to do something.

Frank, Elizabeth Romero of Sugarsnap! Truck and Tracy Sims of Taco Azul formed CFTA last fall. They held a meeting and extended an invitation to join the CFTA to the 25 other food trucks in town.

“We didn’t know what to expect from our peers, but it was very positive,” says Romero, 29, CFTA’s secretary. At the first meeting, two other trucks joined CFTA.

Currently with 11 members, CFTA hopes to see at least four other trucks join this spring. Right now, food trucks are part of the Night Owl Market downtown and are staples at Sawyer Point—CFTA is even part of Taste of Cincinnati this year. In the future, CFTA hopes to plan one or two food-related events throughout the year.

For example, Atlanta’s food trucks are in the suburban parks, says CFTA’s treasurer, Sims, 32. CFTA will soon be meeting with City Parks and discussing the possibility of having food trucks at park events.

“All of the money made during the event would be given back to the park to help build a strong relationship with them,” says Sims. “It would be very seasonal, but very profitable.”

One of CFTA’s immediate goals is to work with the city to increase the number of available mobile food vending spots that are outlined in the Pilot Program. “We want to represent Cincinnati and be part of the community,” says Romero. “We want the city to be proud of food trucks and show them off like the brick-and-mortar staples in the city.”

Members of CFTA are C’est Cheese, Café de Wheels, Catch-A-Fire, Eat! Mobile Dining, Eclectic Comfort Food, Goldstar Chili Mobile, Kaimelsky’s, Mr. Hanton’s Handwiches, Queen City Cookies, Sugarsnap! and Taco Azul.

http://www.soapboxmedia.com/devnews/022613.cincinnatifoodtruckassociation.aspx

Local food trucks have formed the Cincinnati Food Truck Association which, according to a news release, aims to reinvent food truck vending in a way that is beneficial to Cincinnati, food truck entrepreneurs, and their patrons.

Food trucks may sound like fun and fancy-free business operations, but strike up a conversation with Tom Acito, veteran burger-slinger and proprietor of Cincinnati’s original food truck Café de Wheels, and he’ll give you an earful.

“It’s a dubious honor to be the first,” Acito says. “People call me, asking me questions, looking for advice on opening a truck. What I tell them is: it’s a battle every day.”

Food trucks are like any other small business, if other small businesses had to operate on wheels and use social media as a sort of “bat signal” to attract the loyal, the hungry and the desperate.

Acito and his nomad-like brethren have chips on their shoulders, real skin in the game and a cult-like following. They spend their days and nights competing for parking spots and serving up eats from walk-up windows.

Together, they’ve created Cincinnati’s own gritty, food truck subculture, where there are few avenues of support and even fewer guarantees.

Most cities with vibrant and thriving food truck communities, like Los Angeles, Miami and D.C., are home to hundreds of mobile food vendors and boast programs that seem downright storied in comparison to Cincinnati’s.

The Queen City’s significantly younger program, with fewer than a dozen trucks, remains less defined. The constantly evolving sets of rules and regulations leave plenty of room for interpretation and confusion, say truck owners. In some cases, new rules conflict with existing, out-of-date, but still enforceable city ordinances.

“You’ve always got to worry about the police showing up,” Terri Wilson of Pizza Bomba says. “Even though I know I’m completely in the right, you never know.”

The red-bandana-wearing Acito has a right to some of his hardened, glib demeanor—as Cincinnati’s food truck pioneer, his road hasn’t always been the easiest to travel.

After relocating from Dallas, Texas, to Cincinnati for a job that didn’t work out, Acito decided to pursue his mobile culinary dream. As the first of its kind, however, Café de Wheels seemed to find every stumbling block along the way.

There are some tough realities associated with cooking up gourmet food on the go.

Even for those who pay the $1,000 fee to belong to the city’s Mobile Food Vending Pilot program, parking spots are on a first-come, first-served basis.

Out of 10 trucks in the Mobile Food Vending program, the four who make it to the most lucrative downtown lunch spots adjacent to Fountain Square first are often the winners. Still, the Square is a busy place nowadays, and parked construction equipment or a 3CDC event that occupies the loading zones (which also happen to be the designated Mobile Food Vending spots) can ruin even the most carefully laid lunch plans.

“Unfortunately we’re losing the 5th and Race lot, which was the main place for awhile for a good thing, a huge development with Dunnhumby,” says Cincinnati Councilwoman Laure Quinlivan, who has positioned herself as a political champion for food trucks in the city. “We were trying to replace those spaces around the Square, but there’s been a bit of back and forth with 3CDC and conflict over loading zones for Fountain Square events.”

As a result, food truck operators find themselves at the mercy of more elements out of their control than even the most touch-and-go brick-and-mortar business.

They’re betting on good weather, that customers will find them and, at events and festivals, that they’ve estimated and prepped the amount of product they’ll need on the truck.

When your entire operation is contained within an 18-foot step truck, there’s no on-site walk-in freezer to save the day if you sell out early.

“The first year is just a learning curve,” says Gary Sims, part owner of Taco Azul, Cincinnati’s only authentic taco truck. “You’re spending most of it just learning from your mistakes.”

Unlike their brick-and-mortar counterparts, food trucks have to find a spot to park before they can do a dollar’s worth of business. While work week lunch is always a challenge, the advent of communal food truck spaces, like Night Owl Market (NOM) and Park[ed], by The City Flea, is making catering to the weekend, evening and late-night crowds a little easier.
The dedicated spaces occupy private parking lots and were organized by food truck fans.

NOM—organized by P&G employees Nadia Laabs and Sally Yoon—convenes in the lot at the corner of Central and Main, while Park[ed]—the brainchild of City Flea organizers Nick and Lindsay Dewald—is located just adjacent to Washington Park in the lot for Emmanuel Center on Race.

“We had a blast and did really, really well that night,” says Emily Frank, proprietor of grilled cheese truck C’est Cheese, on her latest NOM experience.

While the evolution of these new, regular locations contribute to the stability of the food truck scene, proprietors face difficulties that can crop up at a moment’s notice, including ongoing vehicle maintenance.

As Terri Wilson, half-owner of the rolling pizza kitchen, Pizza Bomba, puts it, “Every day is an exciting adventure in what will break down today.”

Breakdowns aren’t always mechanical. Consider food truck owners’ sometimes strained relationships with City Council and urban development organizations like 3CDC, plus inconsistent communications between those who make the regulations and those who enforce them.

The instability of the downtown scene is in part what keeps Curtis Bonekemper of Bone’s Burgers tucked away in the northern suburbs. The bartender and server who spends his evenings working at Eddie Merlot’s has a commissary based out of his house in Loveland and doesn’t see any reason to leave the area.

With an endless supply of business parks and no shortage of private events where he can serve up his grass-fed beef burgers, Bonekemper’s business model is significantly different than his urban counterparts.

“The added expense of time, propane, employees, gas, wear and tear on the truck, plus the $1,000 permit, to me, that’s silly,” Bonekemper says. “When I can operate up here and vend to private businesses without any money changing hands, it just didn’t make sense for me.”

No matter the business model, owners agree that the biggest challenge that plagues Midwest food trucks is the region’s unpredictable and unforgiving seasons. The food trucks of the booming Los Angeles and Miami scenes just don’t have the same long stretches of inclement, unfavorable weather.

“In the winter you face more challenges because you can’t operate the hours you used to, and people don’t want to come out in the cold,” says Fallon Horstmeyer, owner and operator of the eclectic quesadilla Airstream trailer, Turophilia. “And the heat—the record temperatures just drove business away this year.”

As Café de Wheels approaches its three-year anniversary, it’s easy for Acito to reminisce wryly. “We opened in the cold December of 2009,” Acito says. “We did $75 and thought we were slammed.”

For this cold December, Acito is embarking on his first attempt at a stationary restaurant to help supplement income during the off-season. He calls it Base Camp 1.

“I feel like we should be doing better than we are, which is why I’m really excited about doing the restaurant,” Acito says. “If it ever comes down to just not doing a food truck… I guess we’ll see.”

For Acito’s wheel-less venture he’s taken over the kitchen at Dive Bar on Short Vine in Corryville. It’s a mutually beneficial arrangement—he’ll serve up sustenance to Dive Bar’s hungry patrons.

Café de Wheels isn’t the only truck making an attempt to put down roots. Horstmeyer, proprietor of Turophilia, also hopes to supplement her mobile business by opening a brick-and-mortar establishment.

During the past couple of winters, she’s prepared food for bars in Over-the-Rhine, but now she feels ready to operate her own space, also in Corryville. She hopes to open soon in the now-defunct Subway space across the street from Dive Bar on Short Vine.

“It’s nice to serve indoors so new people who couldn’t come downtown for lunch, have opportunities to try your food,” Horstmeyer says. “I guess I just didn’t originally consider winters. I kind of had to adapt, and I’ve just realized that this is the next step to survive.”

Cincinnati’s newest truck, C’est Cheese, at just a little over a month old, is already contemplating a winter plan. Owner Emily Frank forged a fast partnership with Sarah Bornick of Streetpops, a fellow mobile vendor in cart form, with a prime, new storefront on Main Street in OTR.

Frank, like most mobile vendors, hopes for another mild winter. Though she plans to be out in her truck for as long she can, she’ll also serve soup and sandwiches out of Streetpops.

Yet another food truck staple, New Orleans to Go, is also going brick and mortar, opening a bistro space in an office building in Blue Ash after Labor Day.

There’s no doubt that permanent physical spaces provide a kind of financial stability that even the most popular trucks can’t find exclusively downtown at this point. Those with the means are making the leap, settling down, and giving their wheels a bit of a respite.

“It’s a game of survival of the fittest,” Horstmeyer says. “You just have to keep adapting to new rules and regulations, and the weather, but it’s exciting to be a part of.”

Emily Lang, a devoted food truck fan, is a UC Journalism graduate and a social media expert at LPK.

http://www.soapboxmedia.com/features/091112foodtrucks.aspx

One of Cincinnati's food trucks that has spearheaded Cincinnati's Food Truck Revolution!

Cincinnati could soon see parking spots in 10 neighborhoods around the city where gardeners can sell produce from the back of a pickup.

The pilot program, to be formally proposed next week, suggests 20 Mobile Produce Truck parking spots in Evanston, the West End, the East End, English Woods, Winton Hills, Avondale, Over-the-Rhine, North and South Fairmount and Camp Washington. The plan is similar to the Mobile Food Truck vending locations downtown in that people will pay the city a fee to be able to park and sell in one of the first-come, first served spots.

The proposal already enjoys support from the majority of City Council members, Councilwoman Laure Quinlivan said. It grew out of a request this year from growers at an East End garden who wanted to sell their produce at their garden. Doing that would’ve required a zoning change, she said, a precedent the city didn’t want to set.

“This will be great to address the issue of food deserts,” she said, referring to neighborhoods where residents don’t have easy access to quality food. “It’s a creative solution to the problem.”

Dan Korman, owner of the Park + Vine eco-friendly general store in Over-the-Rhine, hopes for a spot right in front of his place on Vine Street. Customers often ask if the store would start selling produce.

“It would be a great complement to our business,” Korman said, “whether we decide to start selling it or someone else does. It just seems like a great next step for our city.”

Cincinnati wouldn’t be the first city to have produce-on-the-go. Similar trucks run in New York City, Chicago, Detroit and other major cities. In Greeneville, Tenn., a food truck takes orders and delivers food grown by local farmers. Some trucks are operated by non-profits pushing healthy, locally grown food, others by local businesses. Indiana University Health started its Garden on the Go last year as part of its fight against obesity. It makes 16 stops a week in low-income areas around Indianapolis.

Councilman P.G. Sittenfeld called the Cincinnati plan “a triple win: good for the neighborhoods, good for gardeners, good for commerce.”

The details are still being worked out. Proponents suggested the permit fee be $100 to $200 a year, Quinlivan said.

“This opens up a bunch of entrepreneurial options for people,” she said. “You don’t really have to have anything except the produce.”

http://communitypress.cincinnati.com/article/AB/20120329/NEWS/303290132/Mobile-trucks-city-could-soon-sell-produce?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|communities|s

The lunch crowd lines up at the mobile food truck spot at Fifth and Race streets downtown.

Cincinnati City Council today approved a plan to create new areas for mobile food trucks around Fountain Square.

The vote was unanimous in support of Councilmember Laure Quinlivan’s plan.

Councilmember Laure Quinlivan places her order at the Fire Side Pizza stand.

The plan creates one zone on Vine Street and two more zones on Fifth Street where owners of mobile food trucks can sell food and drinks. Vendors can park in the designated areas 24 hours a day, seven days a week, except during morning and afternoon rush hour periods on Monday through Friday.

Vendors have been requesting a zone near Fountain Square since the mobile food vending pilot program passed in summer 2010.

The Cincinnati Center City Development Corp., or 3CDC, used to allow some food vendors to operate under a large tent on the square but stopped that after complaints that the tent blocked the view of the fountain, according to a news release issued by Quinlivan’s office.

3CDC approached Quinlivan in September about creating mobile food zones on the streets around the square to accommodate food trucks. Quinlivan contacted property owners around the square, and most support the new mobile food zones.

“Anyone who visits Fountain Square this holiday season will have a few more food options,” Quinlivan said in the news release, “and vendors may just have to hire a few more people.”

Cincinnati’s Department of Community Development reports that the Mobile Food Vending program has created or retained more than 80 jobs, according to the release.

http://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2011/11/16/more-food-trucks-headed-to-fountain.html

Northeast Ohio loves food trucks and food trucks love Northeast Ohio. Although Northeast Ohio is the least likely region to eat out on a regular basis (according to a recent survey by livingsocial), food trucks are growing faster in popularity here than in any other region in the country. The concept of affordable gourmet food on the move is perfect for Northeast Ohio, where the population is sprawled. Food trucks can go to concentrations of people, also filling the void of food desserts in some areas. Gourmet food on the move also falls in line with the Midwestern, laid back attitude Northeast Ohioans exude.

http://theciviccommons.com/blog/the-more-food-trucks-the-merrier