Ban Food Trucks?

[heironymouspasparagus]

Ban the food trucks and collect some property taxes.

Why, pray tell, ban food trucks??




For everyone else, who just reacted like Leonard (rolling eyes and face palm) when Penny asks Sheldon a question - just watch a while and let's see what he walks into!  See if he is serious, or just making noise....

[RecycleMichael]

I will defend davideinstien.

I love food trucks, but there has to be some rules to not allow them to park directly in front of a restaurant and serve the same food. Jimmy John's has invested in a nice build-out, pays taxes, including the ball park tax, and it wouldn't be right to them to allow a food truck to have an unfair edge because they don't have the same taxes to pay.

Luckily, I don't know of any food truck that serves the kind of sandwiches Jimmy John's sells.

I appreciate Jimmy John's. They have a excellent value menu and deliver in nothing flat. I also love the KimChi fries from Lone Wolf truck. We need a world where both can succeed.

[SXSW]

Regarding food trucks a happy medium for existing restaurant owners and food trucks would be a food truck court.  They are even building one in OKC.  http://m.newsok.com/bleu-garten-aspires-to-be-midtown-downtown-community-gathering-spot/article/3944982
Similar to Food Truck Wednesdays at Guthrie Green but every day of the week.  In downtown I think the block between 2nd/3rd and Cincinnati/Detroit would be perfect for a temporary installation, and eventually something permanent.  Access to Blue Dome and downtown offices, and one hell of a view.

[heironymouspasparagus]

I will defend davideinstien.

I love food trucks, but there has to be some rules to not allow them to park directly in front of a restaurant and serve the same food. Jimmy John's has invested in a nice build-out, pays taxes, including the ball park tax, and it wouldn't be right to them to allow a food truck to have an unfair edge because they don't have the same taxes to pay.

Luckily, I don't know of any food truck that serves the kind of sandwiches Jimmy John's sells.

I appreciate Jimmy John's. They have a excellent value menu and deliver in nothing flat. I also love the KimChi fries from Lone Wolf truck. We need a world where both can succeed.

I am a little curious how that would happen...?  Does the city not have some kind of parking law regarding use of city street for commercial ventures?  And if they are parking in a private parking lot, wouldn't they be subject to tow if there is no rental relationship?  The food trucks I have talked to - and there have been quite a few, 'cause I want to do something similar - have to pay rent - I would imagine they are subject to the same laws of trespass and property usage as anyone else.  Pay to put in an electric pole from PSO at the edge of the parking lot.  Deal with water/wastewater situations in some manner.  Are subject to inspections/fees/permits from the state health department and the city they operate in.   

Which rent, by definition would include a proportionate element of taxes, profit, interest, principle if there was a loan involved on the property, etc., as all rent does.  Unless the owner was subsidizing the rent for some reason.....as when one buys a property, the contract will often say, "for $10.00, and other good and valuable consideration...."  I could see someone giving "free" rent in exchange for "free" food...that could work out well.

There must be reasons one company chooses to set up in a building, do that build-out, and operate out of the fixed location.  There is a perceived benefit they want to achieve.  Same for the food truck, which by it's nature will be a smaller operation suited to a different type of organization, with different costs, such as a truck, it's build-out, and permits for that type of business.

I haven't seen a sub truck yet....  I like Jimmy John's too - the one I usually can get to is in Moore, but the one in BA is pretty much the same.  Would try a food truck sub place, too, though, if there was a good one around.  I eat out so often - like every meal, every day - that it has gotten very difficult to find any restaurant that can be enjoyable.  Actually, last Monday, I got some 'fixin's' and made a nice hamburger and salad at home....first time in weeks that have eaten at home...  Kinda sucks....

Haven't been there in a while - since the original, older guy owned it, but that bar-b-que trailer at 31st and Sheridan used to be really good.  I heard it changed hands and I haven't had the chance to go by there yet....  At one time, it was at least as good as Albert G's.  Yum!

Would like to see a good pizza truck....all the stand alones aren't that great.


Here is some health department information about the mobile food business and the expenses for permits;
http://www.tulsa-health.org/food-safety/food-service-industry/mobile-food-vending

[heironymouspasparagus]

Regarding food trucks a happy medium for existing restaurant owners and food trucks would be a food truck court.  They are even building one in OKC.  http://m.newsok.com/bleu-garten-aspires-to-be-midtown-downtown-community-gathering-spot/article/3944982
Similar to Food Truck Wednesdays at Guthrie Green but every day of the week.  In downtown I think the block between 2nd/3rd and Cincinnati/Detroit would be perfect for a temporary installation, and eventually something permanent.  Access to Blue Dome and downtown offices, and one hell of a view.

That will be cool.  Gotta get by there....

That sounds like a great opportunity.

[Conan71]

Haven't been there in a while - since the original, older guy owned it, but that bar-b-que trailer at 31st and Sheridan used to be really good.  I heard it changed hands and I haven't had the chance to go by there yet....  At one time, it was at least as good as Albert G's.  Yum!

Would like to see a good pizza truck....all the stand alones aren't that great.

Food trucks are a viable way for talented chefs to get their food out there without the overhead and risk of a fixed-base operation.  IIRC, Tuck Curren, owner and chef of Local Table and Biga has gone strictly to catering and his food truck.  It makes great economic sense for some people but it's no less work than a fixed base.

Get a torta from the taco truck on the other side of the Shell convenience store at 31st & Sheridan.  They rock!

Andolini's has a pizza truck every bit as good off the truck as it is in their restaurant. 

I agree with RM on Lone Wolf, great Banh Mi, but the kimchi fries are just outstanding!

[Hoss]

Food trucks are a viable way for talented chefs to get their food out there without the overhead and risk of a fixed-base operation.  IIRC, Tuck Curren, owner and chef of Local Table and Biga has gone strictly to catering and his food truck.  It makes great economic sense for some people but it's no less work than a fixed base.

Get a torta from the taco truck on the other side of the Shell convenience store at 31st & Sheridan.  They rock!

Andolini's has a pizza truck every bit as good off the truck as it is in their restaurant. 

I agree with RM on Lone Wolf, great Banh Mi, but the kimchi fries are just outstanding!

Hmm...I may have to venture down there for lunch one day.

[Conan71]

Hmm...I may have to venture down there for lunch one day.

You won't regret it.

[heironymouspasparagus]

Food trucks are a viable way for talented chefs to get their food out there without the overhead and risk of a fixed-base operation.  IIRC, Tuck Curren, owner and chef of Local Table and Biga has gone strictly to catering and his food truck.  It makes great economic sense for some people but it's no less work than a fixed base.

Get a torta from the taco truck on the other side of the Shell convenience store at 31st & Sheridan.  They rock!

Andolini's has a pizza truck every bit as good off the truck as it is in their restaurant. 

I agree with RM on Lone Wolf, great Banh Mi, but the kimchi fries are just outstanding!

Yes!   All of the above.  Just a different business plan, no less valid than a building, just a different style.


I don't drink coffee, but SWMBO tells me that Habby's Coffee Shack in Branson West, MO, beats Starbucks any day of the week.   Tiny little trailer place only open in the morning.


Will try the taco truck this weekend.  

[Conan71]

Yes!   All of the above.  Just a different business plan, no less valid than a building, just a different style.


I don't drink coffee, but SWMBO tells me that Habby's Coffee Shack in Branson West, MO, beats Starbucks any day of the week.   Tiny little trailer place only open in the morning.


Will try the taco truck this weekend.  

All this talk made me have a torta for lunch.  The BBQ trailer was gone.  Not sure if that's permanent or temporary.

[heironymouspasparagus]

All this talk made me have a torta for lunch.  The BBQ trailer was gone.  Not sure if that's permanent or temporary.

It was there since about 2002, so it may be done for.  Or maybe needed some work on the building.  Was the picnic area gone, too?

[Conan71]

It was there since about 2002, so it may be done for.  Or maybe needed some work on the building.  Was the picnic area gone, too?

Empty slab, but the posts and sign that advertised BBQ are still there.

[davideinstein]

Jimmy John's loses little to nothing from food trucks. We're delivery heavy and no one can touch our business model on that. It's my personal opinion that they should pay more taxes. They hurt locally owned brick and mortar shops that most. There are a lot of locally owned business owners that agree with me on this.

[Hoss]

Jimmy John's loses little to nothing from food trucks. We're delivery heavy and no one can touch our business model on that. It's my personal opinion that they should pay more taxes. They hurt locally owned brick and mortar shops that most. There are a lot of locally owned business owners that agree with me on this.

But yet you say ban them....

[cannon_fodder]

I for one say we need a heavy tax on restaurants that rely heavily on publicly financed roads to deliver their products.  Particularly if they use bicycles that regularly disregard traffic signals and ride down alleys failing to yield to pedestrians. Those guys aren't paying any taxes to use the streets!  The delivery service allows people who live far away to just stay in, if they couldn't deliver then the people would go out more and frequent establishments closer to hom.

Actually - I love cycling and don't want a tax on that.  I also don't want to tax delivery guys.  I don't want to shut them down in any way.  But the argument is equally weak.

I also love food trucks.  I think I've eaten at a food truck three times this week. Maybe four (twice at the Dog House, I love the fricken Tulsa Dog). 

But I agree.  A restaurant owner strategically places his business and makes a commitment to that location.  There is an argument that it isn't competitively fair OR good for the city to enable a good truck to just park in front of them constantly. 

In that it doesn't happen, or I haven't seen it happen - I'm assuming there is some kind of rule on that.  I've only seen food trucks "up the curb" in a lot somewhere.  Around Guthrie Green, or in a parking lot.  Those all seem legit. 

If the parking lot owner wants to rent the space across from some restaurant to a food truck - he should be able to (barring contrary zoning such a residential use only).  Certainly someone could build a restaurant there and compete.  Certainly the restaurant owner could buy the lot and control it.  The food truck has a limited menu, sporadic availability, and should suffer in service and ambiance - let alone working with a limited "kitchen."  In exchange, they get mobility and low overhead.

But business is ingrained to try to defeat their competition.  So the disdain makes sense.