The city isnt that friendly with such things. OBrothers/Mossfire has the mobile kitchen now, but finding a place to park it is not easy. I dont believe the city will let them park in public parking spots downtown. They have been parking behind the everbank building in riverside a couple days a week, and I guess that area has a 2 hour limit for parking in that lot, and the city is already on them about staying there too long. Any good ideas area always made difficult by our lovely city.
I was seriously considering opening a taco truck, similar to a Kogi BBQ-type establishment UNTIL I spoke multiple times with Buss'n Your Chops. The city makes it very difficult for such a mobile food truck to operate.
In fact, until I spoke with the OBrothers operators... I didn't clearly understand the transient vendor ban being floated around now. I am 10000% against that legislation now that I have a clear idea of how it affects small business, the backbone of our city.
Street food has a culture of its own, but it's clear the city's policies on transient vendors do not embrace such a culture at present.
A good read on the subject would be the bill currently being floated around in Chicago. Google it, it's a GREAT study to understand both sides of the issue. Essentially, the public demand exists for street food, but brick and mortar restaurants are dead set against it. Sounds eerily similar to what we are experiencing in Jacksonville...
