Joe Rocket Leather Jacket

Gourmet Food Trucks Cause Problems

Back in the old neighborhood we used to have all kinds of food vending trucks come by. There was the Softee ice cream truck that dispensed delicious soft serve ice cream and the Bomb Pop truck that had those rocket-shaped Popsicles. Then there was Joe the watermelon man with his pickup truck loaded with watermelons as well as an old guy in a station wagon selling snow cones. \

When I went to O'Fallon Tech. there was a guy who drove a sandwich truck. For those of us who hated the lousy school cafeteria food it was a viable option. I remember watching the vending machine guy get stabbed on the last day of school when the kids from the north side schools traditionally raised havoc and robbed everybody. They also stole the leather jacket right off of his back.

So the precursors to all of the fast food restaurants were food vendors hat traveled through the neighborhood and hung around local schools. But today the trucks have taken on a different look. They don't drive through neighborhoods anymore, instead they stake out a parking lot on a busy street, usually downtown.

The reason they are different is because they now sell gourmet food instead of the usual ice cream and snow cones. The problem is that many cities are having problems figuring out how to regulate them.

One truck that sells gourmet cupcakes in downtown St. Louis was recently told they could not sell in one particular area, but after they called the mayor and city hall received a lot of calls from angry customers, they were allowed to return.

According to the St. Louis Post Dispatch: "The Sarah's Cake Stop van '" known to its fans as "the cupcake truck" '" had disappeared from the city's streets after officials said it was not allowed to sell in the city's prime vending districts. But then cupcake lovers complained bitterly on social media websites and caused the city to reverse its decision."

The city officials are caught between a rock and a hard place. Thy like the upstart food trucks, (one of the truck chefs recently won an award for his food), but they also want to balance the needs of the trucks with the needs of the brick-and-mortar restaurants as well.

While the ice cream trucks and snow cone trucks are still around, they don't pose much of a threat to the free standing restaurants. And the city's ordinances were made for them. Maybe the only way to address this is for the brick-and-mortar restaurants to send out food trucks of their own.

Source: http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metro/article_52e62195-b7d1-5d39-995e-e36a84935ccd.html