Sunday, February 20, 2011
News Poncey-Highland food trucks shut down by Fulton County
Posted by Thomas Wheatley @thomaswheatley on Sun, Feb 20, 2011 at 12:24 PM
Saturday was tough for Atlanta's burgeoning street food movement. Via John Kessler:
An enforcer with the Fulton County Department of Health & Wellness made the rounds of Poncey-Highland’s burgeoning street-food corridor [yesterday] and shut down all vendors serving hot food in the middle of their lunch rush.“We were told we could serve our food as long as we weren’t preparing it on the street,” said Leslie Santiago, who runs the weekends-only El Burro Pollo burrito stand with her husband, Hector. “But today they told us we needed to have a license, even on private property.”
Atlanta Fry Guy was also shutdown. The King of Pops stayed open.
The county, which says it learned about the food vendors from an AJC blog, defended its actions in a public statement released today. Expect there to be lots o' debate about this confusion in the next week.
Comments (13)
Showing 1-13 of 13
At about 2pm on Saturdays one of us will gather the strength to drink a whynotte and head out on the burrito run. What are we going to do without the beautiful hangover squelching wraps of joy Leslie and Hector make in the church parking lot? Sure we can get them in the Super Pan building, but if we eat them in Super Pan there's too many places to sit. Part of the allure is eating a burrito on the side of the road and hangin with complete strangers because the only bench to sit at is filled with cute families from Vi-Hi.
I've been looking for relevant contact information on the Department of Health. Where can we send our email campaign? Should I start a petition website?
Lets let the Department of Health know that the state may have killed Sunday sales, but they can never kill the deep love we have for eating brunch on the street.
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i knew it. sonofa.
you can take my freedoms, just don't take my hangover burrito. FFS.
These assholes should drive down Bankhead on any given Saturday and shut down the businesses' parking lot bbqs. I bet they'd find a lot more worth shutting down in those operations.
Was KoP allowed to stay in business because he was serving cold food?
So did they need a permit or not? If they did, it seems like it's their fault, if not, then fight the man!
I think the permit in question is ungettable or unusable once gotten, given the restrictions on selling street food in Fulton.
I understand the situation the same way as Foodgeek does. It is a classic "double bind" or "Catch-22," with its own internal "logic" that is only understood by our esteemed government.
Yes, a permit is required.
No, it is not possible to get a permit.
Or, in the extremely limited situations in which you can get a permit (as I understand it, ONLY for a food truck where no food is actually cooked on the truck (think "cold, pre-prepared white bread sandwiches and Snickers bars passed through the window")), the terms of the permit are so outrageously stupid as to make the permit worthless. One person mentioned somewhere else that a food truck MUST be in one of two specified locations at all times so that inspectors will know where to come to inspect it, but also MAY NOT be in either of such specified locations for more than 30 minutes. That's obviously absurd. You would spend all your time driving from location to location, opening up the truck and shutting it down.
And I think that operations like the Fry Guy and the others that were shut down are simply "unpermittable."
Implementing a rational permitting system is not all that complex. It does not surpasseth all human understanding. Cities that are obviously more clever than we are figured it out long ago but we seem incapable of dealing with it.
And yet, rec league ball parks get to run full menu restaurants with zero licensing and zero inspection and zero training. I ran one park's 3 concession stands for a couple of years and you would not believe what the parent "volunteers" cooking the food would do. Leave raw and cooked meat out on teh counters for hours, use the same pan to carry raw and cooked meat, leaving cheese out overnight w/ no wrapping, then use it the next day (what was left of it anyhow, after the rats). But these serious truck vendors who most likely have actually heard of ServSafe training are endangering us? Wow.
Fulton County Department of Health & Wellness will require a direct CASH handout{buyoff,bribe,etc.}.These no brain, drooling,inbred,no education having "city workers" should be round up and thrown into a vat of the same crap they are spouting.Welcome to Atlanta...now fork over all your money to due "business" here. And if you don't kiss our ass with a smile on your face....WE WILL SHUT YOU DOWN!!!! HAVE A NICE DAY!!
Can the city override the county in a case like this? Theoretically? The Hector needs a fucking lawyer, that's all.
How can you go to one of Atlanta's gazillion neighborhood festivals and eat food from a truck and then not allow it during non-festival times? Seems like there is a loophole somewhere that the food truck people should look into? Would be curious to know the legal and logical answer to the above question. Anyone?
It amazes me that Atlanta touts itself as a foodie city, yet the powers that be don't understand that food trucks are THE big thing in other foodie cities. Just look at Portland and New York, and all the Food Network and Travel Channel shows centered just around food trucks. Not only are food trucks convenient for their customers, but the low start up costs and overhead allow new and established chefs to get businesses going, try new things, build a reputation and attract new customers. While many brick & mortar restaurants are struggling in this economy, food trucks are attractive to both chefs and to consumers!
coming from Philly & NY and living in the O4W.....I have no words for how stupid this is on the County's part.....
Jerfus, festivals are covered by a specific festival permit which includes food vendors. I believe those vendors have to be checked off by the Health Dept before they can serve. The festival permits define a specific location and timeframe and aren't ongoing interests. Once the permit expires, there can be no more sales.
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