LITTLE ROCK — Paula Henry and her husband, Frederic, opened a food trailer, Crepes Paulette, in downtown Bentonville in the spring of 2010. In the beginning, the Henrys operated the trailer only at the farmers market and other events, but eventually moved to their current location off the square.
The business has a courtyard with tables but is still mobile. It travels a few blocks to the farmers market every Saturday.
Paula Henry said the permitting process was accessible and they received a good reception, not only from the city but from customers.
“People were very interested in us coming in since it was a new proposition, this type of trailer,” she said. “But there are two sides of the coin to being new and different. The other side is, people aren’t used to finding food on the street in Bentonville. So there’s a bit of a learning curve to get over, especially with a food they weren’t accustomed to.”
As the name suggests, Crepes Paulette is all about crepes — very thin pancakes filled with sweet or savory ingredients, a recipe that originated in the Brittany region of France.
“The uniqueness has drawn people in,” Henry said. “It’s been exciting.”
These so-called “food trucks” are a common sight in cities like New York and Chicago and have gained popularity thanks to television shows like The Great Food Truck Race on the Food Network, which filmed an episode in Fayetteville earlier this year.
Increased interest in food trailers and carts has some Northwest Arkansas cities rethinking their existing ordinances regulating the businesses. Cities require mobile vendors to hold permits and regulate where and how long vendors can park.
John Gaber, political science professor at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, has become the go-to guy for cities interested in expanding street vending based on in-depth research he did on New York City’s street vendors while at Columbia University. He’ll be talking about the urban economics of street vending during the Arkansas Chapter of the American Planning Association’s meeting Thursday and Friday in Bentonville.
Gaber said street vending has a long history in America.
“During the Industrial Revolution, it [street vending] was largely an immigrant enclave,” he said. “It was a really small neighborhood thing. Then when we got to the Great Depression, it radically changed and became more of a survival strategy for everyone.”
For vendors, it was a way to scratch out a living and for the customers, it was a way to get a cheap meal, Gaber said.
The 1960s and 70s were a time of renaissance for street vendors, but the wave died down as people moved to the suburbs. He credits much of the new rise of street vending to the popularity of farmer’s markets, and said today’s vendors are offering high-end fare for a client base with a more sophisticated palate.
“These street vendors today are filling this niche of people getting quality food that is easily accessible. They can get it quickly and move on,” he said. “The key is speed.”
As in the past, Gaber said, traditional restaurants often see street vendors as unfair competition. He sees things differently, with a place for quick meals on the go and sitdown meals.
He said he advises cities to rethink their strategies concerning street vendors and consider what vendors can bring to downtowns.
“It’s a great way to bring people to their downtown and main streets and get people walking around and spending money,” he said.
Little Rock held its first Downtown Food Truck Festival last year. Seventeen food trucks participated and several ran out of food before it ended. Organizers for this year’s event, scheduled for Oct. 6, said they hope to have 30 vendors.
Interest in food trailers is on the rise in Arkansas, judging by the number of permit requests the Arkansas Department of Health has received, said James Duffy, senior environmental health specialist. The department has been busy with permit requests this year, especially for mobile units, he said.
Last year, the department issued 707 permits for mobile restaurant units in the state. So far this year, it has approved 566, not including temporary permits issued for festival and event vendors.
The Health Department is the first stop for anyone planning to sell food from a mobile unit in Arkansas. Business owners must submit plans that meet a long list of requirements, including many of the same regulations required for traditional “brick and mortar” restaurants.
“It’s a little more than just setting up and starting to selling food,” said Duffy, noting that the rules and regulations are in place to protect the public’s health.
The health regulations might be the same for all, but ordinances affecting mobile food vendors vary from city to city in Northwest Arkansas.
Fayetteville has regulations for three types of outdoor vendors — outdoor mobile vendors, sidewalk cafes and sidewalk vendors.
Sidewalk cafes include restaurants that set up a few tables on the sidewalk outside the business. Sidewalk vendors include push carts. The sidewalk vendors can’t set up shop on the sidewalk in one spot. It’s a roaming business within approved parameters.
“They have specific locations on Dickson Street and on the square where we’ve determined the sidewalk is wide enough,” said Jeremy Pate, development services director for the city. “They have to move. It’s a truly mobile vendor.”
Food trucks or trailers are required to obtain a permit from the city and submit a detailed site plan and have permission to park on private property in a commercial zone.
As for Bentonville, City Planner Beau Thompson said the city currently has only one cart — bike-operated — with a permit and the owner is allowed to drive around the square to sell goods. He said he anticipates more vendors in the future.
“As Bentonville continues to grow ... I’m thinking we’ll see more and different types of outdoor vendors other than food trucks.”
For now, permits for outdoor food trailer vendors in Fayetteville are good for 90 days, meaning the business can stay in one particular location for only that long. The business must then reapply for another $50 permit.
“Nationwide, there are lots of varying standards, but 90 days is what we settled on years ago,” Pate said. “We’re looking at that now to see if it should be extended.”
Business owners can ask for a variance from the planning department to extend their stay to one year. But food trailers aren’t as mobile as they are in some parts of the country. Pate said the permit is issued for one location only. If a food truck owner wants to move around the city to drum up business, he must have a permit for each site and there are restrictions on where trailers can set up shop.
They must meet requirements set by the city and must be located on private property in a commercial zone. No trailers or food trucks are allowed to park on public streets or in city parks, Pate said.
Bentonville officials are also taking a look at city regulations for these vendors, Thompson said. Existing rules allow for one trailer per location, but with the limited number of private parking lots in the downtown area for vendors, Thompson said the city is contemplating changes to allow more than one vendor per lot.
“We have to figure out how to address that,” Thompson said. “We’ve put together a committee to review that ordinance, to see what direction they want to go.”
Arkansas, Pages 15 on 09/16/2012