10/04/2024
As my hockey player buddy here would (probably) say, it's time to take the gloves off.
I love what I do. I love serving people, and I am so blessed to have a skill set and the resources to serve people in a way that is meaningful. There's just something about feeding people that I truly love.
Unfortunately, the regulations throughout Minnesota continue to make it increasingly harder to do what I love. I've seen good, hardworking people lose their dream to the overregulation our industry faces - and I'll be honest, a year ago I almost joined those ranks.
It currently costs over $15,000 for a food truck to be licensed throughout the metro area alone. This is in addition to repeated health inspections (most tucks are inspected at least 6 times a year, while brick and mortar restaurants are typically inspected once), repeated fire inspections, multiple background checks, and literally hundreds of pages of paperwork.
The only way for us to avoid this and stay afloat, is to pick and choose which cities we operate in. And we choose to go to the cities that make us feel welcome. Every truck has a blacklist of cities where they refuse to operate, and I'm happy to share our blacklist in a future post. Maplewood has long been on our list due to their requirement of not one, not two, but THREE overlapping health licenses. This CUP business just solidifies our stance.
We love serving you, and we know you love having us around - we see it every time you're in our window. We can't wait to see you there again.
Heard our friends at Eggroll Queen had a little hickup today & we had to show them some love. We also had to get to the bottom of what the PUCK happened with EQ getting the boot from the location they were serving at. As food truckers, all we want to do is serve YOU our foodies & bring value to the community. Navigating in the food truck world is INSANE behind the scenes, but there are also some really awesome moments, and those awesome moments drive us to create change.
I don’t have the full food truck ordinance pulled up, but here are two key points ⤵️
#1 Health Licensing
In ADDITION to holding the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) Health License, when operating in Ramsey County, you must also apply for the Ramsey County Health License. In ADDTION to the Ramsey County Health License, the City of Maplewood also has a health department where you are required to get a City of Maplewood Health License. Food truckers call it the “Triple Dip” and that doesn’t include if a city has an additional permit, but that’s been RAPIDLY changing city to city in a positive way!
This isn’t the only “Triple Dip” scenario…
#2 Permitting
This is why they got the boot, they didn’t know about this piece of the ordinance… As soon as you get your health license approved by the City of Maplewood, you can go park in the city while following their zoning ordinance - no problem with that, however….
I called three separate times to clarify the ordinance as I could think of different scenarios that could come up… Here is how the “Spirit of the ordinance” works - description that was used when I brought up each scenario that I thought of with the current ordinance.
As soon as we park at a location (ex. small business) for the first time, a four month clock starts from that day. Whether you park 1 day a month or every other month, after that four month clock ends you are REQUIRED to file for a “Conditional Use Permit” (CUP). This applies to any food trucks or someone conducting externals sales i.e. a temporary stand. By the way, if the CUP isn’t approved, there isn’t a refund.
Filing the paperwork wasn’t my question, we already have an abundance of that, along with all of the fees that go with it… My first question was, “How much does your CUP cost?” “Sixteen-fifty,” was the response. I asked, “let me clarify, $1,650.00?” “Yes,” was the response.
In short, OHMB and other food truckers have chose not to operate in your city. Until there is change, we know we can come together & figure something out, your city is BLACKLISTED. What’s sad, you were our FIRST food truck festival.
🩵 ARDEN HILLS, WE HEARD THE NEWS, WELCOME TO THE PUCKIN’ TEAM!!! 🩵
🩵 Thank you New Brighton & New Brighton Farmers Market - Minnesota for giving EQ a home on short notice! You rock! Thank you for being FOOD TRUCK FRIENDLY! 🩵
We’re here for the community, the foodies and the upcoming entrepreneurs who want to chase a dream of their own!
Here’s how you do food trucking right ⤵️
https://www.blainemn.gov/3527/Food-Truck-Registration
