What are food trucks driving at?

NEW TAKE  ON TAKEOUT: Patrons gather at the weekly Food Truck Friday at Roger Williams Park in Providence. / PBN PHOTO/ MICHAEL SALERNO
NEW TAKE ON TAKEOUT: Patrons gather at the weekly Food Truck Friday at Roger Williams Park in Providence. / PBN PHOTO/ MICHAEL SALERNO

Wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the words, “I have the body of a god (Unfortunately it’s Buddha),” Paul Gervais, owner of Buddha Belly LLC, leans out the window of his food truck.

“Can I get an order of the dumplings, please?” asks a patron, peering up at Gervais.

“No,” Gervais answers.

His stern look of disapproval quickly dissolves into a smile.

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“For you?” he quips. “Anything.”

Quirky back-and-forth service is a part of the experience one might come to expect as a patron of Gervais’ authentic Chinese-food truck, which offers six items, including a Chinese-style crepe, pork-filled steamed dumplings, Beijing soup and a Chinese seasoned boiled egg, infused with traditional seasonings.

Buddha Belly, now 3 years old, is one of nearly 100 food trucks that operate in Rhode Island, 80 of which are locally based, according to data compiled by FoodTrucksIn.com, a website that provides real-time information about food trucks throughout the country.

And that doesn’t include the plethora of hot dog carts and ice-cream vendors, including the ubiquitous Del’s Lemonade carts, which would augment that amount to more than 550 entities, according to licenses held by the R.I. Department of Health.

In Rhode Island and the nation, the food-truck industry has grown rapidly over the past decade. Aspiring business owners and chefs are drawn to the relatively flexible and inexpensive business model that’s become increasingly popular and efficient, and consumers are responding.

“Our society loves having options and choices,” said Eric B. Weiner, founder of FoodTrucksIn.com. “To be able to walk into Kennedy Plaza in Providence with co-workers and not have to worry about what restaurant you want to go to because there are four food trucks … is appealing to how we want to live our lives.”

With progress, however, comes growing pains, and the nascent subsector of the food-services industry has raised questions about how food trucks should be regulated in a way that helps foster growth, but ensures a level playing field with brick-and-mortar restaurants. Many of the latter feel like the industry’s mobility allows it to skirt traditional tax levies.

“This is not an us-against-them situation,” insisted Donna Personeus, executive director of the Thayer Street District Management Authority in Providence. “Food trucks should have a home, but it should be respectful to the brick and mortars, who’re contributing far more to the economic base.”

HISTORY

The mobile-food industry has a long and storied history in the Ocean State.

Rhode Islanders of a certain age still remember when food carts hawked vegetables, clams, snails and fresh Italian bread on the street corners of Federal Hill in Providence. The iconic Haven Brothers Diner, parked next to Providence City Hall, was founded as a horse-drawn lunch wagon in 1893 and today still serves diner food to a loyal customer base. In the early 1900s, Giuseppe A. Brangazio, known better at the time as “Peanut Joe,” was a fixture at Washington Square in Newport, where he could be found regularly with his dog and cart.

His obituary said he “massed a good-size fortune, selling roasted peanuts,” before moving back to Italy, according to the Newport Historical Society.

But the industry has evolved greatly since the days of Peanut Joe, with much of that change happening in the last decade. Weiner says the biggest driving force is technology and the emergence of social media platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter and lately, FoodTrucksIn.com.

“Social media now allows trucks to go places to set up, cook, do other things and let customers come to them, as opposed to the old days when they had to move spot to spot,” Weiner said.

The extra time affords food-truck chefs the ability to be more creative with their cuisine, making fare more interesting and trendy. This, in turn, draws a wider range of customers to the industry. Roaming Hunger, another food-truck-themed website, estimated in 2014 that the number of food trucks nationally grew 187 percent from 2011 to 2013.

In Rhode Island, Weiner didn’t have specific numbers, but estimated the number of food trucks has grown from no more than a dozen in the state a decade ago.

And the food is different.

Nowadays, fare can range from Asian fusion, game meat and crepes to vegan food, farm-to-table and popcorn deserts. Last month, Sazon Bandit Truck, stationed across the street from Ogie’s Trailer Park bar on Westminster Street in the West End of Providence, served a salmon filet on a fresh bed of greens and garlic mashed potatoes.

ECONOMIC BOON OR BANE?

Almost every Friday night for the past two summers, Roger R. Buteau Jr., a Cranston resident, takes his two children to Carousel Village in Roger Williams Park for “Food Truck Friday.”

“It’s pretty much our go-to for Friday nights,” he explained. “First off, it’s free – without paying for food – there’s music and my kids can play on the playground before we grab a bite to eat and go home. It’s a cheap night out.”

The weekly event, now in its second year, comprises 15 food trucks that rendezvous on Friday evenings to create a food bazaar. Foolproof Brewing and Trinity Brewing offer beer. Musicians and the carousel offer music and entertainment.

Organizers, including Weiner and Ron Patalano, director of operations at the Roger Williams Park Zoo, which owns and operates Carousel Village, estimate the event draws 800-1,200 people and generates between $35,000 and $48,000 in economic activity each week.

Most importantly, Patalano said, it’s revitalizing the center of the park, which was once bustling, but has become less popular in the past two decades.

“It hasn’t been the focal point of the park like it once was,” Patalano said. “[Food Truck Friday] and the renovations the zoo is making to the carousel are bringing people back.”

Food Truck Fridays are just one sign that food trucks are an effective vehicle to draw a crowd.

Food trucks are featured regularly throughout the summer at other events, such as Food Trucks at the Beach at Narragansett Town Beach, the Providence Flea on South Water Street, and Central Falls Salsa Fridays. Eat Drink RI, a regional media outlet focused on the culinary industry, puts on a food and drink festival each year and features food trucks. The event sells out each year and proceeds go to the Rhode Island Community Food Bank.

PVDFest, the annual Providence arts festival, has started featuring food trucks, and this year on every fourth Thursday of the month through September, City Hall in Providence will host Food Trucks at City Hall.

Outside of public events, the industry also benefits from catering private events, such as weddings and corporate lunches.

“It’s a lot of hours just like any other business, but the hours are sporadic,” said Brian C. Sousa, owner of O-Crepe, The Rolling Creperie, a crepe food truck.

Indeed, while the public and private events may sound time consuming, there are many hours and days in between, leaving food-truck owners to find other ways to generate sales. And because most don’t have a permanent home, owners roam the streets looking for customers. College areas, including Thayer Street, are popular food-truck destinations, as there’s a fairly consistent amount of foot traffic.

But not everyone is enamored with the industry’s growth.

“It gets me so upset when I think about food trucks,” said Mariusz J. Masnyk, who co-owns a Subway franchise at 114 Waterman St. in Providence with his wife, Anne.

The Masnyks’ Subway is a stone’s throw away from Thayer Street, a popular spot in the heart of Brown University where students hang out, shop and eat.

Masnyk says the influx of food trucks over the past year has made a noticeable dent in his sales, which he estimates have dropped 5-8 percent during that time. And while he’s in favor of the free market, he doesn’t view it as a level playing field, because the food trucks don’t have to pay the College Hill property taxes – among the highest in the city – to reap the financial benefit from the local consumers.

“The brick and mortars are paying very steep rents, or leases, to be on Thayer Street. [Single-location restaurants] pay for their employees and give money back to the city,” said Personeus, the Thayer Street merchants’ group head. “Food trucks don’t, unless they are registered in the city and pay taxes in Providence. But even so, they’re contributing a very small percentage compared to the brick-and-mortars and what they want is for it to be fair.”

This debate about what’s fair has been, or will be, played out in other municipalities throughout the state and country.

“Some of the food trucks are paying taxes in Providence and some are not,” said Samuel D. Zurier, Ward 2 councilman in Providence, who represents a portion of Thayer Street. “Our city is facing financial problems, and we need revenue streams to match our expenses.”

Masnyk’s issue is more existential than public-policy focused. “The pie is only so big,” he said. “Food trucks cruise in from noon until 3 p.m. and that’s when we make 55 percent of our business. It’s just grossly unfair.”

For some restaurants, however, food trucks augment business. Susan R. Alper, co-owner and chef of Clean Plate Inc. in Providence, operates her restaurant each Sunday directly across the street from the Providence Flea. The flea market, which runs along South Water Street, typically draws a half-dozen-or-so food trucks that park and serve food on the street near Clean Plate.

“Our business definitely increases on Sundays from the flea market because with more people we’re more visible,” Alper said. “The food trucks, honestly, don’t affect us too much, but if they do in any way it’s in a positive way.”

Alper admits her opinion might change if she ran a different type of restaurant on Thayer or Hope streets on the East Side, because of the high rents and already competitive range of fare. But she says there are two different types of customers who frequent her restaurant versus the food trucks on South Water Street.

“We have air conditioning, we have alcohol, we have bathrooms,” she quipped. “I mean, who wouldn’t want to use a bathroom over a porta-potty?”

HOW TO REGULATE?

Food-truck regulations that exist in Rhode Island are a hodgepodge, making it difficult for all businesses to know what’s legal, where.

Like many burgeoning sections of the economy, the regulatory framework surrounding food trucks has lagged industry growth. For example, like restaurants, food trucks are subject to the food and beverage taxes, which the trucks are supposed to track by municipality, as the proceeds are divvied up between state and city coffers, depending on where the dollars are spent. Food trucks also must pay between $50 and $100 to the R.I. Health Department, which is in charge of health inspections.

But at the municipal level, it becomes much more convoluted. Where and when food trucks can operate differs from city to town, with local ordinances dictating how far the trucks can park from open restaurants and what times owners can and cannot operate. Weiner says the disparity is hurting the industry.

“If they want to vend statewide, they have to get annual permits in every city and town,” Weiner said. “What it does is confines the mobile industry to be less mobile.”

But being less mobile is exactly what some restaurant owners would like to see happen to the food-truck industry. Zurier says he’s heard from a number of business owners in his ward who feel like they’re unfairly paying higher costs to do the same business as food trucks, which can swoop in and operate at the cost of an hourly parking meter. Personeus and a group of business owners are currently exploring whether the area could be exempt from food-truck operations, similar to a section of downtown near the Providence Performing Arts Center.

Zurier is also concerned the city is losing revenue from car taxes, as the majority of food trucks that operate in Providence are registered in surrounding municipalities.

“The restaurant owners are paying property taxes on their buildings, but the food trucks are not paying taxes on their vehicles in Providence,” he said.

Zurier has introduced revised legislation that would require any food truck that operates within Providence to also be registered within the city. That has evoked outcry from the industry, which says the added burden of registering in a city that isn’t home is unfair.

David Dadekian, founder and president of Eat Drink RI, is a proponent of both the restaurant and food-truck industries, but sees them as two different type of businesses. If you want plumbing and a permanent location, he says, open a restaurant. If you want mobility and an irregular work schedule, open a food truck. The conflict between the two is not as controversial as it seems, he adds.

“Frankly, it’s a minority of restaurants that complain,” he said. “As for benefits of one industry over the other, there are some on both sides.”

Both Weiner and Dadekian agree that the food-truck and restaurant industries could benefit from a more coherent regulatory model at the state level.

“Where the rules are clearer and easier, it’s much more competitive,” Weiner said. “Food trucks don’t have the time or money to navigate how to do business in every town or city.”

But how the food-truck industry moves forward could largely depend on how regulations are formed. In the meantime, however, committed food-truck owners will continue to try and earn a living.

“When I started this business, I wasn’t out to hurt anybody,” Gervais said. “Not a brick-and-mortar, not another food truck, not anything. I’ll never be a millionaire doing this, I don’t think, unless I get the Powerball. But it’s good enough that I can keep building it and keep my numbers up.” •

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