Want to see a more vibrant, thriving food truck scene in New Orleans? Now’s your opportunity. Sign the petition to change New Orleans’ current food truck laws HERE.

We reported a few weeks ago that New Orleans food truck owners as well as community groups, restauranteurs, bar owners, property owners and other street food advocates were in the process of organizing to make it easier to receive permits and operate as a food truck in New Orleans.

The newly formed New Orleans Food Truck Coalition is getting ready to approach City Council with proposed changes they’d like to see happen to the City’s current ordinances. But they need your help! Show the City of New Orleans that street food is an important part of our city’s economy and culture – helping create jobs and small business owners, helping bring food options to undeserved areas, and helping reduce blight on vacant, underutilized properties. Not to mention the food, glorious food that is so much of what New Orleans is about.

In case you missed it last month, the city has been all abuzz with the issues (and problems) around laws in New Orleans for mobile street food vendors. First there was a bit of a kerfuffle when a local truck set up near a local business on Magazine St., and someone complained to a City Councilwoman about it.

Then, the Times Picayune wrote this in-depth and thoughtful article about the problems with New Orleans’ mobile food regulations and how local vendors are trying to address them. Then, the Gambit also weighed in with this article. We felt the Gambit article was written with good intentions and brought up some good points. However, we do take issue with the article’s emphasis that this is a “food truck vs. restaurant” issue. We’ve heard very few complaints, if any, from local restaurants, in fact we’ve seen the opposite. Many local restaurateurs, including some of the biggest names in New Orleans dining have publicly stated they love Food Trucks and will go on record to help support mobile vending with City Council. Even groups such as the French Market Association and several bar owners are working to get MORE, not less food trucks as it relates to their businesses.

The biggest problems seem to stem from confusion on what the ordinances actually mean in everything from number of permits available, to where vendors can park, to enforcement. “It’s a bureaucratic Red Tape nightmare”, is how one vendor put it to us. Word is vendors often get different answers from different city officials, and enforcement seems to be based on the whim and confusion of whomever is enforcing whatever on any given day. This, as you can imagine has led to deep frustrations from vendors, customers, city staff, land owners, City Council, and just about anyone who deals with mobile vending issues. There are also complaints that the laws are unfair and biased, regressive, out of date, non-nonsensical and badly written.

Another big issue is around mobile food permits for Mardi Gras. Done on a “raffle style” basis, many local vendors feel this has created a situation where locals are given short shift. Instead of trucks and carts selling delicious local cuisine such as Jambalaya, Gumbo, Po’Boys and the like like one might see at Jazz Fest, Mardi Gras parade routes are filled with non-local vendors selling nothing but cheap and non-nutrious carnival style corn dogs, elephant ears, and other junk foods. Local vendors would like to see a Mardi Gras mobile food vendor permitting process that encourages the support of locally owned small businesses AND helps celebrate and showcase the diversity and unique offerings of New Orleans cuisine. As one vendor put it,

Wouldn’t it be great if Mardi Gras was known as much for our wonderful local food offerings the same way Jazz Fest is?

To this we say, YES, pass the Crystal Hot Sauce!

However, New Orleans’ mobile food vendors are a strong, savvy, and now organized group. They have gotten together to work with City Hall and are proposing new ordinances that are easy to interpret, more equitable for vendors and neighborhoods, and fall in line with cities such as San Francisco, Austin, Seattle and other cities who have recently overhauled their ordiences. Mardi Gras permits are also on the list.

Do note, the mobile vendors and supporters (including us here at NOLA Food Trucks) have made it very clear that they aren’t at battle with the City on this issue. The mobile vendors really want to work together with the City, storefront restaurants, neighborhoods and other stakeholders as active partners to create a better system that is more fair and easier for everyone.

We aren’t sure what the next steps are or how this will be received by City Council. However, stay tuned and we’ll let you know how you too can give New Orleans City Council your opinion and support our local mobile vendors when this issue moves forward.

So tell us Food Truck lovers, how do you think you can help support local food trucks and get City Council to fix these issues?

Earlier this week, Nissan debuted its latest concept at the Los Angeles Auto Show- a high-roofed van manufactured specifically for the food truck industry. The NV-1500/2500/3500 models offer chrome bumpers, cargo area work lights, Bluetooth system, upgraded audio systems, fold-out serving windows and work counters. Base prices range from $24,950 for a standard-roof NV1500 to $30,150 for a high-roof NV3500. Nissan will also provide an outfitting service that can produce and install graphics on the exterior of the food van.

The reported benefits of the food van are the heightened space internally and decreased length externally, allowing for mobile food vendors to maneuver and find parking spaces more easily.

I’m thinking this may be a line in the sand… Tribute to vintage trucks, repurposed mail trucks vs. new and most likely easier mode of transbusiness. Truck/cart vs. van.

Benefits: ease, shiny and new. No more breakdowns. Negatives: seems like you still have to install equipment and a generator if needed, which could be costly. The look. Not sure about that just yet. But then again, I’m a lover of vintage, tradition, and celebration of the old through channels of the new.

What do you think?

Over here at NOLA Food Trucks, we are constantly amazed at the creativity and talent coming out of the New Orleans mobile food community. Take this idea for example which is currently trying to get funding on Kickstarter.com.

It’s a Mobile Kitchen & Dining Room to explore and celebrate New Orleans cuisine and other local foods in all their many forms. Sounds great to us! From the Ruby Slippers NOLA (not to be confused with the Ruby Slipper restaurants of similar name):

Ruby Slippers NOLA will offer historic culinary tours by licensed New Orleans tour guides, on bus tastings, cooking demonstrations by local chefs, and hands on cooking classes.

We will highlight local ingredients, restaurants giving back to the community, and properties attempting to rebuild after the oil spill and Katrina.  Ruby Slippers NOLA will focus on family operated businesses in need of rebuilding and support and will highlight historic neighborhoods of New Orleans.  We will show locals and tourists alike the history, culture and impact of this unique regional cuisine.

How will we do it? We plan to create a mobile dining room! Think about it, non-slip dishes, comfy seats, even white tablecloths…all in a bus.  A complete mobile dining room!

Between stops our guests will learn about the history of this great city and the cultural influences impacting the cuisine. If we get our permit for the double-decker bus, we will have a full dining room upstairs and a commercial kitchen and counter space downstairs. We plan to add a bathroom, surround sound system and a top of the line air conditioning system.  This won’t just be a bus, it will be a luxury dining room…

…ULTIMATE GOAL:

Pending City Approval and Bus Availability:
We have found the bus and want to buy it!  We also are waiting on city approval (they won’t let us buy the bus until approval is complete)

We are seeking funding for a 2 story bus or limo bus which can be converted into a culinary masterpiece: mobile kitchen and tables/seating complete with non-slip dishes, bathroom, surround sound and top of the line air conditioning system.  If the city approves this project, we will conduct on board tasting and history tours.  The on board commercial kitchen will be available for cooking demonstrations, classes and for use as commercial kitchen space for start up culinary businesses.

BACKUP PLAN:

We know the approval process with the city of New Orleans can be complicated and long and we run the risk of losing our bus! If in the unfortunate event the city gives us grief and won’t support our project, we have a back up plan!  We will purchase a large van (12-15 passenger) or small limo bus and outfit it as a mobile dining room…we will make these food tours happen no matter what!  Then, we will outfit a commercial style kitchen within a building in New Orleans.  We will still offer our culinary tours, tastings, classes and demonstrations! Oh…and the kitchen will still be available for use for start up culinary businesses!!!  It isn’t as cool as our ultimate goal plan, but it isn’t a bad second choice.  While we are working on our backup plan, we will continue to work with the city for the ultimate goal to happen too!!!!

For more information, and to support this innovative mobile food project, check out the Ruby Slippers NOLA Kickstarter page. We’ve dropped the founder, Amy Sins, a note asking her to contact us here at NOLA Food Trucks, so we’ll keep y’all posted.