Earlier this week, Grub Street posted about the city’s License and Inspections take on the recent seizure of two popular cupcake trucks. The agency’s explanation was that the operators did not have the proper permits and licenses required for selling food from a truck and were operating in restricted areas. Today Kate Carrara, aka Buttercream Cupcake Lady, whose truck was impounded, told the Daily News that the city rules for food trucks are a mishmash of contradictions that are comprised of pages upon pages of incomprehensible drivel with multiple revisions, that she, a former lawyer and her husband, who is still a lawyer, could hardly decipher. And just when they thought they had it all figured out, they learned the hard way that they were wrong.
And really it’s no wonder. In New York rules for food trucks are clearly spelled out in seven concise, easy-to-read pages. In Philly, the rules are a 20-page mess. Making matters much worse, vending permits are so outdated that the language used for them describes horse-drawn wagons. Complicating matters further are old school vendors that pay $3,000 a year to park their roach coaches in one of the city’s 400 legal spots are ratting out the likes of the half-dozen tweeting and roaming newcomers.
No Room to Roam [Daily News]
Earlier: Cupcake Wars? On the Streets of Philly, It’s More Like Cupcake Woes
