Barrett Anderson, a Boston musician known for his "renegade blues," is the in-house musician at Silk Road BBQ in Belmont. Ed Cornelia (right) owns the food shack and Ned Flood is his guest chef.
(Dina Rudick/Globe Staff)
The truck stops here
A small fleet of local roadside vendors has many well-fed fans
Barrett Anderson, a Boston musician known for his "renegade blues," is the in-house musician at Silk Road BBQ in Belmont. Ed Cornelia (right) owns the food shack and Ned Flood is his guest chef.
(Dina Rudick/Globe Staff)
The West Coast has its taco trucks and more recently, Korean barbecue on wheels; New York boasts miles of trucks (4,100) selling American, Middle Eastern, and Asian fare. But in Boston, food trucks have never been as much a part of the landscape as in other urban areas. There's falafel, Chinese food, gyros, and The Sausage Guy at Fenway Park. But there are so few trucks that their followers know where most of them are parked.
Truck aficionados have already discovered the newcomers: Clover Food Lab at MIT, Silk Road BBQ on a quiet stretch in Belmont, and two Trolley Stops in Framingham and Natick. Spring is a good time of year for mobile food vendors - sometimes called "roach coaches" - but these aren't just fair-weather entrepreneurs. Unless it's a fine day, you might not think of going to one for lunch, but most vendors are serving rain or shine.
There's a romantic element too. Some customers see the friendly faces serving them from a food truck and imagine themselves doing the same thing. Here's what people tell Diane Hyman, co-owner of The Trolley Stop: "This is what I've always wanted - this little cart business."
The little business might offer flexible hours and less investment than a brick-and-mortar restaurant, but food trucks can be logistical nightmares to get started. All require a mobile food license obtained from a local health department. In Boston, it's that canary yellow permit from Inspectional Services. "It tells you, number one, it's legal, and it's been inspected," says Tom Good fellow, the department's assistant commissioner. Owners and handlers undergo extensive food safety training and take a test as if they were opening a restaurant. They need a hawker and peddler license. If any food preparation is done in the truck or trailer, owners must get their makeshift kitchens approved by the local health department.
Once you get permits, you need to find a place to set up shop, which means paying rent in a private parking lot or getting another permit to operate in a public park. Boston, like other cities, has restrictions on certain streets and hours. After hours, owners must clean and store their trucks or units at a Health Department approved site. The licenses and permits cost a couple hundred dollars.
Perhaps the rules have deterred would-be vendors, though Boston's permitting process is no more rigorous than in other cities. Each year Boston issues about 300 permits, which includes everything from lemonade stands on Boston Common to hot dog carts in popular tourist areas. While there is a cap in Cambridge because of parking restrictions (the city has 29 vendors), there is not one in Boston.
For the vendors, dispensing food and happiness from the side of the road suits a particularly gregarious style. Food trucks "make you smile," says Ed Cornelia, Silk Road's co-owner. "It's just a happy serendipitous stop-to-smell-the-roses moment."
© Copyright 2009 Globe Newspaper Company.
