Tag: Buffalo

Curtin’s motives are unknown, but what he is attempting to accomplish amounts to nothing more than protectionism and anticompetitive behavior in a town not noted for its business friendliness or open-mindedness. The fact that the current ordinance was passed was amazing.

Whether it's the Lloyd, the pioneer in the field, or the Roaming Buffalo or the Cheesy Chick or the Black Market Food Truck or Knight Slider or the Whole Hog or the Sweet Hearth or R&R BBQ or Amy's Truck or Frank's Gourmet Hot Dogs, Buffalo's food trucks have provided Buffalonians with greater access to high-quality, local food.

Buffalo's array of food trucks received another year Tuesday as Common Council members approved new licenses and lower fees.

No decision has been made. But some of the city legislators we spoke with said they would be open to lowering the fee.

Despite their popularity nationwide, food trucks are still relatively new to the Buffalo area, and in many communities, peddling laws written to govern door-to-door salesmen, some dating from the early 1900s, are the closest things on the books to a regulation for these mobile kitchens.

City officials set vendor fees at a thousand dollars a truck per year. The trucks also have to stay at least 100 feet away from the closest traditional brick-and-mortar restaurant.

Buffalo charges trucks $1,000 per year, while it costs a restaurant between $175 – 325 per year to hold a take out license. The city claims that it needs to charge trucks $1,000 per year because of the administrative costs involved, yet refuses to release a breakdown of those costs.

But before that truck can sell anything, there are rules to follow and fees to be paid.

What we're looking for is just something reasonable so that we can operate our business and have a little bit lower fees so we can actually bring the food to the public like we want to do

Two new food trucks, Hott Mess and Nico's Arepas, are scheduled to join Mayor Bob Buckhorn's Food Truck Fiesta