Rolling Hunger

Kurt Beecher Dammier opened Maximus/Minimus as an extension of his food business. Photograph by Brooke Fitts.

Tessie Decker and a clutch of co-workers cancelled meetings to join the half-block queue outside a smoke-spewing 1962 Airstream trailer parked on a South Lake Union side street.

Its like a little adventure, she says. First you have to find the truckit could be anywhere in townthen find out whats on the menuit could be anything.

The trailer is Skillet, one of many mobile food trucks in Seattle. Decker and her fellow queuers are after the huge $12 ($13 with fries) grass-fed beef burgers with fresh arugula, smeared with Cambozola and Skillets signature condiment, bacon jam.

A Canadian Food Network film crew hovers with cameras and microphone booms, doing impromptu interviews with full-mouthed customers.

This crowd on this summer day is not chasing cheap eats: Skillets price point is higher than most of its competitors. The customers are young and white collar, alerted via Twitter, Facebook or e-mail blasts to a list of 20,000 Skillet subscribers. They poke at smartphones as they stand in line, talking shop and talking food. Theres the feel of a flash mob, that this is something a little outlaw.

In fact, it is: Here, today, Skillet is illegal, operating without a permit. Owner Josh Henderson parked the trailer on the street next to Cascade Playground, bought a sticker from the parking meter, slapped it on a window, stoked his mesquite and opened for business. The city does little to enforce such infractions.

There have always been roach coaches in industrial parking lots and hot dog grillers outside clubs at 2 a.m. But who could have foreseen rolling modern kitchens in sleek trailers and tricked-out vans serving Spam sushi, kimchi quesadillas, or poutine, french fries with herbed cheese curds and gravy, a Canadian bar food thats hot in Seattle these days?

Its a national trend: Trucks are rolling in Portland, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Austin and New York. Tacos came first, following a Southwest tradition of Mexicans serving Mexican food to Mexicans far from home. Then kebabs, falafel, Chinese dumplings, Philly cheesesteaks, banh mi, crepes, barbecue. Suddenly, there was a sleek fleet of independent trucks, carts and sidewalk stands handing upscale food to hungry lines at farmers markets, festivals and crowds in every neighborhood.

Josh Henderson, owner of Skillet Street Food, is expanding to stores and a restaurant. Photograph by Hayley Young.

Then add mouthwatering media attention to the recipe. The lens adores the photogenic trucks; NPR, city magazines and newspapers love the entrepreneurial chefs serving fancy food in parking lots. Seattles Marination Mobile, a popular blue truck and entrepreneurial enterprise of Roz Edison and Kamala Saxton, was named the Best Food Truck in America last year by ABCs Good Morning America.

Its a rolling revolution, the happy confluence of a low-overhead business model serving handheld foods to up-ticket customers cheaply in a recession.

Seattle is still behind the curve with just 316 mobile food licenses; Portland has 549, and has added over 100 mobile units to its fleet since last spring.

This is very sexy and popular and global. [Seattleites] want to feel theyre in a world-class city with world-class options, one of which is street food, says Michael Wells, interim director of the Capitol Hill Chamber of Commerce. Theres a new food culture and this is part of that.

For the entrepreneur, theres far less startup capital required than for a restaurant with a front door and bathrooms. Plus, theres low overheadno lease, no property taxes, no furniture, few fixtures, no kitchen/dining space ratios to sweat. Nor are there servers, busboys, janitors, dishwashersfor that matter, no dishes.

Some brick-and-mortar competitors, however, have deserted their free-market rhetoric and mounted fierce opposition, claiming unfair competition without the same regulatory restraints.

Street vendors do not need permits, says Karsten Betd, co-owner of Julias on Broadway. They dont need a building. They put up their cart in the morning, make their money and leave.

Theyve had a rough couple of years, says Wells, speaking of his Broadway corridor members in the restaurant business. The chamber is divided on the issue and has not taken an official stand one way or another.

A Portland study shows that neighborhood business improves with street vendors, that existing businesses actually gain from the vibrancy and street activation they bring.

Betd doesnt buy that. Food vendors arent going to bring me more customers because [theyre] out there, Betd says. Itd be the same customer base, but all of a sudden I have 10 food vendors out there competing with me.

In theory, a food truck is a food factory driven to where the customers are, with product served up by the production workers. Patrons expect less and love to expect less because they pay less. Plus, its cool.

But it isnt just making beignets into money. There are problems and there is rent.

The regulatory rigors of the city of Seattle and Public Health-Seattle and King County are daunting, expensive and time consuming, says Kurt Beecher Dammeier, owner of Maximus/Minimus, the popular, pig-shaped truck selling large, barbecue sandwiches downtown and elsewhere.

The privilege of subjecting a mobile unit to these rigors is $5,000 a year, plus $300 per location. Just as restaurants do, the trucks must have employee hand sinks, hot water and reliable refrigeration.

Though they do it while the city isnt adequately funding enforcement, food trucks cant legally sell from the curb and most dont. The cost of parking on public or private property must be negotiated and, according to Public Health rules, must be within 200 feet of restrooms.

In the small-ticket, thin-margin business, the required biodegradable food trays can add a dollar to the cost of lunch, and theres no selling of alcohol with its helpful markup. Its all handheld foods sold one at a time.

Los Angeles and San Francisco allow trucks to cook from raw ingredients on board. Seattle requires that food originate from an inspected commissary. That means paying two rents, says Dammeier, with the commissaries meaning double the inspections, plus other costs and problems.

When your store is a vehicle, there are costs and liabilities that most built-out joints dont have to think about: gas prices, tires, clean driving records for employees. Traffic gridlock must be factored into the time-equals-money equation.

An argument in favor of food carts is that theyre mobile incubatorsaccessible small starts that enable creative entrepreneurs to open up shop. Henderson says he uses his Airstream for branding two related businessesa catering company and a Capitol Hill restaurant to open in Februaryand for selling his signature bacon jam, which was picked up by Whole Foods in August.

Dammeier has gone the other direction, setting up a food cart after he already established Beechers Handmade Cheese in the Pike Place Market, three Pasta & Co. restaurants and Bennetts Pure Food Bistro on Mercer Island.

Seattle Mayor Mike McGinns administration is about to reform the rules to create a culture of restaurants on wheels. Mobile dining opportunities will be greatly expanded if the citys new regulations are smiled upon by the city council.

Gary Johnson of the citys Department of Planning and Development has been working with all the parties. Weve worked hard to make a balanced approach. Weve tried to address the legitimate concerns, such as 50-foot setbacks from restaurants or other businesses.

While the restaurant community at large seems to support street food, the complaints are coming from smaller restaurateurs who are directly affected. Johnson says he didnt receive any negative feedback when he presented to the Washington State Restaurant Association.

Despite the relatively few complaints, the Seattle political winds are at the backs of mobile food vending. The trucks and stands are hugely popular and politicians know it.

I tell the [complaining] restaurateurs: Youve lost the public on this, the Capitol Hill Chamber of Commerces Wells says. They say, We dont want to be obstructionists, we just want a clean playing field.