Food trucks have been making their way all across the country since the recession hit, providing a low-cost, high-quality alternative to restaurant meals. While they’ve been welcomed in Durham, Raleigh had drawn up her bridges and told them to go home.

Until now. After a year of fighting city hall, Michael Stenke of Klausie’s Pizza anticipates Raleigh City Council will amend its zoning code Tuesday to allow food trucks to park in select locations throughout the city. While Stenke sees the potential law change as a victory, other food truck operators think it’s a hollow one.

Earlier zoning regulations prevented food trucks from parking anywhere in the city, on public streets or in private parking lots. Under the new law, the owners of private parking lots would be allowed to host food trucks, but tough restrictions would remain. Food truck owners and would-be operators fear that even the new rules would bar most mobile vendors from hawking their wares.

The proposed regulations would let food trucks operate in Raleigh as long as the following conditions were met:

• The food trucks must be located at least 100 feet from restaurants and 50 feet from food vending carts (hot dog stands).

• Half-acre lots can host only one truck, acre-sized lots can host no more than two trucks, and two-acre lots can host no more than three trucks.

• Food truck operators must prove they have a commissary — a restaurant or commercial kitchen — in which they can dump their waste and store their food.

Size and space restrictions

Carolina Journal asked the Raleigh Planning Commission how many parking lots would meet the 100-foot requirement and how many of them would be big enough to host more than one truck.

“No extensive study such as this was conducted,” Planning Commissioner Greg Hallam responded.

So, while there are no official numbers on how many food trucks the new ordinance would bring to Raleigh, food truck owner Nicole Belmo doubts it’s many.

Belmo and her husband sell German pretzels, brats, and coffee from a truck they’ve named Café Prost. They’ve been unable to identify many private businesses both meeting the above requirements and willing to host trucks.

Lone Rider Brewing Company, in North Raleigh, is open to food trucks, she said, but because of its size, it has room for only one. And that slot has been filled by Valentino’s Food Truck.

Big Boss Brewery also welcomes food trucks. The owner even has designated a special section of his parking lot for them. But Stenke calculates the city’s restrictions will leave room for only two trucks.

Ruben’s Downtown, a new breakfast and lunch restaurant, has invited food trucks, Stenke said, but he’s not sure if it’s 100 feet from the nearby Oakwood Café. Judging by Google Maps, it’s a close call.

Ornamentea, a jewelry store on West Street, has invited Klausie’s Pizza truck to park in its lot, but the location has room for only one truck, and Stenke said he didn’t know whether the jeweler generated enough foot traffic to warrant locating there.

The Ugly Monkey, a bar that does not sell food, may be a fifth option. “I believe we could park on the far side of Ugly Monkey’s parking lot, away from Flying Saucer [a bar that sells food],” Stenke said.

The other obstacle

Belmo said the hardest hurdle for her to jump has been the commissary requirement.

“It’s extremely difficult to find a place [a restaurant or commercial kitchen] that understands what it’s all about, that we’re not trying to take over their kitchen or use their equipment,” Belmo said. “We have everything we need on our truck.”

The only thing she doesn’t have is a health-department-approved receptacle to dump her dirty water and the small amount of grease her pretzels and brats produce.

The only commissary she’s found who is willing to rent her space is The Cookery in Durham, about 45 minutes from her home in Wake Forest.

Stenke has secured a commissary agreement in Raleigh, but refused to say where. “I’m keeping it a secret,” Stenke said. “You’ve got to keep your commissary close to you because they are very, very valuable. Without your commissary, you’re done.”

He pays the owners of the kitchen $500 for a space to make his pizza dough, dump his waste and park his truck. It’s is illegal to park commercial vehicles in your driveway in Raleigh, he noted.

The American dream

Belmo, a Panamanian, is a first generation American. Her husband is German and grew up eating his grandmother’s German pretzels. Pretzels are their passion. Belmo thought, in America, she would have the opportunity to make a profit off of her passion, but it’s harder than she expected.

“All we want to do is serve pretzels,” she said. “We want to serve people. But we’re coming up against all of this bureaucracy, all of these restaurants that don’t understand what the American model of free enterprise is.”

Belmo and her husband have done some traveling, noting that in much of the rest of the world “street food” is plentiful. She talked about how world-class chefs, like Anthony Bourdain, are “not above” eating street food. In many places, street food is considered a delicacy.

But in Raleigh, the owners of brick and mortar restaurants “have taken this kind of elitist attitude, saying because you’re in a food truck that your food may not be as good, or that you’re going to de-class or degrade the city,” Belmo said.

“I think they’re just afraid, and I can understand that, but it’s called competition,” she said. “Get a better product.”

Stenke said competition is exactly what restaurateurs have asked the city to stifle.

“City Council has admitted that the purpose of the rules is to limit competition downtown,” Stenke said. That’s the only reason they gave. They didn’t cite safety or security or anything.”

Stenke was collecting unemployment benefits and trying to support a 1-year-old son when he started Klausie’s Pizza (named after his son) a year ago with $19,000 he borrowed. He said he’s not afraid of competition, and hopes to see a whole new culinary culture blossom in Raleigh. He hopes to eventually own his own restaurant with a large parking lot, where he can host “food truck rodeos.”

City council will consider and likely vote on the zoning amendment at its meeting Tuesday at 1 p.m.

Sara Burrows is an associate editor of Carolina Journal.