Will Chicago All Fired Up keep its license?

For the last six months or so, I’ve been traveling around the country researching food trucks for a book I’m working on, and I’m constantly embarrassed when a truck owner asks me about Chicago’s food truck scene. “Uh, well, we don’t really have one,” I say, sheepishly. We have Maxwell Street Market, fantastic ethnic food of all types, great bars and fine dining galore—but no real food trucks.

Or so I thought. A few months ago, Troy Marcus Johnson got wind of my book and shot me an email to tell me about his food truck Chicago All Fired Up. I profiled him in last week's TOC, but before I did, I made sure that he was (A) legal and (B) that the city wasn’t going to flip out when they read the article. Johnson knew exactly what he was doing by contacting me—he was looking to get some buzz going and sell some more of his killer fried chicken and smoked rib tips—and he also knew the risks involved with being, in his words (and also mine), a pioneer. If you read the article, you know that he somehow got through the red tape of licensing by getting a health inspector from the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) to inspect his truck as a restaurant (it passed with flying colors and is actually cleaner than 75% of the restaurant kitchens I’ve seen); securing a mobile food vendors license as an appendage to his restaurant license; and obtaining a permit to sell at 63rd Street beach through the Chicago Park District. From a city, county and park standpoint, his truck is legal.

So point A was met. In regards to point B, when I called the city to get their take on the issue before running the story, Public Information Officer Efrat Stein wouldn’t go on the record about Johnson's specific case, but she did assure me that if he had the proper permits, licenses, etc, that he was good to go, at least until his current permit is up for review (in October 2010). But where the issue gets sticky is that Stein pointed out what I had already known to be the thorn in the side of a real food truck scene: Chicago's mobile food vendors are supposed to be selling prepared, prepackaged food, not actually cooking on the truck. However, Johnson’s inspection from the CDPH is a restaurant inspection, giving him the right to cook with the same equipment one would in a restaurant. Johnson's operation exists in a delicate gray area where overlapping permits make it legal in theory—but subject to scrutiny from the city in practice.

That's why I've spent the last couple of weeks attempting to set up a meeting with CDPH Director Tim Hadac, Frances Guichard (Director of Administration for the Chicago Department of Public Health’s Food Protection Program) and Troy Johnson, as well as a couple other Chicago chefs who actually have a vested interest in the topic of food trucks (read: they want in). Forming a coalition to support a movement that TOC Food Editor David Tamarkin has dubbed Street Food Now seems to be the best chance we have in convincing the city of Chicago to reassess the current regulations requiring food trucks to sell only prepared, prepackaged foods. And Johnson is the ideal poster boy for this movement: a hard-working husband and father looking to support his family by making the most of his entrepreneurial spirit and cooking abilities—and somebody who has done everything by the book, jumping through every hoop the city, county and Park District have set before him.

Unfortunately, thanks to the buzz, Johnson is currently in a very precarious place. Friday, the day after the piece came out, I got a voice mail from Johnson thanking me and informing me that he was seeing a spike in Facebook “friends,” getting phone calls from people wanting to know where his truck would be that night, and seeing new faces come to the truck to try his food. The next day, Saturday, I got a text from Johnson: “The city is looking to revoke the license.” I immediately called him and asked what was happening. “I was parked at a usual spot, 83rd and Stony Island, and a guy came by saying he was an off-duty health department employee. He said that since they had read the article and found out about me they were going to shut me down, revoke the license,” Johnson said. “I asked him for his name. He wouldn’t give it. And he said ‘someone will be back Monday to shut you down’ and he left. Still wouldn’t give me his name.”

I immediately contacted Hadac to confirm, asking him if Johnson’s license was in danger of being revoked. He responded “I can assure you there are no plans I am aware of to shut him down on Monday.” He also asked for the name and/or description of the alleged CDPH employee “so we can investigate. We take such matters seriously.” He went on to confirm that my request for a group meeting to discuss the mobile food vendor regulations was “under review” and assured me that the city has every intention of responding, and he genuinely seems open to the idea of a discussion.

When I called Johnson to pass along Hadac’s assurance that his truck will not be shut down today as threatened, Johnson was dealing with a Chicago Police Department officer hassling him to move his truck. “He came over and said I’ve been sitting here too long and that the peddling license means you’re supposed to keep moving,” Johnson said. “I calmly explained to him I don’t have a peddler’s license and that they don’t give those to food vendors. He said ‘Okay, it’s the push cart license like those Mexican food vendors and you need to keep moving’ to which I said ‘No, it’s a mobile food vendors license and you’re misinformed. I can be in one area for four to six hours.’ I showed him all of my permits, licenses, everything and again explained the municipal code to him and he said ‘I’ve been doing this for 20 years and if I have to go to the station and get the code and bring it back I’m gonna write you up a citation.’ So basically this is a perfect example of the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing. A perfect example as to why we need to get everyone on the same page."

Johnson continued: "If I’m gonna be the fall guy or the catalyst for change, either way, that’s fine. All that matters is that we show them that this is a viable business model and that in today’s economy this is a way that a person can make an honest living…but first we have to get them to listen.”

Stay tuned to this space—we''re going to continue to work with Johnson to make sure that listening happens.