Good News on the Food Truck Front

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Two bits of favorable news for the city’s food truck industry: The D.C. Council last week approved a revised bill regulating food trucks—the first new vending regs in more than 30 years—and six of the city’s mobile food trucks made Daily Meal’s list of the “101 Best Food Trucks in America.”

The latest legislative action eases some limits on food trucks, which have grown rapidly in the past five years, and ends more than four years of acrimonious debate on where and how they can operate. What the guidelines do:

  • Impose a monthly lottery for food truck locations in the Central Business District
  • Require food trucks failing to get a spot in a lottery zone to only park 200 feet away instead of the previously proposed 500 feet
  • Reduce parking violations from $2,000 to $50
  • Cut the amount of unobstructed sidewalk required to vend from 10 feet to six feet

Earlier this month, the Council also approved food safety and labor standards for food trucks, often seen near areas such as Franklin Park and McPherson Square and the Metro Center Metrorail station in Downtown. Next: the Council must set an implementation date for the regulations.

In related news, six food trucks that traverse D.C. stood out on a national list of the best food trucks compiled by Daily Meals, the dining news and culinary trends website. They include:

  • Rito Loco (No. 78), specializing in burritos
  • DC Slices (No. 72), serving pizza
  • Red Hook Lobster Pound D.C. (No. 66)
  • Pepe (No. 45), offering Chef Jose Andres Spanish sandwiches
  • Basil Thyme (No. 32), specializing in lasagnas
  • Fojol Bros. (No. 3), operating three trucks that sell Indian, Ethiopian and Thai cuisine.

Daily Meal looked at 450 food trucks. Overall, D.C.’s food trucks ranked fourth out of 40 U.S. cities on the list.