Wednesday, July 27: Cha Cha Chow and Sarah's Cake Stop was parked at Euclid and Forest Park today. Not sure what happened but when I find out I'll let you know!
Incredibly, after two days of posts about the food trucks parked next to BJC's Center for Advanced Medicine, and a huge bump in readership because of it, there is an article in today's St. Louis Post-Dispatch titled "Some mobile food vendors get the boot." According to P.D. reporter Joe Holleman, "This week, city officials (the Health Department) began running them off!" Apparently Euclid and Forest Park Boulevard is a "no vending" zone; whereas downtown St. Louis is a "vending zone."
According to Joe, BJC officials have been supportive of the food trucks, saying its employees are frequent patrons, and they'd like to see more on Mondays. The reporter's calls to Joe Roddy, Alderman of the 17th Ward, have not been returned. The identity of the dissatisfied parties who made the initial call to the police remains a mystery.
Unfortunately, a fun summer dining experience in the neighborhood is on the ropes. Read about it here!
I asked Pi’s Chris Sommers what the latest was and he said Mayor Slay loves the trucks and is trying to work something out. Rumor is BJC’s cafeteria, which is independently owned, complained.
Can we form some kind of protest? Petition?
My guess is the restaurants on the North side of Forest Park complained to Roddy who ran the trucks off.
Brick and mortar restaurants complain that the food trucks have a competitive advantage without the cost of maintaining a building and paying property taxes, etc.