XPost: ba.food, misc.immigration.usa, alt.politics.republicans   
   XPost: sac.politics   
   From: noreply@dirge.harmsk.com   
      
   Michael Rotella is fed up.   
      
   Every week, from Thursday to Sunday, illegal food trucks pull up near   
   his SoMa restaurant and steal dozens of his customers, he says.   
      
   Since he took ownership of Rocco’s Cafe just over a year ago, Rotella   
   has lost an estimated $1,500 in nightly revenue to food trucks that park   
   outside his Italian restaurant on what would otherwise be his busiest   
   nights.   
      
   Food trucks say they don’t compete unfairly because they serve after   
   nearby restaurants close, but Rotella is one of three Folsom Street   
   restaurateurs who say they’ve lost business or been forced to close   
   earlier because of trucks and hot dog carts operating without proper   
   permits.   
      
   “The city doesn’t do anything about it,” said Rotella, who last year   
   moved his closing time from 2 a.m. to 11 p.m. because he couldn’t afford   
   to keep longer hours with dwindling customers. “It’s insulting to an   
   operator paying rent and permits for a truck to just pull up and sell   
   food.”   
      
   The three food trucks The Standard spotted Feb. 7 on or near Folsom   
   Street are operating illegally, according to the city.   
      
   The Brothers.SF truck on Folsom Street between Seventh and Langton has a   
   Department of Public Health permit to sell food but does not have one   
   from the Department of Public Works to operate on the street. The   
   Brothers.SF truck parked at 11th and Harrison streets has no permit from   
   either department. The Plaza Garibaldy truck has permits from both   
   departments but is allowed to sell food only at 475 California St., in   
   the Financial District — more than a mile from Folsom.   
      
   A representative of the Department of Public Health said it investigates   
   illegal street vending every day through a multi-agency task force   
   created in 2022. When asked if the unit proactively patrols the city   
   after business hours, the department did not respond.   
      
   The city has received seven complaints since 2021 about food vending on   
   Folsom Street between Sixth and 12th streets and one at 11th and   
   Harrison streets, according to DPW. Inspectors have issued five notices   
   of correction and two notices of violation, the latter carrying a $100   
   fine, to illegal food vendors near Folsom since March 2024, including at   
   least one that stemmed from a complaint.   
      
   Between July 1, 2023, and Dec. 19, 2024, the task force conducted 313   
   inspections citywide and impounded food or other merchandise 239 times.   
      
   Brothers.SF owner Elluver Gomez said restaurants have not complained to   
   him directly about his trucks. He said his trucks, including one at 3650   
   Geary Blvd. and one on Orizaba Avenue in Oceanview, are legal, and he’s   
   never been issued a citation.   
      
   But Gomez failed to produce the required permits from Public Works for   
   any of his trucks. During an interview Feb. 20 outside one of his trucks   
   parked at Geary and Arguello boulevards, Gomez claimed to have the   
   permits at home and said he would send photos. He did not do so.   
      
   Julio Andrade, a cook at Plaza Garibaldy on Folsom near Dore Street,   
   said the truck had parked there for a decade. Andrade, 46, said the   
   company, in business for 12 years, operates three trucks around San   
   Francisco.   
      
   Department of Public Health inspection stickers from 2024 were stuck to   
   the truck’s passenger window, although Andrade was unable to present   
   permits from that agency or Public Works. He said he didn’t know the   
   name of the owner of the company.   
      
   Andrade estimated that the Folsom truck alone sees between 200 and 300   
   customers on any given summer night. Around 11 p.m. on a recent Friday,   
   he guessed he had served 100 customers that night.   
      
   Bar and nightclub patrons say the illegal food vendors fill a   
   much-needed gap late at night, when restaurants are closed.   
      
   “They’re targeting bar traffic, not restaurant traffic,” Mike Sorreli   
   said as he waited for food outside the Plaza Garibaldy truck.   
      
   Olivia Wells was getting off work when she stopped by a hot dog cart on   
   Folsom and Sixth. The 25-year-old sous chef at AB Steak agreed that   
   restaurants don’t cater to late-night bar crowds.   
      
   “I’m not sitting down at 10 p.m.,” Wells said.   
      
   Prodding half a dozen hot dogs with metal tongs on the corner of Folsom   
   and Sixth, a street vendor named Rocio, who declined to share her last   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)