Mobile Food Trucks: Friend or Foe of Roseville Businesses?

Joseph Looza is a restaurant owner.  His restaurant has a name, El Matador Mobile Mex, but as for its location, well, it can be in a number of places since Looza is a mobile food truck vendor.

Most days during the lunch hour, El Matador Mobile Mex can be found at the Roseville Auto Mall, but the brightly-colored red and yellow coach has also been spotted in several other Roseville locations as well as Folsom and even Sacramento.

“I’ve been in business with my truck for about five months,” Looza said. “My
background is working in restaurants and the reason I decided to go with the mobile restaurant idea is because of financing. This is an inexpensive way to test a product.”

Looza said he serves primarily Mexican cuisine with specialties such as Matador Carnitas Quesadillas, but after talking with many customers he decided to also offer Mexican/Asian fusion fare, which includes entrees like Spicy Asian steak tacos and Asian Slaw.

Gourmet food truck vendors have become a trend for many foodies and their popularity is rising throughout cities across the country including the San Francisco area where diners can enjoy an artisan popsicle mobile, an organic cookie and muffin vendor and a Crème Brule cart business.

This past August, Roseville Patch reported on a that included mobile food trucks such MiniBurger, Wicked Wich, Mama Kim’s, Drewski's, Hot Rod Kitchen and VolksWaffle.  The menu offered gourmet fare like garlic and truffle oil topped tater tots, a s’more-like sandwich with Nutella, marshmallow and graham cracker, hand-pressed waffles and mini burgers.

A recent in Roseville resulted in 87 percent of the respondents saying the food trucks should be allowed and they liked having an alternative to dine-in restaurants.

But not everyone agrees with this popular trend. Terri Merriwether and Kathy Garner, owners of Smokin’ Hot Dog in Historic Old Town Roseville, recently attended a Roseville City Council meeting where they voiced apprehension to council members about the food trucks in Roseville.

“We are concerned about the lack of a city ordinance regarding mobile food vendors,” Merriwether told the council during the public comment portion of the Nov. 2 council meeting.

Merriwether said her business has experienced a financial impact due to the unregulated vendors on two different occasions when food trucks were visiting Roseville’s historic area.

“We’ve seen our revenues decline by 65 percent on those dates,” Merriwether said.

Because of this decline, Merriwether asked the council to consider some of the codes the city of Sacramento uses to regulate its food vendors.

“It’s hard to compete with vendors that just roll in,” she told council members. “We are a positive addition to the area and we pay taxes, rent and utilities. We chose to be here for the long haul, but now that might not be the reality.”

According to Wayne Wiley, associate planner for the city of Roseville, currently there are no ordinances that regulate mobile food trucks within the Roseville city limits. Wiley said the city is in the process of gathering information from other California cities as to regulation.

“There is so much variance from city to city as to how food trucks are handled,” he said. “This issue came to our attention from Roseville business owners and I anticipate we will come up with a few options on the situation to present to the council.”

As for Looza, he said there is a possibility his mobile business could be drawing customers from brick and mortar establishments, but so could any other restaurant.

“I have to search for my business,” he said. “We’re trying to visit those companies who want us there on a regular basis. The feedback we’ve been receiving is good.”