Making downtown food trucks work is tough, all around New Hampshire

May 04--Downtown food trucks are cool and popular and give off a modern, urban vibe that New Hampshire cities need in order to lure and keep young professionals, so we'll be seeing more them soon -- right?

Maybe, but don't hold your breath.

Consider that Nashua's newest food truck closed within months of opening, despite its owners' long experience with restaurants; Manchester's experiment with expanding food trucks near the Verizon Center seems to be fizzling; Portsmouth can't even get anybody to bid on the food-truck spaces it has made available; and in Durham, despite the presence of thousands of walking, hungry college students, food trucks keep failing.

An example of difficulties facing those who want to run a restaurant on wheels is Jackie's Mobile Diner in Nashua, which opened in March but is now shut, and the trailer is for sale.

Owner Carol Montminy ran Jackie's Diner on Main Street for 13 years before switching to a food-truck trailer this year because her lease wasn't going to be renewed.

"New Hampshire is not very business friendly for this kind of thing. There are a lot of hoops to jump through," said Montminy, who declined to discuss the situation further.

Anne-Marie Aigner, executive producer of Food Truck Festivals of New England, says it's not easy for communities to balance the wishes of existing restaurants, the needs of traffic flow and parking, the patterns of pedestrian traffic, and the needs of the businesses themselves.

"There are communities we go into which have no food truck programs in place, and they really don't know what to do with us," said Aigner, whose organization has 250 food trucks on its list.

Virtually all of these operate in eastern Massachusetts, although the traveling Food Truck Festival will come to Portsmouth'sRedhook Brewery on Oct. 5, its first venture into New Hampshire. She knew of no food trucks listed by her group that operate permanently in New Hampshire.

Better for big cities?

Big cities and places more dependent on tourists seem to be the best locales for food trucks.

"I think the model in New England is Boston, and even there it's still maturing," Aigner said. That city has worked hard to balance location, hours, number of spaces and total fees in its permitting system, she said. "It is probably one of the best model programs in the country."

Food trucks are vans or towed trailers in which the food is cooked inside to order, as compared to food carts, ice cream trucks or canteen trucks (a.k.a. "roach coaches"), in which the food is prepared elsewhere and brought to the site. Despite the mobility, they still have to meet the same food-safety standards as restaurants, covering such things as temperatures of the grill or stove or inside the refrigerator or freezer, the types of cooking utensils, preparation and cleanup sinks, counters and floor space, power supply and the like.

That license comes from the local health department and is largely standardized. The real complications come from business permits issued by the town clerk or code-enforcement officer, on top of state hawkers' licenses. These often carry hefty insurance requirements and require photo IDs, criminal background checks, location approval by fire and police departments, and other details.

Details can differ from town to town, making it tough for a truck planning to move around in search of seasonal audience.

Manchester, for example, does not allow food trucks to vend on any city streets or parking spaces, whereas Durham lets them occupy certain parking spaces as long as they keep feeding the meter. Portsmouth sets aside a couple of on-street spots, but you have to bid on them early in the year. Events like county fairs or carnivals require dealing with a whole different group: the private organizers.

In Manchester, city license inspector Jeff Bolduc said the state's biggest city wants more food trucks as part of its push to enliven the downtown.

It is in the process of reviewing expanded ordinances and rules to make recommendations, and has pursued a pilot program in the "civic center zone" around the Verizon Center and baseball stadium, which is largely a no- peddling area.

Only one trailer has taken advantage of it, he said, and it mostly depends on the after-hours bar crowd, which is creating problems -- first, because bars have to sell a certain amount of food to keep their liquor licenses and balk at the competition, and second, because the truck keeps crowds from dispersing after leaving bars, which can cause problems with noise, litter and rowdy behavior.

Location, location

That's typical of the sort of complications that can arise from trucks, Bolduc said.

"If there's a corner store in your neighborhood, a taco truck can't pull up -- all the neighbors going crazy because they smell tacos day and night, or there's a traffic hazard. They create blind spots; do you want that in front of your business?" he said.

Bolduc also pointed out that many trucks use diesel generators to produce electricity, which can be noisy and generate fumes that bother the neighbors.

In Manchester, mobile vehicles can't vend from city streets or parking spots -- only from private parking lots or select locations at city parks.

"Everybody remembers the guy selling hot dogs and sausages at Home Depot," he said. "That's private property, and a wide-open spot. We wouldn't allow a trailer that size or self-contained truck in the city -- it would be a traffic hazard."

A license in Manchester's civic zone area stadium costs $400, and anywhere else is $150, which are typical prices for such permits in New Hampshire. Spots in the city parks are most desirable and are put out to bid -- this year's highest bid was $4,100 for an ice cream truck, he said.

In Portsmouth, which would seem to be full of food-truck-loving people, the city identified two parking spaces where food trucks can fit without blocking its famously narrow streets.

"They go out to bid every year, but for several years, we haven't had anybody take advantage of the bid," said Kristin Shaw, acting health officer. "We have one food truck licensed in Portsmouth, operating out of their restaurant property. They only use it for events."

The town of Durham is even more flexible for locations, but health officer Tom Johnson said nobody's been able to make a go of it, even when right next to the UNH campus.

"There's no market for them; they can't compete with restaurants or what's on campus," he said.

Business plans matter

And that's the key, said Manchester's Bolduc.

He thinks people can be fooled by the food truck business because it's easy to enter: A well-stocked truck can be put on the street for as little as $30,000, a fraction of the cost for starting a restaurant. But trucks are just as tough a business as running a restaurant.

"We have some people go out and they buy these vehicles, trailers, and then say, 'Where can I go?' Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way -- they're stuck doing the fairs, carnivals," Bolduc said. "I tell people, before you even think of buying a vehicle, you have to identify a location. You don't buy a restaurant in the sky and drop it someplace."

And "you need a good business plan" -- down to the level of knowing which side of a given sidewalk people use at various times of day.

"People are dreamers -- I admire them," he said. "But you have to do your homework."

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David Brooks can be reached at 594-6531 or dbrooks@nashua telegraph.com. Also, follow Brooks on Twitter (@GraniteGeek).

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