McManus at his Only the Hungry truck.
Hot dogs, hamburgers, tacos, pizza, ice cream — the town has nine approved food vendor carts and trucks, and the selectmen think that might be enough.
They’ve passed a moratorium on additional vendor permits — a temporary one-year moratorium designed to give them time to put together a policy regulating and perhaps capping the number of food vendors allowed in town.
“They just don’t want food trucks in Ridgefield,” said Mark McManus, who named his food truck Only the Hungry. “They’re going to make it difficult for anybody.”
McManus is one of the nine vendors whose permits are grandfathered and not subject to the moratorium. But he no longer has a location.
He got a permit from the Board of Selectmen in August, but only to work private parties and Parks and Recreation sites and events.
At meetings Dec. 9 and Nov. 18 the selectmen twice declined to approve a location he’d worked a few weeks during the fall, in the Party Depot parking lot on the Route 35 commercial strip that runs from the intersection of Route 116 to the Copps HIll area.
“We have 21 restaurants from Tony’s Corner down to Copps Hill Road. They contribute $26,000 in revenue to our town,” Selectwoman Maureen Kozlark said. “I think we need to establish a policy.”
Kozlark proposed the moratorium, saying it’s needed to give the town time to figure out how to handle food vendors. The board backed the idea Nov. 18, pending review by the town attorney. A second unanimous vote on Dec. 9 — with town attorney David Grogins’ blessing — approved the temporary one-year moratorium.
Its wording specifies that the nine vendors with previously granted permits — including McManus — have the right to seek renewals, despite the moratorium. Four are ice cream trucks with permits to roam: The Natural Scoop, owned by Kristin Cerulli and Carin Crook; Enver Ceylon’s Circusman truck; Gigi’s Family Ice Cream, owned by Dave and Suzanne McCue; and Maya Cigal’s Redding Creamery truck.
Five offer lunch food: McManus; Chez Lenard, Mike Principi’s hot dog cart on Main Street; The Zwack Shack, Greg Zawacki’s lunch stand on Route 7; Jaques Arantes Coffee and Lunch Truck, which has a permit to work construction sites; and Tivoli Pizza, owned by Junio Filgueira, who has permits limited to private parties and Parks and Recreation sites.
McManus told The Press before he began working the Route 35 location that he’d gotten Party Depot owner John Girolametti’s permission, and reviewed the location with Zoning Enforcement Officer Richard Baldelli — who had no problem since location was in a retail zone. Then he’d informed the selectmen he’d be there and worked the site a few weeks.
“I didn’t do anything behind anybody’s back. I did everything aboveboard,” he said.
But the selectmen got calls.
“We actually had a couple of complaints that came in about that location, from restaurants in the area,” First Selectman Rudy Marconi said.
“The brick-and-mortar people who pay rent and employees in their restaurants are trying to make a go of it, and another person can set up in a parking lot with no overhead — or very little, if any — and take business away from them, and that’s the general discussion,” Marconi said.
“He cannot be in that location.
“He’s certainly allowed to search out another location, but not in such close proximity to other restaurants.”
McManus is looking now, but doubts he can find another location that’s in a retail zone and isn’t near another restaurant or vendor, and is a good, safe spot for people to drive up and stop to eat.
“Really, there is no other spot. It took me a while to research this spot,” he said. “I don’t want to be up on Main Street. I don’t want to be in the mix of causing traffic problems. I wanted to be someplace people could park, come in, get a quick bite to eat, and get out.”
The shutdown has been tough.
“I have no income,” he said. “My wife is retired, in nursing school — so we’re down to no money. That’s a real hardship.”
Legalities
At the Dec. 9 meeting McManus was represented by attorney Patrick Walsh. “If he has a private owner’s approval, if he’s met other aspects of the application process — the background checks — then I believe he’s satisfied the ordinance,” Walsh said.
But Town Attorney David Grogins’ legal opinion was that Connecticut case law — some of it cases from Ridgefield in 2000 and 2001, involving the Chez Lenard hot dog cart — establishes that the selectmen have a “clearly discretionary” authority to grant or deny vendor permits.
“In exercising that discretion the Board of Selectmen may consider the number of permits issued, the location for which a particular permit is requested, and any factors it deems relevant when deciding whether to grant a specific license,” Grogins wrote.
Marconi said the town had solid grounds and authority to say no to the Route 35 location.
“Traffic, health, safety and welfare. Brick and mortar right there, selling the same product across the street.” he said. “The permit it still valid. The applicant is still free to find another location.”
Sizable investment
In addition to his $200 vendor permit fee, McManus told the selectmen, his truck was registered to his Ridgefield home address, so he would be paying motor vehicle taxes on it in town. He noted that he’d been a Ridgefielder for years and years, decades.
He later told The Press he’d spent about $53,000 to buy the truck and get it ready, and his total investment in the business was about $60,000.
McManus said he’d worked as a chef and envisioned the truck as a kind of retirement business, selling a fairly ambitious variety of food for a vendor truck. “Tacos, soups, burgers, hot dogs, chili dogs,” he said. “Lobster mac-and-cheese, it’s a big seller.”
Since he’d stopped selling food at the disputed Route 35 spot, McManus said, he’d lost about $1,000 worth of inventory. “All that stuff had to be tossed,” he said.
McManus didn’t see why the objections of restaurant owners should dictate the location of his food truck
“I just think it’s kind of wrong,” he said.
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