Royal Oak restaurants are at odds with a brewer and distiller who want to offer food-truck service for their customers.

Neither Motor City Gas or River Rouge Brewing Co. have kitchens at their Royal Oak locations, but both have customers who've requested food trucks while they imbibe.

"It seems to be extremely popular among residents and non-restaurant businesses," said Motor City Gas owner Rich Lockwood, who hosted a food truck in August 2017 for a weeknight event pairing bourbon milkshakes with hamburgers.

He soon learned he was breaking the law. Royal Oak doesn't allow food trucks downtown, unless you have a special event permit.

The trendy, fast-dining option seen from downtown Detroit to cities across the country, is "wildly popular" for craft alcohol-makers, Lockwood said. And roughly a year after he learned of the law and started advocating for food trucks, the Royal Oak City Commission is considering an ordinance that would allow them outside bars that don't already have kitchens.

But there's friction. The Royal Oak Restaurant Association said in a recent letter to the city's planning commission that the the community should require those businesses to build a kitchen "just as the rest of the bars have," or "hire a runner" to pick up take-out from restaurants, among other alternatives.

"Given the current parking situation and construction constraints, we brick and mortar businesses, have been waiting patiently for the promised influx in patrons and business the potential growth from the new builds will bring. Allowing outside vendors in is a bitter pill to swallow," according to theletter from the restaurant association.

Despite a relatively lively nightlife scene, the city this year has had several restaurants leave, including Beirut Palace and Andiamo Trattoria, whose owners both complained about parking issues amid downtown construction. Popular surface-parking areas have disappeared as part of a $110-million civic center development that will also create a new city hall, police station, 581-space parking structure, and a new city park in downtown.

For Lockwood and Edward Stencel, who owns River Rouge Brewing Co. across East Fourth Street from Motor City Gas, getting food truck service seems like a reasonable request. And both say their customers have been asking for it.

"The restaurant association says, 'Why don’t you build a kitchen?' " Lockwood said. "And we said, 'For all the same reasons that you don't just build a distillery and make your own whiskey.'"

He said they let people order Grub Hub deliveries to Motor City Gas, but that he can't recall anyone ever using it. He said customers are more interested in "fun events" that a food truck could offer.

Stencel said people can order-in at the brewery, and that he sells pretzels and chips. But like Lockwood, his customers have been asking for a food truck.

"Ultimately you got to ask yourself, if a food truck that is parked outside 2-3 hours is going to kill your business, you probably don’t have that great of a business," Stencel said.

The city commission on Oct. 8 gave preliminary approval to the ordinance by a 4-3 vote, after about an hour of discussion. A public hearing is expected at the Nov. 12 meeting before a later vote on final approval, which may include changes to the wording.

"There is a growing demand for these things," Mayor Mike Fournier said of food trucks at the Oct. 8 meeting.

He said this could give the city a chance to try allowing food trucks without opening floodgates. The language of the ordinance would limit the trucks downtown to businesses with liquor licenses but no kitchens, and they would be parked on private property, among other restrictions.

Even though both Stencel and Lockwood support the change, the brewery doesn't have enough private space to accommodate a food truck. So Motor City Gas appears to be the only existing location where it could work — and that's if it paves the gravel lot it intends to use, as the proposed ordinance would require.

"Something is better than nothing," Lockwood said. "The reason it's so limited is to try to appease the restaurant association and make it a little bit challenging to use. I think it's a step in the right direction."

City Commissioner Pat Paruch, who voted to reject the ordinance, told the Free Press that both the restaurant association and Royal Oak Chamber of Commerce were "strongly opposed" to the ordinance and are under a "great deal of stress" with the construction.

"And I didn't think it was fair to add one more issue (to) deal with or think about onto their plate" until about 18 months of construction are complete, she said. "Let's just wait until all the dust settles and people are in the new buildings and Henry Ford is inside its new building. Let's not rush to do it right now."

She said changing land-use patterns "need to be done in a thoughtful, scholarly way" to assess the impacts.

"There is a place for them, but obviously if they proliferate too much, then they impact the standalone restaurants that have invested a great deal of time and money in their establishment," she said. "I want to be sure there's a fair balance."

She said they're "delighted" to have the distillery and brewery — both of which opened in 2015 — in Royal Oak.

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"I can understand their frustration, because sometimes government moves a lot more slowly than you think it should, but that's the nature of government," she said, adding that there are "very strong views" opposed to the idea. "We have to balance those voices, and sometimes it takes time."

Among the signers on the restaurant association letter opposing the ordinance was Lily's Seafood, a restaurant and brewery in downtown. Co-owner Robert Morton told the Free Press he's not "anti-food truck" but wants to have a better idea how the changes might affect the area.

"Board members repeatedly said this isn't about having food trucks all over downtown, yet there's no restriction the way it's written, other than (they) cannot have a kitchen," he said. "As opposed to saying we're against food trucks, we just want a little more clarity."

He also said the option is already available for them to apply for special-event permits that would allow food trucks on occasion. But Lockwood said the cost and approval process is inconvenient.

"We're not throwing a food truck rally or Arts, Beats and Eats event," he said. "It needs to be affordable, and it needs to be an easy permitting process — which I don’t believe that is."

Both Stencel and Lockwood, who opened their businesses in 2015, said they had expected it would be relatively easy to have a food truck pull up and sell to customers.

"I didn’t realize how difficult that was going to be, based on push-back," Stencel said.

Lockwood said he'd like to offer them once or twice per week.

"We don't make any money off food trucks, don’t charge rent," he said. "They're just a means to try and bring people to Royal Oak to help amplify our events."

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Free Press staff writer Bill Laitner contributed to this report. Contact Robert Allen on Twitter @rallenMI or rallen@freepress.com.