The Metropolitan Health District’s enforcement of a rule regarding food trucks has forced the Weston Centre, 112 E. Pecan St., to suspend its month-old culinary project.

The rule states that a food truck must have permission letters from all restaurants within 300 feet of a location where it intends to serve food, according to Steve Barscewski, the city’s sanitarian services manager.

Even though the trucks were congregating on private property — on the Weston-owned parking lot across street — the rule still applies.

“We didn’t issue tickets or citations,” Barscewski said. “We basically just talked to the staff at the Weston.”

So far, no restaurants in the vicinity of the Weston have granted permission.

Weston staff, who limited the program to Wednesdays out of respect for the nearby restaurants, said it was never their intention to draw customers away from their neighbors.

“We feel bad,” Danielle Giller, special projects manager at the Weston Centre, said. “That was not our goal. Our goal was to bring people to this area of downtown.”

For now, the Weston’s food truck program has been put on hold. Giller said they’re going to try to work with the surrounding restaurants to come up with a compromise.

Gylon Jackson co-operates the Lagniappe Today truck, which was scheduled to be at the Weston this week, and said he talked to District 1 Councilman Diego Bernal to see how he could help. Bernal could not be reached for comment late yesterday or this morning, so it’s unclear what his role would be.

Lula Gabriel, owner of nearby Lula’s Mexican Restaurant in the Milam Building, at 115 E. Travis St., said her business is outside the 300-foot radius, but that she disapproves of the Weston’s food trucks because they have negatively affected her business on Wednesdays.

“We did not agree,” Gabriel said. “What I’m trying to tell them is that I’m a small business. I only serve breakfast and lunch, so I just disagree.”

The owner of the Oasis Mexican restaurant, 323 N. Main Ave., across the street from the Weston lot, and Page Barteau, who operates a restaurant inside the Weston, could not be reached immediately for comment.

The 300-foot rule does not apply to trucks participating in the city’s downtown pilot program. But so far the program only consists of the the City Hall annex parking lot. The other two locations the city designated as “culinary islands” — HemisFair and Maverick parks — did not pan out because of lack of foot traffic.

Last Thursday, the city held a meeting with food truck operators to gather feedback on the program that started May 1. The city staff in charge of the pilot acknowledged that they are looking for new spots for the program, but were not ready to give specifics.

Michael Sohocki’s Gwendolyn Restaurant is near the Weston at 125 E. Pecan St. His restaurant is most likely outside the 300-foot radius because, he said, he was never asked for permission.

“I definitely want them downtown,” Sohocki said, “and I think vendors should have expanded rights to sell downtown because that would help to expand our city’s food culture.”

Sohocki said he expressed interested in operating a food cart on Houston Street, but that the city wouldn’t even listen to the proposal because city rules limit push cart fare to snow cones and hot dogs.

So he decided to take his sandwich idea to the Pearl’s farmers market on Saturdays.

“It hampers creativity and food culture,” Sohocki said of the city’s many limitations for serving street food downtown. “Street food done well is an excellent way to educate a population.”

— Words by Benjamin Olivo; Express-News file photo

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