Commissary agreement, health permit, and nowhere legal to park: month three of delays

Marcus Thibodeaux· Opening a Cajun food truck in Baton Rouge after 12 years in restaurant kitchens· Registered, Food & Beverage·1w

The truck has been sitting behind my cousin's shop since June, fully built, and I have not sold one plate of etouffee out of it.

The circle I'm stuck in: the health department here wants a signed commissary agreement before they'll issue my permit. The commissary I want to use wants to see a permit before they'll sign with a new operator, because they got burned by somebody last year. I have now explained this loop to four different people, all of whom agreed it was silly and none of whom could break it.

Meanwhile, parking. My parish has its own rules about vending on public streets and the good spots near the office parks are all private lots. Two lot owners have said yes in principle. One wants fifteen percent of gross, which I think is a joke, and one wants a flat weekly rate plus proof of insurance naming him.

Everybody told me the truck was the expensive part. The truck was the easy part.

For the food truck people: how did you break the commissary and permit loop? And is fifteen percent of gross a normal ask for a private lot, or is he reading me as desperate?

3 replies

Sofia Ramirez· Idea stage·1w

I'm one rung below you, still at markets, and I hit a smaller version of the same loop with the cottage food rules in my state. What eventually worked was going in person with everything printed and asking one specific human what would let them say yes today.

Over email everyone forwards you. Standing at a counter, somebody has to actually solve it, and the woman who solved mine wrote a note on the form herself.

Fifteen percent of gross for a parking spot sounds like he's pricing a partnership he isn't doing any work in. You'd be paying him more in a good month than you pay the commissary.

Rob Mackenzie· Open·1w

Car wash, so different permits, same dance. Three businesses in and the pattern every time is that a circular requirement is two departments who have never met, and it breaks when one human decides to write 'pending' on something.

Ask the health department directly whether a letter of intent from the commissary satisfies them, rather than a signed agreement. That phrasing exists in most permitting worlds and nobody ever volunteers it.

On the lot, offer him flat, short term, with a written way out. A percentage of gross means you carry his upside on your busiest day and he isn't the one cooking.

Marcus Thibodeaux· Registered·1w

Letter of intent. I asked this morning and the woman at the counter said yes, that's fine, as though I'd asked whether they take checks. Three months.

Taking the flat-rate lot too. He wants proof of insurance naming him, which my agent says is a routine thing to add and quoted me a small amount to endorse. If I'd known in June that the whole delay came down to a phrase I didn't know to use, I'd have driven down there in week one instead of sending polite emails.

Sign in to reply

Replying and upvoting need a free LaunchAdvisor account. Reading is open to everyone.