The food truck permit order of operations has me going in circles

Marcus Thibodeaux· Opening a Cajun food truck in Baton Rouge after 12 years in restaurant kitchens· Registered, Food & Beverage·3w

LLC filed, EIN done, truck bought and mostly built out. I thought the hard part was behind me. Instead I've spent three weeks discovering that every office I call needs a different office to go first.

The health department wants to inspect the truck, but they want my commissary agreement first. The commissary won't sign a monthly agreement until I'm permitted. The city wants the health permit before the mobile vendor permit, and the fire inspection for the suppression system is booked by a different department that only does inspections two days a week.

Meanwhile the truck sits in my driveway costing me an insurance payment every month and doing nothing. Twelve years in other people's kitchens and none of it prepared me for this part.

I did finally find one woman at the parish office who actually explained the sequence to me, which was worth more than every website I'd read. I'm writing it down here mostly so I can ask: for anyone who's been through mobile food permitting, is there a shortcut I'm missing, or is three months of this just the price of entry? And did anyone find a commissary willing to sign conditionally?

3 replies

Lena Kaminski· Open·3w

Mobile grooming rather than food, so much lighter regulation, but the circular permitting thing was identical and here's what broke it for me. I stopped emailing and started turning up in person with a folder. Three visits, one office each, and I asked every person the same question: what exactly do you need from the other two before you can sign mine.

Somebody eventually wrote the order down for me on the back of a form. That piece of paper saved me a month. Email lets people defer you. A person standing at the counter with a folder is much harder to defer.

Cheryl Dunn· Open·2w

Not a permit expert, but from the books side: track what this waiting period is costing you per week, because it's the number you'll forget when you set your prices. Insurance, the truck payment, the parking, any interest. I've had clients price a plate off ingredients and labour and never recover the three months they burned before opening.

Also start a file today with every permit, its renewal date and what it cost. In year two you'll be renewing all of it at once, and the people who kept that list from the beginning are the only ones not panicking in their second spring.

Jamal Carter· Open·2w

Trades have the same maze, and the thing I'd add is about the inspector rather than the paperwork. Now that you've found the woman at the parish who explained the sequence, she's your person. Get her direct line, be polite, don't waste her time, and bring her a plate when the truck opens.

Every inspection I've passed quickly in two years came down to knowing what the guy wanted to see before he arrived. Every one that dragged came down to me guessing. It's not a shortcut exactly, but it's the closest thing there is.

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