After 30 years as a food vendor in Kennedy Plaza, Moe Parrillo, noted for his chilidogs and hamburgers, today has a beef of his own. “Our license says we’re mobile,” Parrillo said. “Haven Brothers is a mobile unit, grandfather clause or no. Haven Brothers can stay open until 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning. They shut us down at 2:00.”
The hour after the downtown bars close on weekends- between 2:00 and 3:00am-is crucial to Parrillo’s business.
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“Between 2:00 and 3:00 is when we get our cream of the crop,” he said. “This is how we make our living.”
Henry Pinpo has operated the L.A. Subs truck, located outside the J. Joseph Garrahy Judicial Complex on Dorrance Street for eight years. At lunchtime, and during court recesses, the line is steady. Pinpo prefers to work days.
“They say we keep people in the city [late at night],” Pinpo said. “They can shut you down when they want to, but you still can’t leave – too much traffic. I like doing days.”
Pinpo’s truck operates mostly during the day, at the courthouse, which he says accounts for 80 percent of his business.
Parrillo also voiced concern about the city’s choice of vendors for special events.
“The Gravity Games just came to town,” Parrillo said. “The city brings in out-of-towners [vendors] all the time. They don’t look out for their own.
Starting at the Yankee Clipper on Valley Street when he was 15 years old, Parrillo has spent a lifetime serving fast food.
“I’ve been in Kennedy Plaza – between Mike’s Diner, Haven Brothers and this – for 30 years,” he said.
His business’s current incarnation, the star-studded, red-white-and-blue Moe’s Delicious Food truck, began as a cart, then graduated to a mini school bus. Parrillo’s present, larger truck has been on the road for three years.
“This business has been good to me,” Parrillo said, adding that it doesn’t come without frustrations. “I’m tired of keeping my mouth shut about it. I have eight children and three grandchildren, and they all depend on dad. I live in Providence. They shouldn’t be treating me this way.”
But food trucks, despite their simple appearance, are a complex business.
“It’s complicated,” said Richard Aitchison, license administrator at Providence’s Board of Licenses. “It’s not as easy as 1-2-3, so to speak, but it’s for the public’s protection.”
The city’s Board of Licenses must first license a vendor, which puts them in touch with the state Department of Health, to assure standards of cleanliness. The Fire Department must then examine the vendor, to make certain connections to the vehicle’s propane tanks, used for cooking, are correct and safe.
Haven Brothers, which connects to an electrical pole for power, is considered a completely different entity.
“They are different,” Aitchison said. “They don’t have a peddler’s license, like Moe’s. They are treated more like diners. They were grandfathered in.”
Aitchison said the city has attempted to change the ordinance governing the mobile trucks.
“Technically, there is an ordinance out there, but we’re operating under the old ordinance,” said Aitchison. “They can stay for the length of time on the meter, if they’re on private property, or if they have a sidewalk permit. Those are the only ways they can stand still.”
Events such as the Gravity Games, for which event organizers often have contracts with national sponsors for concessions, determine themselves who sells within the confines of the event area. That doesn’t prevent vendors from setting up on the street.
Licensed vendors are allowed to operate between 6:00 a.m. and 2:00 a.m., seven days a week. According to Aitchison, this gives vendors the upper hand on nights when the bars must close at 1:00 a.m.
With the Kennedy Plaza remodeling project set to get underway in the coming weeks, the questions and concerns on both sides of the vending issue are bound to be examined further.
“Kennedy Plaza was originally under the jurisdiction of the Parks Department,” Aitchison said. “They didn’t want vendors in there at all. The whole issue will come up again.”
