The proliferation of gourmet food trucks on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile earlier this year led to an uproar: Restaurants complained that the trucks were undercutting their business, and city councilmembers expressed a desire to prevent food trucks from parking in metered spaces, or even to limit them to construction sites.

The proliferation of food trucks around the city has prompted officials to find new ways to make restaurants more viable. (photo by Ian Lovett)

Traditionally, when food trucks have clashed with brick-and-mortar restaurants, the City of Los Angeles has tried to restrict food trucks. In 2006, the council even passed a law limiting the trucks to one hour in a single location, though a court later struck the law down.

But as the new wave of gourmet food trucks have drawn new customers to eat from roving kitchens, attitudes in city hall are changing as well. Now, Councilmember Richard Alarcón, 7th District, has introduced a motion to help restaurants compete with food trucks, therein acknowledging that the trucks are here to stay.

“It’s been a challenge for anyone on the city council to deal with the issue of food trucks for twenty years,” Alarcón said at a meeting of the Jobs and Business Development Committee on Tuesday. “With the growth of gourmet food trucks, the industry has seen a literal and cultural shift, which has been driven by the customers. The customers are saying they want these trucks.”

As the food truck industry has undergone a drastic demographic shift during the past two years, truck operators, restaurant owners, and local elected officials have struggled to define the spaces in which they would be allowed to operate. In Los Angeles, where more than 4,000 food trucks operate, that struggle became particularly heated in areas like the Miracle Mile where trucks congregated right in front of brick-and-mortar establishments, selling food much cheaper than restaurants, with overhead costs like rent, could afford to.

However, according to Daniel Conway, spokesperson for the California Restaurant Association, restaurant owners have started to look at food trucks with a more conciliatory eye.

“Los Angeles has been unique in the sense that it got unnecessarily contentious and politicized,” Conway said. “But stepping back and looking at the bigger picture, a lot of restaurant owners realize that a lot of these truck operators want to be in the restaurant industry, and this is just a less expensive way to get into the business. There is a way everyone can coexist and compete fairly.”

In June, City Councilmember Tom LaBonge, 4th District, which includes the Miracle Mile, instructed city departments to investigate how to prevent prevent food trucks from parking in metered spaces, where they would sometimes sit all day, even if they were ticketed. Since then, however, LaBonge has worked with food truck unions and operators to find a solution to the problem on Wilshire Boulevard, and, in recent months, the trucks have largely moved away from restaurants to other locations down the street.

In recent months, restaurant owners and truck operators seem to have reached an armistice on Wilshire Boulevard. Matt Geller, vice president of the Southern California Mobile Food Vendors Association, said at the committee meeting that the problems in that district could have been solved earlier if existing laws were enforced against food trucks that violated them.

Alarcón suggested that, at least in some cases, both food trucks and restaurants could benefit from each other, collectively drawing more commerce. In other situations, he hoped to make brick-and-mortar establishments more competitive by offering tax breaks, waiving  permit fees, and streamlining the process for setting up outdoor dining on the sidewalk.

Even as the situation on Wilshire Boulevard has stabilized, however, food trucks are popping up in other parts of the city, and more restaurants are starting to complain about hits to their profits.

Vahe Karamardian, owner of Sandella’s Flat Breads Café, said he first noticed a truck parked around the corner several months ago, which coincided with a 25 percent drop in business that day. While a break from taxes and fees would be welcome, Karamardian said the cost of rent is the main obstacle for restaurants trying to compete with the food trucks.

“Does the city want to pay my rent?” Karamardian said. “Let the trucks pay the kind of rent I do in Hollywood, and then see if they can keep their prices. When I’m selling a sandwich for five or six dollars, and they’re selling tacos for one dollar, I’d go eat over there, too.”