City: Food Truck Markets to Start Memorial Day Weekend

Some Long Beach restaurants will serve their cuisine on the city’s streets starting in May.

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The City of Long Beach announced Monday that food truck markets will be set up at two locations from May 23 to Sept. 2. The food trucks will stationed at Riverside Boulevard and Shore Road from Tuesday to Sunday and at Kennedy Plaza, the area outside of City Hall at 1 W. Chester St., on Mondays. The markets will operate from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on each day.

The initiative, dubbed “The Shoregasboard,” is being used on a trial basis this summer in an effort to help local merchants, according to an announcement posted on the city’s website.

“The Food Truck Market will consist of businesses that currently have City of Long Beach mercantile licenses,” the announcement continues. “The Food Trucks will be an extension and represent the existing products available at the business, and should be aesthetically pleasing and of the highest caliber and diversity of food quality as approved by the City. Only, in the event that extra spaces shall exist, then those spots may be obtained by non-mercantile businesses.”

The announcement comes a week after the City Council meeting April 16, when Eric Berkowitz, owner of Tutti Frutti, a frozen yogurt shop on West Park Avenue, expressed concern about the city’s initiative that was initially announced in March as an effort to assist local restaurants and boost tourism after Hurricane Sandy. Berkowitz had asked if there was a discussion to keep that opportunity among local merchants.  

“I know that pretty much everybody on our block, other than one person, is actively against having this food truck taking the opportunity of the summer season away from the viable businesses that struggled to stay open after the storm, that have invested a lot of money renovating and fixing the stores getting it ready,” said Berkowitz, who was directed by Council President Scott Mandel to speak to city attorney Corey Klein after the meeting.

In March, when the initiative was first announced, Alan Adams, owner of Sugo Café on West Park Avenue, said he spent about $30,000 for a food truck, out of which he’ll be able to serve his dishes near the beach. At the time, Mark Tannenbaum, executive vice president of the Long Beach Chamber of Commerce, said that not every deli and pizza establishment could afford to invest in a food truck, especially when they are still trying to rebuild after the storm.  

City Manager Jack Schnirman, in a recent interview with LongBeachNY.TV, said the Shoregasboard initiative was an effort to give local restaurants the additional opportunity to sell their food and to bring more visitors into Long Beach this summer, “to really pump up the summer season; something we’re very excited about.

“And we know that we’re looking at a variety of events for the summer, and we’re working with the [Long Beach Chamber of Commerce] and other folks to have a good summer for the city,” Schnirman continued. “Working together we’re going to bring Long Beach back to be great.”  

When the city posted Monday’s announcement on its Facebook page, readers offered mixed comments about the markets.

“Parking food trucks at Riverside where the location of most of the restaurants start is not helpful to those of us who have suffered a lot with our homes and businesses and cannot expand at this time to compete,” wrote the owner of Max Bialystok Bagels, a bagel shop on East Park Avenue. “Now our time in the summer to rebuild our businesses will be even more difficult.”



Jan Borger Morris wrote: “Food trucks are trendy and major money makers when done properly - they are at tons of events (I am an event planner and have hired them myself). This is a great idea!! People love food trucks, the people off the train from NYC will LOVE the food trucks - it will be fun and draw a crowd daily that otherwise may not be coming to individual restaurants.”