Asian Fortune Your source for all things Asian American
By Devika Koppikar
Washington, DC – After a devastating 2009 car accident, then-college student Gauri Sarin decided she didn’t want a typical office job after graduation. So in late 2011, Sarin, whose parents hail from India and business partner Michelle Nguyen, whose parents hail from Vietnam, opened Something Stuffed, a food truck that specializes in fusion “stuffed pockets.”
Together, they developed a menu inspired by their respective heritages to create a niche menu targeted toward the vegetarian, vegan, and ethnic-fusion palettes. Today, Something Stuffed serves more than 100 customers a day on DC streets.
“We have fun with our menu and create a wide variety of items. We use mostly local products and make our dough from scratch,” said Sarin who said she serves customers working in and around Chinatown, the IMF, West End, and DuPont Circle.
She added, “The nature of our business is that we go where the demand is and then develop our following. Sometimes, a customer will call me and say ‘could you come to where our office is?’ and we go and fill that need. We travel all around the four quadrants of DC.”
But if the D.C. City Council votes to implement new food truck regulations proposed by the DC Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs (DCRA), Sarin is afraid that she might be driven out of business.
The regulations, which have caused much controversy, would require food trucks serving District customers to:
· Park at a legal meter parking spot and remain there for two hours; or,
· Vend in a designated Mobile Roadway Vending (MRV) spot pre-determined by a draft-style lottery.
“Food trucks operate under antiquated, 30-year-old regulations that treat them as neighborhood roaming ice cream trucks. Under the ‘ice-cream truck’ rule, food trucks are required to keep moving until they are flagged down by a customer,” said Nicholas Majett, the DCRA Director in his written testimony for a May 10 hearing on the issue. “These outdated requirements simply do not make sense when applied to food trucks, most of whom need time to prepare their food before they begin vending…..We believe the MRV locations will greatly benefit food trucks by allowing them to park for four hours each day with no risk of receiving parking tickets. It will be a significant change from the current requirement that prohibits food trucks from staying at any location without a line of waiting customers.”
Sarin, who testified against the proposed regulations at the May 10 hearing, said that such regulations would greatly limit her to one location instead of going where the customer is.
“What if the lottery places me in an area where people prefer meat and potato dishes? I won’t be able to serve my customer base, which prefers a more specialized menu,” said Sarin. “I’ve taken a long time to build my brand and customer base. I want to continue growing and not be limited. I’m not against all regulations, but DCRA should propose a system that is fairer to food trucks than a random lottery.”
Like Sarin, more than 150 people, including a significant number of Asians, own and/or operate food trucks in the DC metropolitan region, according to Che Ruddell-Tabisola, political director of the Food Truck Association of Metropolitan Washington (FTA). Sarin is a member of the Association.
“Food trucks support more than 300 local jobs and also give back to the community through various charitable projects,” said Ruddell-Tabisola, who is half Filipino and co-owner of BBQ Bus.
At press time, the DC City Council has until June 22 to give the proposed regulations an up or down vote.
“We hope that the DC City Council sends the proposal back for revisions, or in an up or down vote, we hope they reject the proposed regulations,” said Ruddell-Tabisola.
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Asian Fortune is an English language newspaper for Asian American professionals in the Washington, DC metropolitan area. Visit fb.com/asianfortune to stay up to date with our news and what’s going on in the Asian American community.
