Mobile restaurants on the move in Lansing, East Lansing

[RustTown]

This article discusses the ins-and-outs of trying to operate food trucks here in Metro Lansing, with the local ordinances not having exactly kept up with the trends:

Mobile resaurants on the move in Lansing, East Lansing

Tricia Bobeda {sodEmoji.|} Lansing Noise

June 9, 2011

Nina Santucci and Anthony Maiale of The Purple Carrot Food Truck are taking working in close quarters to a new level.

The couple's been dating for six years and have worked together in restaurants nearly all that time.

Before moving to Michigan, she was a general manager and he was the chef of a Philadelphia restaurant.

"We were there 70 hours a week but there were days when I wouldn't see him all day because we were in completely different parts of the restaurant," Santucci said. "Now I'm a foot apart from him."

"And she's in my kitchen," Maiale said.

The East Lansing couple opened a mobile restaurant in May, inspired by the popularity of food trucks in other cities.

"I had lived in Austin (Texas) and they have a ton of food trucks there," Santucci said. "It's such a fun idea. It's so cool to be able to go up to a truck and get some gourmet fare that's cheap and casual."

The couple hopes to build a customer base using the food truck so they can afford to open a permanent restaurant in the Lansing area.

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I'm a bit surprised how inflexible the local governments have been in allowing these things in more high-pedestrian-traffic urban districts in the city's downtowns. Sounds like something that needs to be changed.