Besides getting our new food truck (trailer, actually)
physically ready inside and out, there was a virtual mountain of what
Kathryn calls "The Bureaucracy of Life" - paperwork-type stuff
that also had to happen.
Trailer insurance, registration (normal vehicle stuff) plus health department permits & inspections, fire department permits & inspections, business name and DBA filings with the secretary of the state's office, installing a POS (point-of-Sale) system and getting the merchants services accounts set to accept credit card sales, (normal new business and restaurant stuff) and on, and on.
Yada, yada, yada. Not-cooking stuff is BORING stuff to me, and I just don’t have the temperament to deal with it so, fortunately, Kathryn takes care of most of that, and does an amazing job of it too. But dealing with the health department and fire department... that's my department.
Our county health inspection was simple and easy. The trailer had been built right and had all the proper equipment, all in
functioning order. It was neat and clean. We had our Serve-Safe
certification and knew our food handlers’ stuff. Both the trailer and
commissary kitchen passed with flying colors, so we paid our fees and
we were done . We expected the same with the fire department.
WHOA, not so fast, cowboy!
The fire safety inspection required me to bring the trailer to the local firehouse, (easier said than done as it is over 30 minutes away after 6 miles of rural dirt roads) and the fire marshal is a very busy man, but I eventually got it scheduled. THEN I found out he needed our fire suppression system inspection report before he could look at the trailer.
And, where do I get that inspection done? From "our choice" of private companies, for a fee. We found out that there was only one area company that could certify our Buckeye system and they were an hour away. Got a new appointment, and off we went. Well, it turns out they weren't REALLY a Buckeye dealer or service center, but they had a manual for the system and said could still certify it.
So, the woman looks at the hood, and the extinguishers, and suppression canister, and piping, and nozzles, and the activation pull, and the gas shut-off, and heaven knows what else. All the time, flipping through the manual for reference.
An hour later she says, "Well, it looks
"What
"This pipe here" she says pointing "should have another elbow in it. And that nozzle looks like it's the wrong size. And then you need another nozzle up there in the ducting, and once you add that, your tank is too small to support another nozzle, so
"WHAT???"
"Yup. That's how it looks to me. That will be $200 for the inspection, the work will be a few hundred more. And, by-the-way - I
SON OF A BI#%H!!
We paid them their extortion inspection fee and left to try
and figure out where all this left us.
My first call was to Patrick of Stradabella . He's the
guy whose company built the trailer and who I'd been in brief contact with
before buying the trailer to check out its provenance. Nice guy and
super helpful. He said it sounded like she didn't know what she was
talking about. He has built hundreds of systems the same way
and never had the design questioned, BUT would call his Buckeye distributor
and get the real skinny.
A day or two later Patrick calls and says that the company was less than helpful. Yes, there should be a nozzle in any ducting, but the problem comes with interpreting "
"So. What are our options?" I asked.
"I
Patrick and his guys are great. They were working on maybe a dozen new
food truck builds and several repairs and upgrades, but they got us right in
and began the work. While we were there, we mentioned a few other things
we'd noticed (a flood light not working, a loose bracket, etc) and asked if he
could look at them too. "Of course" he said.
Grillin goes under the knife |
A small part of the Stradabella shop |
Patrick getting it done RIGHT |
New tank & nozzle almost ready to go |
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