Covington votes to approve ordinance to allow mobile food vendors, distilleries

COVINGTON, Ky. - Jason Perkins picked some tomatoes and mixed greens from plastic bins in his tiny kitchen as he prepared lunch for a customer Tuesday.

He added them to a sandwich splayed open on a sheet of foil.

"This is probably one of our signature dishes," he said. "The pannier sandwich."    
  
He served it to a waiting diner outside of his truck.
    
"Grilled pannier," he announced. "Thank you, sir."
    
He says his company, Eat Mobile Dining, has a somewhat upscale customer base.

"Twenty-five to 35-year-old business women," he said. "I go to a lot of business parks downtown."

He is exactly the kind of mobile food vendor the city of Covington is looking for, after a new zoning ordinance was voted into law Tuesday night.

"I really hope it goes well," he said when he heard about it for the first time.

The proposal has several caveats before anyone can sell a mobile meal:

• The vendor must be on private property with the written permission of the owner.
• They must have a permit.
• Any code violations and the permit can't be renewed for a full year.
• And they can only operate between 10 a.m. and 3:30 pm.

Many of these rules were to preempt any concerns from local restaurants, who might fear dine and dash replacing brick and mortar.

Perkins says permanent eateries have nothing to worry about.

"We're never going to steal the business from restaurants," he said, "because we don't have enclosed seating, we don't have a liquor license, and we don't have table side service."

The law will go into effect immediately, according to city officials. It also allows micro-distilleries to set up shop in the city.