In 2024, King County experienced an unprecedented surge of unpermitted mobile food vendors. At the end of the year, The Seattle Times filed a public records request so we could learn more about the violations.
Last year, the health department temporarily shut down 119 unpermitted food vendors in King County. That’s a record (and then some): Public Health – Seattle & King County reported 70 permit violations in the city of Seattle in 2024 after tallying 79 violations in the entire county between 2019 and 2023.
The health department publishes a public database of food safety violations, including permit-related closures and others, at kingcounty.gov.
In a November story about the boom, we recounted anecdotes of permitted food vendors outside Seattle stadiums being undercut by unpermitted hot dog carts, taco tents drawing long lines in auto shop parking lots, and pop-ups in the park. But we wanted to know more.
Here’s what we found — and why last year’s record will likely break in 2025.
Pop-ups, trucks and carts
Carts, pop-up tents and food trucks of all kinds — as well as a few home chefs and permanent restaurants — got flagged by the King County health department for operating without a permit last year.
The largest category of violators was fruit carts (32), representing about a quarter of the 119 violations.
Miscellaneous pop-ups — outside the food types we’ve categorized separately in the graphic above, like fruit, tacos and hot dogs — were the second-leading category with 24 violations, trailed by tacos (14), other food trucks (nine), wannabe wholesalers and markets (nine), and shaved ice and beverage stands (nine). There were seven citations apiece for hot dog vendors and miscellaneous food carts.
The miscellaneous categories (pop-ups, trucks and carts) include violations with insufficient data (i.e., the report did not include a description of the food being served) as well as food groups that didn’t amount to breakout categories.
Namely: Tamales and barbecue combined for nine violations (five and four, respectively); there was also an illicit smorgasbord of burgers, pizza, pies, Indian food, fish and more.
Hot spots
Of the 119 violations, 70 happened in Seattle; the other 49 were around the county.
Unpermitted vendors tend to set up shop where there are lots of hungry people (and, sometimes, where permitted vendors cannot) — on sidewalks outside Seattle stadiums, at Alki Beach on sunny days, at busy Capitol Hill intersections around last call.
Capitol Hill, Climate Pledge Arena and the downtown Seattle waterfront are in Zones 3 and 7 (flagged for a combined 36 violations), as grouped by the health department, while Alki Beach, Lumen Field and T-Mobile Park fit into Zones 1 and 2 (34 violations).
No permit violations occurred last year in Zones 4, 5 and 6, which cover Magnolia and North Seattle.
Outside Seattle, Auburn had the most violations in King County, with 12, followed by Kent (six), Federal Way (five), Burien (four) and Des Moines (four). Violations occurred across the county, from Shoreline and Bothell to SeaTac, Maple Valley, Enumclaw and Vashon Island.
Summertime peak
Ah, Seattle in the summer: The Mariners are playing, the weather is nice and folks linger at bars on long Northwest nights. Unpermitted food vendors recognized that in 2024, and the county had to grapple with it, too: Summer was a hotbed for violations.
Digging into the numbers: 67 of last year’s 119 violations happened from May through August.
June was the year’s peak, with 21 violations. On June 23, the busiest permit-pull day of the year, the county wrote up seven unpermitted vendors at Alki Beach. One was shut down again by the health department at Alki three days later.
Repeat offenders
While Tacos La Cuadra became social-media-famous last year for its tacos al pastor, popping up late at night in Seattle parking lots, it became health-department-infamous for doing so without a permit. Before receiving a permit in October, La Cuadra was shut down five times for operating without one.
But La Cuadra wasn’t the only repeat offender. In fact, 22 of the 119 violations last year (18.5%) represent vendors who were nabbed multiple times by the health department.
The health department has said it’s difficult to track violations due to lack of names for businesses and their owners. Nearly half of last year’s unpermitted vendors (56 of 119) were written up without names or business titles.
For that reason, 18.5% is likely an underestimate.
Case in point: More than once in 2024, anonymous vendors were caught operating without permits at the same intersections multiple times, days apart, selling identical products. For the sake of this story and the figure above, we did not consider those as “repeat offenders,” in the absence of definitive data; only exactly duplicated names were counted.
On Thursday, La Cuadra owner Fraydel Gellman Mendoza said that his fledgling business began without a permit and earned public attention, which led to the shutdowns — then eventually a permit, approved in the fall.
“We have always wanted to do things right,” he said. “We just never thought it would attract so many people.”
Why does it matter?
Prior to the fall, when the health department flagged a mobile food vendor for operating without a permit, the inspection ended at that moment. The county did not document and report additional violations — until September, when reporting by The Seattle Times led to a policy change.
Between Sept. 22 and Dec. 31, 2024, the county shut down 21 vendors for lacking permits. The county found additional violations in 19 of those cases, primarily lack of hand-washing facilities, insufficient refrigeration and improper equipment.
Foodborne illness is a chief concern for the health department, which has found that unpermitted vendors often skirt other food safety rules.
The health department has rarely issued fines — “as it is a lengthy and complex process,” a spokesperson said in the fall — and it does not permanently shut unpermitted vendors down. But the county has vowed to reconsider its education-over-punishment approach for egregious offenders, promising also to increase oversight around hot spots like Capitol Hill and Seattle sports stadiums.
Since April 2024, the health department has conducted about 15 late-night inspections around the stadiums, Capitol Hill and the University District, said Public Health spokesperson Kate Cole. Typically, a police officer tags along, “because we’ve had instances in which unpermitted vendors have threatened or retaliated against our inspection staff and/or other permitted vendors,” Cole said.
New year, new record?
Midway through March, King County is on pace to top last year’s high-water mark for violations. From Jan. 1 to March 16, 2024, the county reported eight permit violations. Through March 16 of this year, there have been 25.
Health officials said the spike can be attributed to a rise in unpermitted vendors — which is “a phenomenon that many other West Coast cities have observed” in recent years, Cole said — and increased vigilance from the public.
“As these complaints have increased, along with our increased enforcement actions,” she said, “so have our closures.”
For eaters, though: With unpermitted vendors persisting, how do you spot one?
The health department issued a PSA in the fall educating the public on the risks of permitless vendors and signs for spotting them. And, as of Jan. 1, King County requires that all mobile vendors post their food safety health rating score visibly, just like a brick-and-mortar restaurant.
Do your homework. King County publishes food establishment closures at kingcounty.gov; for more tips on spotting an unpermitted vendor, see the list below.
Seattle Times food reporter Jackie Varriano contributed to this report.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include comment from ownership of La Cuadra.
The opinions expressed in reader comments are those of the author only and do not reflect the opinions of The Seattle Times.