Maybe you’ve seen one: the hot dog vendor outside the stadium with the cart wrapped in duct tape. The taco tent drawing long lines to the parking lot of an auto parts shop. The sandwich stand set up in the park.

Have you ever checked if they have a permit?

Through Oct. 31, the Seattle-King County health department has shut down 98 unpermitted mobile food vendors in 2024. The number of violations this year is on pace to quadruple last year’s total — and already exceeds the previous five years combined.

Issues with unpermitted mobile food vendors extend beyond the threat of foodborne illness, which is a primary concern. The sharp uptick also has legal vendors frustrated as they try to break even in an increasingly challenging (and expensive) racket. Since unpermitted vendors rarely face lasting repercussions for operating without proper inspections, some legal vendors in Seattle are questioning why they play by the rules.  

The health department is vowing to crack down, including a new rule designed to make it easier for the public to identify unpermitted vendors. But between red-tape angst, customer confusion, illicit tacos and stadium skirmishes between permitted and unpermitted hot dog vendors, the mobile food scene in Seattle feels volatile. 

“Our permits are due in a few months,” said Farshid Varamini, owner of Pioneer Grill Hot Dogs, Gantry Public House and The People’s Burger. He’s been permitted to serve food near the downtown Seattle stadiums for decades.

“Are they going to say we have to pay permits?” he said of the health department. “[Unpermitted vendors] don’t, so why do we?”

Permit problems  

According to data from Public Health — Seattle & King County, unpermitted mobile food vendor violations have exploded this year.

Dating to 2019 (the earliest data available), Public Health reported 12 closures over permitting violations in 2019; 10 in 2020; eight in 2021; 22 in 2022; and 27 last year.

That’s 79 violations total from 2019 to 2023 versus 98 this year through Oct. 31. 

Public Health pointed to a pandemic-era dip in violations but cannot explain the boom. One repeat offender this year was arguably Seattle’s restaurant of the summer. 

Tacos La Cuadra went viral last summer as foodie influencers and fans lined up late at night in parking lots from Rainier Beach to Northgate for La Cuadra’s al pastor pork, carved fresh off the spit. Famous to fans, the taco stand was notorious to the health department: Over a span of about 12 weeks this year, Public Health shut down Tacos La Cuadra five times.

The health department issued Tacos La Cuadra a food truck permit at the end of October, but prior to that, food safety officials had difficulties getting the operation to follow safe food-handling rules. (Multiple interview requests with workers at La Cuadra and on the business’ Instagram page were declined or left unanswered, once due to a language barrier.)

Customers might not scan for permits, but they’re essential — if a vendor flouts a permit, chances are they aren’t following food safety rules to a tee, either. The rash of unpermitted vendors suggests the health department’s permit policy could sharpen its teeth. 

Dr. Eyob Mazengia, assistant division director of environmental health for Public Health — Seattle & King County, said the department has not historically taken a punitive approach to permit enforcement. The main goal for food safety inspectors is to educate illegal vendors, getting them the contacts and info necessary to get licensed. 

Food safety inspectors aren’t adversarial; they don’t hand out fines or permanently shut down any unpermitted vendor.

“To this point, Public Health has not levied fines for mobile food vendors, as it is a lengthy and complex process, but it is something we are prepared to do for food vendors that repeatedly operate without a permit even after education from our team,” said a spokesperson for the health department. 

Public Health has recently started recording additional food safety violations but has not historically done so for unpermitted vendors. Inspectors will explain other violations to vendors — preparing food outside a commercial kitchen, lack of restrooms, failing to wash hands, improper sourcing and handling of food, improper storage of wastewater — but when a vendor doesn’t have a permit, the inspection ends there.

Language barriers sometimes come into play, but the department has staff fluent in over 18 languages and distributes printed material in additional languages to help people get into the system, said Jonathan Fisher, a health and environmental investigator. But “some unpermitted vendors have stated outright they don’t want to get a permit.”

“Unfortunately, we can’t be everywhere at once, and a lot of unpermitted vendors will simply set up shop the next block over, or wait until we’re gone and then come back in the next day, or will learn the hours that we’re more likely to be out in the field,” Fisher said. “A lot of them will simply just try to evade us to continue operating.”

Fisher said permit prices can be a deterrent to going legitimate.

The cost of obtaining a permit from Public Health varies depending on the “risk” associated with the food business. There are three tiers of risk for mobile vendors. The lowest would be something like a hot dog cart; that permit costs $554 per year.

“It sounds like a lot,” Fisher said, “but if you’re clearing a lot of product, you could sell that in one day.” 

If the mobile vendor is looking to make something like deli-style sandwiches, that would be a Risk 2 classification, the permit for which runs $887 annually. A Risk 3 classification — think, a full food truck that cooks from raw meat or keeps food hot for an extended period of time — costs $1,143.

The health department doesn’t know the reason for the steep rise in permit violations — just that it’s not happening exclusively in Seattle. 

“This is something departments across the country are dealing with,” Fisher said.

In July, the Ventura County Health Department in California announced it would spend $1.7 million to “crack down” on a similar proliferation of unpermitted vendors. In August, health inspectors in Maricopa County, Arizona, reported 17 instances of foodborne illness traced to unpermitted food vendors. And in February, officials in Houston issued close to 200 fines to unpermitted vendors. 

Rise of the duct-tape carts

Varamini has seen it all from his vantage point on Occidental Avenue South. He has operated a permitted hot dog cart near Lumen Field for 26 years (long before it was Lumen Field), adding The People’s Burger 15 years ago and expanding his commissary kitchen to a full bar called Gantry Public House in 2014.

That Public Health permit is just one of the many costs of doing business legally. 

Additional Seattle Department of Transportation permits can run $1,000 per year per cart. Sitting in the backroom at the Gantry last month, Varamini ticked off his other expenses: $17,000 a year for insurance; $1,000 for the fire department inspection; $3,000 a month in rent for his commissary kitchen; $2,000 a month for garbage service. 

“For sales to break even,” said Varamini, whose dogs cost $5-$8, “we typically have to sell 90 to 200 hot dogs to cover labor and food costs, depending on the event day.” Selling hot dogs and burgers, Varamini “has little wiggle room when it comes to menu pricing,” yet his food costs have more than doubled over the past three years.

Meanwhile, he describes scenes like the Wild West on game days. 

Varamini has seen people selling beverages out of tubs here and there over the decades, but it was about two years ago that he first saw a duct-taped hot dog cart encroaching on his territory in Seattle. The carts are now commonplace: Varamini recalled games over the summer where some 16 illegal carts operated across the street from the legal vendors that line Occidental, setting up shop in areas that aren’t designated for vendors. 

Other pushcart operators will park in front of food trucks to undercut them, resulting in heated exchanges. Varamini said another vendor recently kicked over an illicit pushcart that was parked in front of the legal vendor’s food truck.

“It’s getting dangerous out there,” Varamini said.

Unpermitted vendors have plopped their carts on crowded sidewalks right by the stadium gates, too. The city doesn’t allow vendors in these high foot-traffic areas, hoping to avoid congestion and to allow wheelchair access.  

Varamini said he’s seen pushcart operators chopping onions on their carts and wrapping raw bacon around hot dogs with bare hands. He’s seen grease and oil being illegally dumped down sewer grates. And don’t get him started on the trash and the lack of hand-washing. 

“That’s my biggest concern,” he said. “If someone gets sick, the news will report that someone got sick eating a hot dog outside the stadium. And that affects all of us who have been doing this legally.” 

Increased urgency 

The problem seems to have reached a boiling point, with Public Health — Seattle & King County issuing a PSA, tapping other agencies for enforcement assistance and updating its rules. 

In September, the health department issued a public service announcement, warning residents to avoid buying food from unlicensed food carts and trucks “to protect yourself from potential foodborne illness.” 

The department also outlined how to spot illegal vendors, advising customers to look for mobile operations with a Public Health “24-25” sticker. Other concerning signs to watch for: Illegal vendors “often block sidewalks, and the makeshift stations generally lack hand-washing or sanitizing buckets.”

Health department officials have also vowed to increase oversight of this often-overlooked shadow industry. To help with the crackdown, Mazengia said Public Health plans to work closer with agencies like the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board, local fire departments, local business licensing agencies, and SDOT, which has jurisdiction over sidewalks.

Mazengia also said that food inspectors have increased patrol around areas where unpermitted vendors frequently operate, like Capitol Hill, the University District and around Lumen Field, T-Mobile Park and Climate Pledge Arena. (The health department did not share specific numbers related to that uptick in enforcement.)

And, effective Jan. 1, King County Board of Health will mandate that all mobile food vendors post their food safety health rating score visibly, similar to how brick-and-mortar restaurants post safety rating placards.

Since 2017, only restaurants, taverns, delis and coffeehouses have been required to post health safety placards. In 2025, all mobile food carts (along with bakeries, catering business and meat and fish shops) will have to follow suit. 

The new regulation has the support of the Washington Food Truck Association, which emphasized food safety as its chief concern.

“This issue is much more than a failure to pay for street vending permits or health permits,” said Tim Johnson, spokesman for the group, in a statement. “Carts like these may or may not be able to hold food at safe temperatures, they appear to lack the required hand-wash sinks, we have no way of knowing where the food was sourced or prepared, and no way of knowing if the food service workers are properly trained and certified.”

Whether via increased enforcement or these new rules, permitted mobile vendors like Varamini are hoping for any sign of positive change. 

“This year, if I didn’t have the bar, I would be done. There’s no way I could keep carts going,” Varamini said, already looking ahead to major sports events like the 2026 FIFA World Cup games in Seattle. “I can’t imagine what will happen if they don’t get it under control.”