Evanston Legalizes Food Trucks

By Chuck Sudo in Food on Sep 14, 2010 6:00PM

The Evanston City Council voted to legalize full-service food trucks by an 8-1 margin this morning. The vote was pretty much an academic conclusion to an overwhelmingly civil debate. As reported here on Chicagoist in July, the Evanston Health Department had not imposed any restrictions on food trucks that could cook and serve their wares in city limits. The vote for the trucks essentially dots and crosses all the required connections to let Hummingbird Kitchen roll out its business as soon as they can pass an official inspection.

The vote also opens the doors for other businesses to start rolling out food trucks. Ed Lakin of Edzo's Burger Shop has been watching the debate from the sidelines with a "wait-and-see" approach towards launching his own burger truck. "I'm happy that the measure passed," Lakin said. "But I still want to see what happens in Chicago with the food truck ordinance first because, if I'm going to invest in a truck, I want to be able to do business both in Evanston and Chicago.