Buy a beer at a food cart? Portland asks state to craft rules
PORTLAND, Ore. - Portland food cart owners anxious to add alcohol to their menu will have to wait. The City Council voted 4 to 1 Wednesday to ask the Oregon Liquor Control Commission to create rules for how food carts handle selling beer or wine.
Roger Golinray, owner of Cartlandia on Southeast 82nd, said without the extra sales from alcohol, business will be negatively impacted.
"It's going to reduce the population that's going to want to come and eat," he said. "We're doing this mainly to supplement the food carts so they can survive. It's not an easy business."
The City Council's vote slows down the effort to get a liquor license where Golinray said the 18 food cart vendors are struggling. He and others wanted to boost sales by bringing in beer and wine.
But several city commissioners pointed out that while Cartlandia is on private property – giving vendors control of who enters and who leaves – other food carts are lined up next to public sidewalks, particularly in downtown Portland. It is there where safety concerns are greatest.
Questions like, could customers wander away with a beer in hand, could they pass it along to minors and would adding alcohol create violence, were raised.
If the answer to any of those questions is yes, the other concern is that the city doesn't have a right to intervene no matter how irresponsible a food cart might be in serving alcohol and compromising the safety of neighbors.
"This sets a new low bar citywide," said Portland Mayor Sam Adams. "Guidelines as opposed to rules are not enforceable by our staff and cannot be enforced by the police bureau."
Right now, the OLCC uses food cart guidelines, which are recommendations that cannot be legally enforced. So Portland wants the state liquor control commission to come up with food cart rules that can be enforced, even if food carts have to wait longer to get a license.
"This hearing is not about whether Cartlandia should have a liquor license. It's about should we have rules that are set for the whole city?" said City Commissioner Amanda Fritz.
The owners of Cartlandia were scheduled for a liquor license hearing this week but it was canceled; instead, the city will make its pitch for new rules on food carts.
The OLCC said it is still digesting this and hasn't yet received the city's Wednesday action so it didn’t have a response to that. It says its system works but they could use more inspectors. But it also said it can't create rules that only apply to food carts. Those rules have to be applicable to all types of businesses.
