Fresno’s street food vendors surge post-COVID. What’s driving that ‘hustler spirit’

On a warm Wednesday afternoon, cars trickle into a Fresno parking lot of an auto parts shop near Shaw and Cornelia avenues - not to get their cars fixed but to experience some tastes from home.

Customers, primarily Punjabi men in the trucking industry, huddle around Punjabi Chulla & Grill, a food truck that opened earlier this year at the busy intersection. Inside, Navdeep Singh and his family prepare fresh sugar cane juice, samosas and a vegetarian noodle burger. The burger — a customer favorite made of a potato patty, turmeric-flavored noodles, lettuce, cucumbers, onions and tomatoes — is going viral on social media platform TikTok.

For nearly two decades, Singh worked as a truck driver, hauling produce and crude oil across the country. He decided to leave the industry about a year ago to spend more time with family. He opened the food truck earlier this year because there weren’t many local options for fresh, home-style Punjabi dishes.

“I was fed up with trying to go out for food, but it was not up to my standard,” Singh said. The family business offers dishes fresh upon order and uses local produce in the primarily vegetarian recipes.

Punjabi Chulla is one of a number of new mobile food vendors that have cropped up in Fresno coming out of the pandemic.

County data show there has been a 29% increase in mobile food vendor applications since 2020. Over the year period from April 2019 to March 2020, Fresno County received 110 applications. There was a dip during the first year of the coronavirus pandemic, when the received just 94 applications. But the next year, April 2022 to March 2023, activity picked up with the county receiving 142.

There are a number of reasons for this uptick, city and county leaders say, such as inflation, pandemic-related income loss and increasing acceptance of street vendors in Fresno, driven in part by social media. A new state law that simplifies the rules for street vendors to obtain health permits may have also unintentionally contributed to an increase in unpermitted vendors, said Matthew Gore, an environmental health specialist with the Fresno County Department of Public Health.

A lot of people interpreted the new law to mean “oh cool, I can sell whatever food I want now from the street,” Gore said, “which was maybe the wrong message.” The department is trying to bring those vendors into compliance with a new educational outreach campaign, he said.

Mike “Oz” Osegueda, founder of Fresno Street Eats and co-founder of the annual Taco Truck Throwdown competition, told The Bee that what Fresno is experiencing is part of a nationwide “food truck explosion” trend. It has accelerated in recent years, he said, especially as the pandemic changed the way people eat.

Osegueda said that enterprising Fresnans, especially from the Latino community, are seizing on an economic opportunity — one that has the potential to add millions of dollars to public coffers because of the increased economic activity, job creation and greater tax collections.

A 2015 report by the Economic Roundtable, a nonprofit research institute, found that street vendors in Los Angeles generated over $517 million in economic stimulus, created over 5,000 jobs and generated an estimated $124 million in direct, indirect and induced annual tax revenue.

“Fresno is a city of hustlers,” Osegueda said, “there’s a hustler spirit in this town.”

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Fresno County rolls out efforts to reach unpermitted food businesses

Santiago Juarez stands over a boiling tub of grease on a warm Monday evening. Donning purple latex gloves, he slowly cranks the lever on a container holding batter and gently places the tube-shaped strips of dough into the bubbling liquid.

Juarez sells freshly-made Oaxacan-style churros and fried plantains, served with cinnamon, sugar, condensed milk and cajeta, a caramel-like sauce typically made of either goat or cow milk.

He moved to Fresno from Los Angeles about a year ago, and has been running his churro stand for about six months. Juarez came to Fresno specifically, he said in Spanish, because “out there, there’s more competition.”

His family operates two other churro stands in the city.

None of them operate with the required health and business permits, but Juarez is not too concerned. Once, he said, county officials came out and asked them to shut down for the night because he lacked required permits.

“They asked us to pack up and that’s it,” he said, “so we did.”

Juarez soon returned to his usual corner.

For every licensed mobile food business, Osegueda estimates there’s likely two to three times the number of unlicensed vendors. Often it’s the cost of a food truck or cart that hinders vendors from pursuing legal businesses. Juarez estimated it would cost him at least $50,000 to get a food truck, while push carts that meet county standards can range from $9,000 to $12,000.

To address this issue, Fresno County has launched a campaign to educate food vendors like Juarez on how to set up licensed mobile food businesses, Gore of Fresno County said.

In the past couple of months, county staff – including Spanish speakers – have visited dozens of unpermitted vendors to explain the permitting process. During this initial visit – which serves as a formal warning – county officials also ask vendors to pack up and end their sales for the night, Gore said. If the county discovers that vendors are continuing to sell without permits, then the next step is to confiscate and throw away the food items. If a vendor still continues to sell, county officials can impound equipment for 30 days – something they haven’t done yet during this educational push.

For Gore, the main goal is to protect public health. He said he understands that vendors are just trying to “earn the American Dream.” But it’s imperative that they do so safely, he said.

When customers are critical of the enforcement activities, Gore points out that unlicensed vendors usually don’t have a place to wash their hands.

“A lot of times that will open up their eyes, and they’ll look back behind the counter and say ‘Gosh you’re right, I never noticed that,’ ” he said.

Juarez, the churro vendor, said he plans to get his permits “más adelante,” in the future. But for now, the startup costs are too expensive – there’s the cost for the permitted cart plus hundreds of dollars in annual operating fees. He said he can’t afford it yet.

Fresno food truck business community likely to grow

Heladio Martinez used to run a taco stand in Los Angeles, but when the pandemic hit, he lost his customer base. So Martinez called an uncle who worked as a foreman in the Valley’s agricultural fields and moved to Fresno.

When he wasn’t working in the fields or washing dishes in local restaurants, Martinez and his friends would play basketball in Martin Ray Reilly Park, located on Chestnut Avenue near Highway 180. That’s when he decided to start another taco stand just outside the park: The area had steady foot and car traffic, a good sign for business, he said.

Taquería Santo Domingo, on Chestnut Avenue near the park, is best known for its trompo, or rotating vertical spit, where they cook al pastor marinated pork to serve in tacos topped with pineapple and served in handmade corn tortillas, Martinez said.

Martinez couldn’t confirm whether the business has the necessary permits to operate – the owners of the taco stand equipment are based in Los Angeles, he said. However, he said the taquería has a sink area for workers to wash their hands and they take care to clean up the area after each night of service.

But one thing is clear: Since Taquería Santo Domingo started selling tacos outside of the park in December 2020, more vendors – primarily selling tacos – have also started to set up on Chestnut.

“The same customers that come here say ‘Wow, I am going to put a taco stand just like this,’” Martinez said.

Street vending is just the start for these entrepreneurs who want to create bigger businesses and even open restaurants one day, Osegueda said. Even local city planners are envisioning ways to repurpose vacant lots for food truck events as a way to promote community and economic development.

Osegueda said he thinks Fresno will see more hubs, such as food halls, public markets or food truck parks open up as a result of the growth of mobile food businesses. “There’s a lot of stuff going on in this space right now,” he said.

As for Singh, he hopes to expand his food truck business and eventually relocate to a plot of land he owns in south Fresno near Highway 41, where he plans to set up a cozy, outdoor seating area.

Until then, he’s focused on growing his customer base, starting with the Mexican customers who come to the truck looking for tacos and burritos.

“I’m thinking to start (selling) veggie tacos,” he said, “I’m just working on the recipe.”