Food truck fest raised ire of official

City Council member called police to investigate food festival for alcohol servings

WOONSOCKET – A controversial food truck festival in Market Square has apparently given critics on the City Council more ammunition after alcoholic beverages were served during the first of four planned events on Friday – apparently without the city’s knowledge or authorization.

City officials and police are still investigating to determine whether any laws were broken, but City Clerk Christina Duarte said she should have at least been informed ahead of time that beer was to be served at the event, a joint venture of NeighborWorks Blackstone River Valley and Food Trucks In, an organization that supports the mobile restaurant business.

Duarte said a representative of NeighborWorks never told the City Council beer was to be served at the event when it applied for permission to dedicate four parking spaces for the vendors’ vehicles.

“In her application they never mentioned any,” said Duarte. “They should have.”

Council Vice President Jon Brien called the food truck festival “a very positive event” that drew scores of outsiders to the city, but he said Duarte’s point is justified.

“When the council addressed this issue they asked a specific question as to whether alcohol was going to be served and the answer was ‘no,’” Brien said. “It’s a good event but we’re going to have to get this issue straightened out before moving onto the next one.”

Councilman Richard Fagnant, a fierce critic of the food truck fair from the beginning, triggered a police investigation when he decided to make a spot check of the festivities on Friday afternoon. He was initially concerned about an electric wire running from a generator on the sidewalk past a canister of gasoline and called the police. When Lt. Ed Doura responded, the officer observed patrons consuming alcoholic beverages on the premises and asked organizers whether they had obtained a license.

Based on what he knows so far, Fagnant said, “We need to have a show cause hearing and get this

straightened out.”

Fagnant and Councilwoman Denise Sierra, a longtime restaurateur, have opined that the food truck event causes citybased restaurants to face competition. They were the only two councilors who recently voted against granting NeighborWorks a permit to hold the festival, which includes three more events – on the first Friday of June, July and August.

Detective Capt. Michael Lemoine said that after Fagnant summoned police to the event on Friday, organizers immediately ceased serving alcoholic beverages and an investigation is ongoing. He said it’s still unclear whether any laws were broken, but the matter has been referred to City Solicitor John DeSimone for further review and a recommendation.

“The solicitor’s office has received the incident report and it is currently under review,” said Blake Collins, the city’s business liaison and public relations coordinator.

Lemoine said organizers told Doura that they were providing alcohol under a catering license held by Ciro’s Tavern on Cherry. Duarte said the state Department of Business Regulation maintains a list of authorized caterers who hold so-called Class P licenses to serve alcohol – and Ciro’s is not on the web-based version of the list. She was still trying to determine as of press time whether Ciro’s is in possession of such a license, which would allow the restaurant wide latitude to provide alcohol at off-premise locations.

Even if Ciro’s holds such a license, however, Duarte is satisfied that the city should have been informed in advance that it was to be in use for the truck fair. She called NeighborWorks’ failure to do so “a mistake.”

Ciro’s holds a full-privilege liquor license, which the city controls, but Class P licenses are regulated by the state, Duarte said.

Efforts to contact the operators of Ciro’s – Gina Savini and Matt Moylan – were not successful.

Margaux Morisseau, a spokeswoman for NeighborWorks, said the opposition to the food truck event from critics like Fagnant is, ironically, what led Ciro’s to get involved in the food truck festival. In attempts to address allegations that the event was exposing existing restaurants to unfair competition, WNDC issued an open invitation to see whether any wanted to participate in some way.

“Ciro’s took us up on the offer,” said Morisseau.

But that invitation went out after the council had already approved the permit for the food truck event during a hearing in which, officials contend, there was no mention of alcoholic beverages being served.

Morisseau said the proprietors of Ciro’s informed NeighborWorks that that it had legal authority to serve alcoholic beverages at the event under the restaurant’s catering license. But Morisseau said NeighborWorks made no independent effort to confirm that Ciro’s was in possession of such a permit it or that it affords the restaurant the privileges it claimed.

“They didn’t assure us,” said Morisseau. “We assumed it.”

Morisseau said none of the food truck vendors who participated in the event served alcohol. Ciro’s served beer from an area inside 40 South Main St. – the former Mulvey’s Hardware Store, where NeighborWorks operates a mixed-used development that includes event space, a small business incubator kitchen and a handful of affordable rental units.

Patrons were allowed to consume the alcoholic beverages in a limited area outside the building.

Morisseau said over 800 people attended the event, which – but for the alcohol glitch – was an overwhelming success. Vendors served organic fried chicken, barbeque, gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches, fancy coffee drinks, wood-fired pizza, kicked-up-a-notch hot dogs and sausages, soul food and other trendy food truck fare.

Morisseau said there was never any intent to mislead the city on the question of whether alcohol would be served at the event. She said she hopes the incident doesn’t jeopardize the last three installments of the food fair – even if it means alcohol is prohibited.

“As far as I knew everything was all set,” she said. “Whatever needs to be fixed for the next one we’ll do. If the city decides they don’t want alcohol at this event, that’s fine too.”

Follow Russ Olivo on Twitter @russolivo