First Horry County food truck owner has taste of success on opening day

The aroma of Italian sausage simmering in peppers and onions drifted out of the small window of Stuff Your Face Street Eats as a steady flow of customers lined the parking lot of Palmetto Distillery on Tuesday to be one of the first to try the food in Horry County’s first permitted hot food truck.

Barbecue with a side of coleslaw, nachos and tacos with a heaping portion of meat, sour cream, salsa and other toppings flowed out of the mobile food truck all day long, as the truck’s owner, Karl Moser, worked the kitchen.

“It’s been pretty steady,” Moser said. “They were both staying to eat at the picnic tables Palmetto Distillery has out here and they were taking it to go.”

Though many food trucks get temporary permits for special events like bike rallies, Moser’s is the first to serve hot meals on a permit that is good for a whole year.

Ken Jones of Conway pulled up on his motorcycle Tuesday with a mission to try Stuff Your Face’s chili dog.

“I love chili dogs,” Jones said. “I’ve been to 26 states, thousands of chili dog trucks and this is like one in New Jersey. This is really good. It surprised me. It really did.”

The mobile food truck ordinance was the first assignment for Mary Catherine Hyman, senior planner with Horry County, who began with the county in late 2013. She said although it took time to hash out particulars, the department is glad to see the program come to fruition.

“It has been a process,” Hyman said, adding Moser is the ninth permit to be approved, but first one to serve food other than hot dogs and ice cream.

A special committee and county staff spent nearly a year surveying the public, developing fee rates and regulations, and crafting a plan for a one-year pilot program that would test the viability of food trucks in the county.

But in October 2014, Horry County Council voted 9-3 against the pilot program. In its place, county leaders suggested the trucks be limited to serving pre-packaged food on job sites far from brick-and-mortar restaurants. Some council members worried that the food trucks would lure business from traditional eating places. There are more than 1,800 restaurants along the Grand Strand.

County officials then decided to amend the ordinance, which passed in May. However, the only major changes included allowing multiple trucks for one property, such as a mall site, which eventually appeased the majority of councilmen.

County permits were issued in June, and Moser still had to work to get approval from the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control. Then, he faced trying to get a commissary, or an off-site DHEC-approved kitchen or restaurant, to prepare his food. The law does not allow him to rent or lease a facility with septic tanks, which Moser found out was a lot of properties.

Moser eventually found Tokyo Hibachi where he could prepare his food and opened his food truck at Palmetto Distillery on South Kings Highway on Tuesday.

Hyman said the planning and zoning department has kept a log of issues that have come up since the ordinance was approved early this summer and presented resolutions to Horry County Council earlier this month. The council will vote on the measures, which include allowing the trucks in amusement zoning districts and modifying vehicle reporting requirements, after a public hearing Jan. 7.

“It will make it easier on the folks who want to come forth with this,” Hyman said. “It’s removing a lot of the requirement, and honestly, it’s making it a lot less cumbersome.”

Moser said he wished the ordinance allowed for more mobility, but requiring a site plan for everywhere the truck plans to go makes it hard for the truck to serve more than one area per day.

Hyman said the county considered that.

“What we learned through our research, especially when you’re preparing the hot food, when you get set up somewhere, you need to be there for several hours because you’re doing the prep and the cleaning up,” Hyman said. “It’s not just as easy to jump back up in the truck and leave.”

Hyman said there have been some requests for information and one person even pulled an application Tuesday, but the majority of those who were interested haven’t been back at the zoning office.

“We had some that expressed interest, but they haven’t been in touch recently,” Hyman said. “I’m not sure where they stand now. It may be the timing of it. It may kick back up in the spring more.”

Moser said he plans to set up shop at the distillery from 11 a..m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and the menu “could change every day, or every other day.”

Moser said he spoke with two people Tuesday who said they were interested in starting their own food truck, which is news Moser welcomed.

“I love competition,” Moser said. “Come on. The more the merrier.”

This story was originally published December 15, 2015 at 5:08 PM with the headline "First Horry County food truck owner has taste of success on opening day."