Promenade cookies, hot dogs in making
By Daily Press Staff
THIRD STREET PROMENADE — While it will most likely be months before visitors here can snack on chocolate chip cookies, hot dogs and shaved ice, a food-cart program proposed by retail-cart operator Provenzano Resources Inc., moved closer to becoming a reality earlier this month when a commissary passed inspection by the Los Angeles County Health Department.
Now, those interested in operating a food cart must submit designs to county healthy officials for approval. Once that is done and the designs approved, merchants can then build their carts and have them reviewed and approved, said Theresa Johnson, a county health inspector who has been working with Provenzano officials for roughly 10 months on the program.
“The commissary has passed inspection and is very clean,” Johnson said.“We hold it to the same standards we would a restaurant and we inspect it as such.”
Provenzano is currently looking for vendors interested in working on the promenade, said Deborah Kravitz, a president and principal for the Los Angeles-and San Diego-based management company.
“We have quite a few applications, so I don’t think getting the remaining merchants will be difficult at all,” Kravitz said.
An entrepreneur who sells gourmet cookies has already signed on, as has a young couple interested in selling churros, according to Kravitz.
“We stopped leasing carts because we didn’t feel comfortable until we passed inspection,” Kravitz said. “Now we feel much more comfortable, but until I have the commissary certificate in hand, we are not going to get too excited. It’s been a very long process.
“We certainly thought we would be much farther along than we are now.”
Vendors are limited as to what types of food they can sell. County health officials prohibit cooking any raw foods on the carts.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on December 23, 2006. Read the original PDF.