There’s a hiccup in a plan that would rotate featuring local downtown restaurants on the Third Street Promenade.
The Los Angeles County Department of Health won’t allow the proposal to move forward because state law forbids having a temporary tent serving food in existence for more than 25 days in a 90-day period.
“We have run into some snags,” said Kathleen Rawson, Bayside District Corp. executive director. “What we thought would be an easy process has become a little more complicated.”
Rawson had hoped to have the dining tent operational by now, but in a best case scenario it won’t be up and running until September, city officials said.
“The good news and the bad news is the “The good news and the bad news is the health department is really interested in this project.” — — KATHLEEN RAWSON Bayside executive director
“We’re still working very hard on this,” Rawson said. “I didn’t want it to take a long time, but it’s difficult because the circumstances are beyond our control.”
The health department is requiring any dining tent on the Promenade must have a hot water sink for the cooks to wash their hands and be enclosed on at least three sides, similar to the food tents at the Promenade’s farmers market.
To help showcase restaurants throughout the downtown area, Bayside — which manages the Promenade along with the city council — proposed setting up a new staging area on the Third Street Promenade’s center court so local chefs can cook up their specialties.
The plan would give downtown restaurants access to the busy shopping corridor, where some city officials believe too many restaurants have been pushed off because of high rents.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 25, 2002. Read the original PDF.