‘Cops’
courtesy of ‘maxedaperture’
“Whoops – what are we going to eat today for lunch now?” is what some Arlington Police officers might be thinking this morning.
The Taco Carrito served up delicious tacos to Crystal City and Rosslyn lunch crowds – until yesterday – when they discovered they were too big. We received this notice from the Arlington taco cart:
Today, the Arlington Police came by the Taco Carrito, whipped out a tape measure and informed us that our cart was too long to operate in Arlington County. It was fun while it lasted. We will work on getting into DC or Maryland in the near future. Thank you to all of our customers and supporters!
Arlington’s loss may soon be DC or Maryland’s gain, literally. In the meantime, check out other food cart options in the area. Though we’re sure that will only help temporarily ease the pain of losing Taco Carrito.
Wow. What a great use of police time. I wonder if someone complained, or if one of the cops is just that big a jerk? Glad to know that there is no longer crime in Arlington though, so there are plenty of resources to check the food carts!!!
Man it must be a miss by inches. This is the text of the code that google turns up[pdf]:
“The carts used by stationary or sidewalk vendors may not exceed 7.5 feet in height (excluding umbrellas), 8 feet in length and 5 feet in width.”
Looking at the picture from Katie’s old article it’s hard to believe it’s much beyond 8 feet long or 5 feet wide. Perhaps it’s just too tall?
My brother mentioned that this cart was parked *very* close to a local Chipotle franchise. Makes you wonder…
“Pardon me sir, but by my measure, your cart is seven feet seven inches tall. THIS WILL NOT STAND, SIR. We here in Arlington County *simply do not go in for these kind of shenanigans.*”
Witty. Funny! Snappy. But consider this. Arlington has created a positive walking community with close metros and an excellent business district. Arlington has regs explicitly to permit carts or kiosks and things. But Arlington is also particular to make its effort work and not clogged up by stores pretending to be carts. Sorry to see something cool leave – but an alternative is to get a cart that conforms (And Arlington is pretty good about letting local businesses known what the local rules are). I dont want to see the crappy carts I see down on the Mall littering Rlington and I am more than glad to see Rlington taking affirmative steps. Meanwhile, I think I will go off to Restaurant Abi, or the Papusaria, or the dozens of other excellent central america restaurants in Arlington.
Hi Cathy,
Thank you for pointing out this issue. I have checked with our Hack and Vendor licensing detective. Our detective was called by a security representative of the property on which “Taco Carrito” was operating. Unfortunately they were on private property without permission. The cart was also 11 feet long, which exceeds the code in Arlington County. There were several other violations, but the owners were not ticketed, simply asked to not operate there again. The property owner also allowed the cart to stay on the property for the remainder of the day so that the food that was already prepared would not be wasted. Please do not hesitate to contact the department if there are questions. Detective Crystal Nosal
Well, as much as I think Arlington County has better things to do than measure carts, and give me parking tickets (AHEM), I must say Detective Crystal Nosal’s response was fair. Well played, ACPD.
I’d like to clear a few thing up. A few weeks ago, the owners of the property came out and informed us that it was private. They checked our paperwork and made copies for themselves. I asked at this time if everything was Ok and was told yes. They didn’t mention that they wanted us off of their property. If they had, we would have moved. As for the length of the cart..BEFORE we bought the cart, I went to the police dept. and spoke with an officer that deals with vendors. I showed him pictures of the cart and told him that it was too long to meet their code. He told me it was fine. Why would we spend our time and money to buy the cart, form an LLC, get a business license, food managers license and peddlers license to operate a cart that could be shut down at a moments notice? If we were out to break the law, we could have saved a lot of money and just rolled the cart out without getting all the necessary paperwork and licenses. And finally, there were no other violations that we were informed about. We have all the necessary paperwork and operate a very clean and well kept cart. We take pride in what we do and enjoyed serving the people of Crystal City. Once again, thank you to all of our customers.
I’m sad- now what am I supposed to do for good tacos in Rosslyn? Walk across the Key Bridge for Qdoba?
And don’t say Chipotle. I said GOOD tacos.
You are missed, Carrito.
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