Bradenton Beach gave a greenlight to the Anna Maria Island Moose Lodge to operate food trucks from its parking lot.
But the city also said patrons would need a Moose membership card to make purchases.
And that meant fewer customers and less income for the food truck and Moose coffers.
So the Moose emailed members Aug. 30 and said the lodge would stop hosting food trucks “due to the permits required by the local authorities.”
The lodge, 110 Gulf Drive S., started renovating its kitchen in May, after the first shutdown for COVID-19, but work was delayed when it was learned the Moose needed additional city permits.
“We’re going through the permit process and it’s quite extensive,” bar administrator Byron Dalton said. “We hoped to be finished by now, but it’s in the hands of our wonderful city.”
To meet the demand for food, the Moose set up a tent and a grill in its parking lot to operate a small kitchen.
Then, Dalton said, the Moose invited food trucks to the lodge in mid-August to “spice things up.”
“Our members kind of get tired of burgers and hot dogs and stuff like that,” he said. “We figured we’d do something different with the food truck.”
The Moose hosted The Maine Line lobster truck from Sarasota and The Spot taco truck from Bradenton, as well as the Sausage Express from Venice.
Dalton said the Moose received a percentage of the sales but did not disclose the amount.
Building official Steve Gilbert said city code permitted the food trucks if they sold only to Moose members. Otherwise, the lodge must acquire a temporary-use permit to host a mobile business that sells to the public.
“As of now, it appears that the lodge is offering an expanded menu to ‘members only,’” Gilbert had written to the newspaper prior to the lodge’s suspension of the trucks. “Until advised otherwise, as the building official, the Moose Lodge’s extended menu offerings through ‘food trucks’ appear to be within the intent of the city commission’s intent to offer some relief to businesses as regards to the COVID-19 situation, as well as the lodge’s pending permits to renovate its existing kitchen facilities.”
But the Moose’s message to members cited the loss of revenue as a reason to stop hosting food trucks.
“The costs to the Moose Lodge are not economically beneficial to the order and may impact some of the charitable donations we provide to the local community,” the email read.
“We will continue to use our grill each day to provide you with food at the lodge as we have in the past,” the email continued. “Again, we are sorry that we have to terminate the food truck operations.”
