Lexington said no to a food truck in town. Will that change soon?

D.J. Stone is a reluctant crusader against the town of Lexington’s ban on food trucks setting up shop any time and anywhere in town.

His effort started after town officials blocked his attempt to serve baked goods from his mobile kitchen as it sat next to a store Nov. 28.

The shutdown was an unwelcome surprise demonstrating the town is “not food truck friendly,” Stone said.

So he is pressing town leaders to end the restrictions on his industry. “I’m willing to bring about some change,” he said. “I don’t want it to be just for me.”

Town rules adopted in 2014 limit food trucks to brief stays at events such as festivals, concerts and farmer markets.

Those standards — adopted as safeguards to assure sanitation — are antiquated, Mayor Steve MacDougall said.

“It’s time to take a look and see if we can make it work,” he said of allowing food trucks to operate freely in the community of 21,000 residents.

MacDougall hopes to bring changes up for Town Council discussion as soon as January.

Hudson’s Smokehouse, the restaurant that MacDougall helps run, wouldn’t benefit immediately from changes since it doesn’t have a mobile kitchen, he said.

Stone acquired and updated a former trolley into a mobile kitchen last summer to expand the reach of The Blended Bakery, his family-run operation known for breads, pies and cinnamon rolls.

The trolley is difficult to move, so he wanted to set it up next to Rhoten’s Country Store in the center of town as a sidewalk cafe of sorts.

Now the town ban threatens to thwart Stone’s $80,000 investment

Store owner Wes Rhoten is angry at the ban preventing the trolley from setting outside his store, a move he thinks will benefit both himself and Stone. “It makes no sense,” he said.

Stone, a utility analyst for South Carolina Electric & Gas Co., is interested in making the sideline business his focus. “Ideally, this is what I’d like to do full-time,” he said of the bakery.

Ending the current limits on food trucks is overdue, said Otis Rawl, chief executive officer at the Greater Lexington Chamber of Commerce.

“They add value and don’t take away from restaurants,” he said. “We need to update things.”

This story was originally published December 4, 2017 at 10:33 AM with the headline "Lexington said no to a food truck in town. Will that change soon?."