Rafael Lopez

Rafael Lopez owns and operates a Mexican restaurant named El Bandera Jalisco.  Earlier this year, he set to open a second location where he planned to combine the indoor seating of a restaurant alongside a food truck parked on the same property.  He signed a lease, invested $40,000 in a food truck, obtained the required permit, and began operating his new El Bandera Jalisco food truck at his new location.  Two months later he was visited by a city inspector.

San Antonio shut down Rafael’s food truck and threatened him with daily fines of up to $2,000 per day if he continued to vend.  The city inspector told him to ask his next door neighbor, the Hung Fong Chinese Restaurant, for a written and notarized permission slip allowing him to reopen.  Unsurprisingly, he was unable to obtain their permission.  By invoking the 300-foot rule, the city shut down Rafael’s food truck.  The El Bandera Jalisco food truck now sits in storage.  If Rafael had opened a brick-and-mortar restaurant on the same property he would be in business; because he opened a food truck instead, he’s been shut down.