Robert Martin

Robert Martin operates the Red’s Comfort Foods food truck. He offers specialty gourmet hot dogs and sausages using recipes collected during his years working as a network cameraman across the U.S. Robert operates his food truck at various locations in Louisville, but the 150-foot ban makes it difficult to operate where customers can find him.

In the summer of 2015, Robert was vending downtown on Main Street when a city inspector approached Red’s Comfort Foods and, in front of his customers, issued Robert a citation for vending within 150 feet of a restaurant called Down One. In order to maintain his license after violating the 150-foot ban, Robert agreed to not receive another citation for a period of six months. The 150-foot ban forced Robert to abandon the vending location where his customers knew they could find him and move away to the fairgrounds at the Kentucky Exposition Center.

The 150-foot ban makes it difficult for Robert to operate his Red’s Comfort Foods food truck in Louisville because the law creates no-vending zones that extend 150 feet around every restaurant, café and eating establishment in the city. Robert would need approval in writing from every single one of the brick-and-mortar competitors within 150 feet that sell similar food.