Warnings & Advisories

Some of the information below was provided to us from members, and some of this information is known to us firsthand. To avoid problems regarding legal liability:  All of the information provided here should be considered to be only the opinions of the WSFTA and our members.  We encourage our members to do their own research and make their own decisions. If you have any additional, or updated, information about any of the businesses, events, or individuals listed below please let us know.  We would welcome the opportunity to remove any of these advisories if/when new information eases our concerns.

Food Truck Builders

Pacific Mobile Kitchens / Custom Mobile Kitchens (Updated 2015) A food truck builder in WA (Pacific Mobile Kitchens / Custom Mobile Kitchens) has been accused of taking upfront payments from prospective new food truck operators, but failed to deliver the completed food truck as promised. This food truck builder may still be in business somewhere in WA. Jesse Jones investigated the food truck builder in question, and she can be briefly seen in this video clip:  https://youtu.be/zJXdu-U0eR8

TGA Hood - (As of October 2023), we have recently received two complaints from members that they paid this service provider for work to be completed on a mobile food unit so that it is L & I compliant and both reported that they could no longer receive any communication updates from this builder and in one case had to request help through their credit card company. The WSFTA also tried to communicate with this builder and was ignored.

Fire Wihin Mobile Wood Fired Pizza Ovens - BUYER BEWARE!!!!!! We have received repeat complains from vendors about the practices of this company, not located in Washington

Skillfab: We have received multiple complaints from members about this company and about Dan, the owner over the past several years.

Seattle Food Truck Builders: We’ve received repeated complaints about Seattle Food Truck Builders, and below are just a few.   

(January 2023) We received this email from a member: “Unfortunately, we are still working to get our trailer to finish up work and pass the L& I inspection at the Seattle Food Truck Builders. I Would love to take my trailer somewhere else because its been just awful experience of lies and empty promises but we paid $8,000 up front and if we pulled out now we would be in the hole. Last time we stopped by to see the trailer I was so upset that it made me cry. I am so happy i joined the Washington State Food Truck Association just wish i would have joined long time ago, it would have saved me heartache from this huge business mistake.”

(January 2023) We received the following email from a non-member: “We dropped our Food Truck off in January 2022 to Seattle Food Truck Builders. We were told it would take 2 months. That seemed quick so we doubled that in our head. It’s now 1 year later and I’m fairly certain nothing has been done. At this point I cannot even reach the owner Jun for any status update. We put over $9000 (60%). We also had $11,000 of brand new equipment sent there in March. Starting to think we have totally been ripped off.”

ADVICE: Take your time, do your homework, and always talk to past customers BEFORE hiring a food truck builder.

Special Events

Bite of Seattle & Bite of Tacoma are both notorious for having very high upfront event fees, plus a high percentage of sales fee. The Bite of Seattle’s host has changed multiple times over the past several years, they seem to have a very limited understanding of working with mobile food vendors, they invite many vendors from out-of-state, and they require vendors to use their (reportedly) poorly-functioning POS system. BEWARE, you could work your tail off at an event like this, only to lose money or barely break even.

Update: The 2024 Bite of Seattle was worse than 2023 according to multiple reports from food vendors. A (non-member) Seoul Bowl food truck was contacting other outraged vendors and discussing possible legal action. Below is part of the email chain that the owner of the Seoul Bowl food truck was circulating around the food truck community:

(July 26, 2024) “By me sending foodieland an email of all the issues, their response was from their attorney threatening to sue me because none of it was their fault. Now they’re withholding my funds from the event until we come to a resolution. So far everyone I spoke with had issues and losses resulting from this event so if you or you know anyone please speak up because I have lawyers involved now as well and what they’re doing is not okay.” 

Susan Peters Family Fun Night in Kenmore: "susanpetersevents@gmail.com " offering an event in Moorlands Park in Kenmore. Other related email or payment link is to: "mario_medina999@yahoo.com". This is a fake event to get vendors to pay an application fee. 

Seattle Arab Festival: In 2022 the fee to participate was $600 + 15%, but vendors were told it is 5%. Per member comments: “the organizers' names are Ayman Almasri and Amani AbouAmmo. They are incredibly disorganized and unprofessional. “

Boeing Classic: (Updated in 2019) The PGA held it’s Boeing Classic in Snoqualmie and wanted the WSFTA to book 9-food trucks for the 3-day event. They claimed that the event would have over 5,000 attendees each day and they wanted the food trucks to be prepared to serve hundreds of meals each day, throughout the event.  Unfortunately, a surprisingly low number of the attendees were buying food from food trucks, some trucks served only 60-meals/day.  Even though the event organizers assured us that no other food options would be available, that was not the case.  Additionally, food trucks were not allowed to sell beverages and were instructed to create a “bacon-themed” item, which unfortunately was never promoted and just became a waste of time.  When sales were significantly lower than expected, organizers pushed back on our request to reduce the number of food trucks in attendance.  They had zero concern about the food truck operators potentially taking a loss, and were only interested in maintaining the “appearance of having lots of food trucks,” even if those trucks were struggling to serve even a fraction of the meals that they were told to prepare for.  The PGA even threatened to not pay food vendors for the first couple of days prior to the tournament, as they had promised to do, if those trucks didn’t stay until the end of the whole event. 

Our recommendation about this event, or the PGA in general:  First, we would never recommend doing business with any organization that doesn’t value the mobile food industry or respect you as a small business owner.  However, if you do decide to vend at this event in the future, make sure to get a legally-binding contract guaranteeing you a specific minimum number of tickets sold per day and guaranteeing that NO other food options will be available (even in the VIP areas).

Concerts at the Gorge (George, WA) (Updated in 2019) In 2017, the WSFTA spent months working with Live Nation (Full Circle Vending) regarding booking food trucks to serve at their concerts, at the Gorge, throughout the summer.  Unfortunately, we could never get Live Nation to reduce the amount it planned to charge the food trucks, as well as a long list of other seemingly reasonable requests.  Long story short, food trucks from around the state have booked themselves to vend at Gorge concerts and many will never do so again.  If you don’t mind working extraordinarily long days in the hot sun, being parked in a bad location, receiving little marketing or promotional support, and paying so much in event fees that you might not even make a profit, then this is the perfect venue for you!  We would welcome any updates, positive or negative, about vending at the Gorge. 

White River Amphitheatre (Auburn, WA) (Updated 2019) Our biggest concern at the White River Amphitheatre is the amount they charge food vendors and their seeming indifference about having too many vendors with similar food options. This could potentially be a great place to vend, but as long as some food vendors are willing to attend and pay outrageously-high vending fees (e.g., 30% of gross), this venue will likely never reduce the amount they charge or the way they treat mobile food vendors.

If you want event hosts to treat you better and/or charge more reasonable booking fees, you have to decline to vend at their events AND you have to tell them why.  In the past, the WSFTA has worked hard to negotiate either a reasonable daily flat fee, or a percentage of gross sales (not to exceed 15%), but never both.  Unfortunately, we’ve had some of our past negotiations undermined by short-sighted mobile food vendors who gladly agreed to pay 30% of gross, plus a high booking fee.  If you don’t like high booking fees, stop paying high booking fees and demand better treatment!  Don’t forget THEY NEED YOU to make their event a success.

Festivals Inc. (Updated in 2020) The event producers for Hempfest, The Bite of Seattle, The Taste of Tacoma, T-Town 4th of July, and Kent Cornucopia Days is Festivals Inc.. We’ve received multiple complaints from WSFTA members this year regarding this event company.  Our members reported that Festivals Inc. was refusing to refund event booking fees (ranging from $3,000 to $6,000), on events that were cancelled due to Covid-19 restrictions.  We reached-out to Festivals Inc. and they replied that no one could have foreseen the Covid-19 crisis and the resulting restrictions, the money that they collected from booking fees had already been spent, and their insurance would not cover the cost to refund vendors.  So, no refunds.  Food truck operators who are considering vending at any Festivals Inc. events should have an attorney carefully review the contract before signing or making payment. At least one WSFTA member has been able to appeal the booking fee charge, via their bank, and they’ve received a refund. 

By attending and participating in events hosted by companies like Festivals Inc. you could be putting your business at risk and you are harming the food truck industry.  Please do NOT support companies that treat the food truck industry so poorly, or realize that you are contributing to the problem.   

Commissary Kitchens

CuliNex (Tukwila, WA) (Updated 2019) The Culinex commissary kitchen is a nice looking facility, with plenty of parking, but they [had] a facility manager named John Schofield who was shockingly rude, arrogant, and ill-informed.

We made the mistake of having our 2019 Annual Membership meeting at this facility, and our mistake was obvious within minutes of our arrival at the facility.  The (apparently now former) manager greeted us by immediately complaining and gossiping about some of the food truck operators that rented space at the CuliNex facility.  To be clear, he was making derogatory statements and gossiping about CuliNex clients directly to representatives of the WSFTA.  He appeared again toward the end of our member meeting, and although we paid to rent the room, he somehow felt entitled to enter and then proceeded to argue with our members. Apparently, John was a failed food truck operator, who had only negative things to say about the industry and the people in the industry.  Much of the information that he was spewing was either old and outdated, or simply wrong.  He even argued with our Policy Advisor/Lobbyist about the new commissary kitchen exemption law that the WSFTA had worked very hard to help pass.  He accused our Policy Advisor of not understanding the new law, which is odd because our Policy Advisor is the one who wrote the bill and successfully lobbied the state legislature to get it passed into law.  We contacted the founder/CEO of CuliNex, and he did apologize by email, but he refused to return our phone calls or speak to us further about the situation. It defies belief that anyone would ever hire a person like John Schofield, and it is unbelievable that anyone would fail to clearly see the many shortcomings of this horrible person. So, it’s good news (if accurate), that John is no longer managing CuliNex, but we have no reason to believe that this culture of disrespect toward food truck operators has changed. If you don’t mind CuliNex employees saying nasty and untruthful things about you or your business (behind you back), then this is the perfect place for you! 

Food Truck Owner/Operators

The “Vet Chef” food trailer and “Gourmini’s” have a well-established track record of improper and unprofessional conduct. In addition to repeatedly making demonstrably false claims to us and other food truck operators, these two vendors have caused problems for venue hosts as well.  On two separate occasions the WSFTA has threatened to obtain a restraining order against the Vet Chef for harassment, and Gourmini’s started a website and email address apparently to impersonate @wafoodtrucks.  There are over 1,700 mobile food vendors licensed in WA State, and these two are the only two that have been permanently banned from WSFTA membership and banned from booking at any of our managed pod/lots or events.  Work with, or near, these vendors at your own risk. 

Food Truck Booking Services

National / Out-of-State Booking Services (Updated in 2020). Be very careful about booking your food truck for meal services using any out-of-state booking services (e.g., Fooda), especially if you are required to sign any sort of NCA (non-compete agreement). We would strongly advise against ever signing one of these agreements.  Consult an attorney before ever agreeing to limit your future vending options or locations. 

What to look for:

Be selective about the booking service that you are choosing:  Does this organization charge a fair and reasonable booking fee?  Does this organization provide equal opportunities to all mobile food vendors, or just a select few?  Does this organization do ANYTHING to support or help the mobile food industry in WA, or does it exist just to take your money?  Every time you book yourself using an overpriced, minimally supportive, booking service you are only making things worse for yourself and the mobile food industry.  There’s no need to report these booking services to us, we are well aware of who they are and how they operate.  The sooner food truck operators stop using these services, the sooner things will improve.

Government Officials

If any individual representing a state or local regulatory agency acts inappropriately, unprofessionally, or dishonestly toward you please report it to us immediately.  We will need a very detailed and accurate account of the interaction including the: date, time, location, and the full name of the representative.

You deserve to be treated with respect. You are not helpless. Avoid in-person and phone conversations as much as possible, and try to communicate via email, which establishes a record of the conversation.  Do not hesitate to take photos or videos of in-person encounters.

(PLEASE report any broken links, or edits that need to be made, here).