Kansas City removes barriers to permitting pop-up restaurants for small businesses
Restaurant start-ups in Kansas City are using pop-up vending to sell their food and to fellowship with new customers, but some have found the permitting and licensing process to be a barrier to their success.
The Kansas City Council unanimously approved new regulations on Thursday to change that.
Savannah Brady, owner of The C Word Cakery, a pop-up bakery that sells cakes with fun phrases on them, started a petition for a special pop-up permit in hopes of getting the city to work on a solution.
Brady started the petition after speaking with other pop-up food vendors who felt that Kansas City’s process for applying for the right permit when hosting a pop-up had become too difficult.
“We’re looking for an annual food permit that allows us to operate as a mobile food unit. We want food safety regulations, reasonable annual fees, and guidelines put in place for small pop-up businesses so that legal operation is easily accessible within the city limits of KC,” Brady said in an email.
The new guidelines do just that. The new permit will be a year-long permit for non-mobile food operations, including pop-up restaurants, and will cost businesses a flat fee of $230.
Joe Williamson, the health department’s environmental public health program manager, said during a council committee meeting Wednesday that the new permit will generate opportunities for smaller start-up companies in Kansas City and will bridge a gap in the city’s laws.
“Over the years, we’ve had to add permits and accommodate as trends change, services change, businesses come around in our city,” Williamson said.
Councilman Eric Bunch, District 4, said a handful of small businesses brought the issue to him a few months ago. The goal: to create an annual permit instead of requiring a new permit for each pop-up.
“They still have to meet the most stringent of FDA guidelines,” Bunch said, though it will be a less burdensome process.
He thanked the health department for “finding a way to help our small businesses thrive in this community.”
What is a pop-up?
Pop-up restaurants are essentially when a small business sets up a temporary operation at an event to sell food that is typically prepared in a professional kitchen off-site.
Pop-ups can be found at festivals, bars, community events and more. Pop-ups offer small business owners a way to introduce themselves to the community and try selling their food before investing in a more permanent establishment.
Permitting pop-ups proves difficult in KCMO
Previously, Kansas City had a different designated permit for 14 market types, including temporary operations. Things like concession stands, ice cream trucks, push carts and traditional brick and mortar restaurants all have separate permits.
The only permit type that seemed to work for pop-up businesses like The C Word Cakery is the city’s temporary food service permit. The temporary permit allowed for small pop-up restaurants to serve at events and festivals around the city for one to 14 days. That meant that each time a business wanted to operate a pop-up at an event beyond that 14-day window, it would need a new permit.
The temporary permits started at $59 for one day, and the fee went up depending on how long a pop-up would be in operation. If you run a business where you plan to set up your operation multiple days through out the summer, the cost of getting a permit can quickly add up.
Now with the non-mobile food permit, vendors like Brady will be able to pay a flat $230 fee to run their pop-up restaurants all year long.
“The food industry is evolving,” Kansas City Health Department’s deputy director Naser Jouhari said. “People are creative. They’re trying to serve food in different set ups and new concepts, and we have to accommodate.”
Some businesses have moved to Kansas
Devoured Pizza owner Jhy Coulter said that using the temporary food permit as work-around caused her to jump through a lot of hoops.
Last summer, Coulter applied for a temporary permit every time she wanted to sell at an event. During this time, she said her applications could get rejected for small infractions like misspelling the event name on the application or because no one at the health department was available to inspect her operation on the day of the event. However, after a number of mishaps with the previous Kansas City permit process, Coulter turned to Overland Park, where she said the process has been clearer.
Now, Devoured Pizza serves pizza at the Overland Park Famer’s Market every Saturday on a yearlong food establishment permit.
“It was just super helpful to go somewhere that had the structure,” Coulter said.
Overland Park is one of the only cities in Kansas to have its own local permits for food establishments. Otherwise, all local businesses that intend on selling food need to go through the state to get the proper licensing.
Now that Kansas City has its own non-mobile food permit, Coulter said she will be able be able to bring Devoured Pizza back to Kansas City.
“This is progress,” Coulter said. “I think that this is a start for pop up food vendors and small businesses that are trying to operate in this way. I think that this is going to help a lot.”
Permitting a Pop-up in Kansas City, Missouri
If you are interested in licensing your pop-up in Kansas City, the new application will be available online in the coming weeks. If you have questions or want to get a jumpstart on the application, you can call the health department’s main line at 816-513-6290.
The fee for the non mobile food permit will be $230 and will allow vendors to vend anywhere in the city, in up to three different locations, so long as the operation doesn’t violate any traffic or parking laws.
Applicants need to have access to a commissary kitchen, have a hand washing set up and a means to keep hot food hot and cold food cold while operating, according to Jouhari.
Once the application is submitted, there will be an interview to go over the health requirements for the pop-up. The health department will also periodically inspect the operation to make sure that it is meeting those requirements.
Permitting a pop-up in Kansas
In Kansas, food and lodging permits are approved at the state level. Any sort of establishment that sells food more than seven times a year is required to get a state license for selling food.
Pop-ups, like Brady and Coulter’s businesses, fit under the mobile unit and food truck category. The price of a year-long mobile unit food establishment license ranges from $190 to $250, depending on the level of risk associated with the food. (For example, a license for prepackaged foods would be cheaper than the license for a pop- up that handles raw meats.)
“We’re looking at what factors they have in there that might affect foodborne illness, and we’re trying to protect the public,” Heather Lansdowne, director of communications for the Kansas Department of Agriculture said.
To get a small pop-up restaurant off the ground in Kansas, business owners first need to fill out an application with the State Department of Agriculture.
The application fee is $300 before the cost of the actual license, which ranges from $190 to $250.
When first applying for the license, the application must be mailed to the Kansas Department of Agriculture, 1320 Research Park Drive, Manhattan, KS 66502 or faxed to 785-564-6767.
Next, there will be an initial inspection required before it receives approval. The inspection will cover all the health requirements and assess the different risks associated with the food stand.
After the first year, the application can be renewed online here.
Here is the Kansas guide for mobile food units.
The Star’s Cortlynn Stark contributed to this story.
