Saturday

"You want to blend those smoothies with WHAT??"

"Dont be officoius, your not yourself when your officoius ~thats the curse of a government job"
--Ruth Gordon as Maude in "Harold & Maude"


Portland's cycling community may be yearning for bike blended smoothies, but I am not sure our Health Department is ready. So many hoops to hop through I am beginning to feel like a circus dog.
I had had this notion that because all the smoothie ingredients could be loaded into the bottle blenders and sealed up at a commercial kitchen prior to events, that licensing as a mobile unit would be s snap, but ah-ha! Although the Bottle Blenders are completely self contained and do not need to be opened for blending ~The Bottles must be opened to dispense the smoothies, after they are all blended and good to go, and for that the Health department is insisting I get licensed as a temporary restaurant. grrr

The upside is that this will allow me to custom blend smoothies on sight at farmers markets and other events, and when bike-bartending at private parties I will be largely free bureaucratic red tape. Got to stay positive, it's like The Boy says "there are only two kinds of problems: those you can do something about, and those you cant. No sense worrying about the ones you can do something about (just do it) and no sense worrying about the ones you cant (nothin you can do)” thats my boy

For folks living in the area, we will be offering samples at People's Farmers Market just as soon as we get a clear day, which according to the current forcast, wont be this Wednesday, better days are comming

5 comments:

Jennifer said...

Just curious -- how much is the temporary restaurant license? Where does that revenue go?

Good for you for stickin' with it. And Grrrr on the beaurocrats!

Jennifer said...

Bureaucrat, I mean. Sheesh

westwind said...

You would think there would be a clear-cut answer to "how much", even that seems fuzzy. They sent me a Fee Schedule (dated 2005!) that seems to indicate $150 for a 30 days as a "temporary restaurant", but then there are other fees that may or may not apply (as wel as the small issue of how much the fees have gone up since 2005!)
My new mantra: "I wont let the the bast#@! get me!"

Luckily, my focus is going to be on private parties, which will only require a simple, straight forward OLCC licence

Rain said...

That seems like too much. I pay around $300 for a year long license. If you paid that a few times a year, it would add up to more than I pay for a permenant license. But we live in different parts of the country, so maybe your fees are higher overall.

westwind said...

It _does_ seem like a lot, doesnt it? Although theoretically, I could get a "permanent" restaurant permit for a better price than a years worth of temporary permits, I would then need a permanent location and other infrastructure that just isn't in the cards at the moment.

My primary focus is private parties, where the only licensing I need is a liquor license and a food handlers cars. The public events are, more than anything els, a fun way to advertise