South End after midnight on weekends has become the “South End State Fair,” PIE.ZAA owner Tyler Kotch says of the street food vendors operating without permits in one of Charlotte’s most popular neighborhoods.
Why it matters: Many of these street food vendors are operating illegally, meaning they don’t have a permit to sell food and don’t adhere to the same hygiene standards as a restaurant or a food truck with a proper permit.
Driving the news: Mecklenburg County Public Health says it has seen a rise in complaints about street food vendors operating illegally. These complaints are primarily about vendors operating between 8pm and 2am in South End and Uptown.
- County officials say they’ve had 185 complaints over the last year. That’s up from 75 complaints in 2022 and 89 in 2023, per a county spokesperson. There were 140 complaints in all of 2024.
- The presence of non-permitted street vendors has picked up in the last year, with the largest presence appearing to be on Bland Street, Vinyl owner Kamal Patel tells Axios.
- The county does not have information about whether or not these vendors live in Charlotte.
State of play: South End has become one of Charlotte’s hottest neighborhoods, and businesses are paying premium rent to operate there…