On June 13, 2016, the Evanston City Council unanimously voted to repeal a provision of the city’s food-truck ordinance that banned food trucks based outside of Evanston from operating in the city. The move came after the city spent nearly four years fighting a lawsuit challenging the restriction, which the Liberty Justice Center brought on behalf of the popular Chicago-based food truck Beavers Coffee & Donuts.
When the owners of Beavers Coffee & Donuts, Jim Nuccio and Gabriel Wiesen, started their business in 2011, they wanted to take their truck into Evanston, but the city government turned them away because city code prohibited all food trucks except those operated by the owners or agents of existing Evanston brick-and-mortar food establishments. In August 2012, the Liberty Justice Center filed a lawsuit on their behalf, challenging the restriction on the ground that it did not serve the public’s health, safety, or welfare, as the Illinois Constitution requires, but instead served only to protect Evanston restaurants from food-truck competition.
During the litigation, Nuccio and Wiesen fortunately were able to grow their business in Chicago, expanding to two trucks and a brick-and-mortar location in the French Market, which has been recognized as one of Chicago’s best donut shops.
Jacob Huebert serves as the president of the Liberty Justice Center. He previously served as the Liberty Justice Center’s Director of Litigation. In that role, he successfully litigated cases to protect economic liberty, free speech and other constitutional rights. Jacob and his work have appeared in numerous national media outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times and Fox News Channel.
(The Chicago Tribune)—James Nuccio and Gabriel Wiesen want to sell gourmet doughnuts and coffee from their colorful food truck on the streets of Evanston. But a 2010 ordinance only allows businesses that have “bricks and mortar” restaurants in Evanston to venture onto city streets with a food truck. Nuccio and...
(The Chicago Tribune)—Food trucks from outside of Evanston can now peddle their gourmet sandwiches, pastries, coffee and other foods within the city’s borders, thanks to an ordinance change approved by the Evanston City Council on Monday, lifting a restriction that had been place since 2010. Evanston City Council members approved...
(Grub Street)—Evanston has generally seemed more hospitable to food trucks than Chicago— Evanston’s HummingBird Kitchen was the one truck that could run around actually cooking on board before the passage of the new Chicago food truck ordinance. But Evanston has its own quirky protectionist rules— and now one food truck...
(NBC 5 Chicago)—Mobile restaurant owners have hit a road block in Evanston. Instead of putting on the breaks, two mobile food truck owners are heading full force into a political food fight as the Liberty Justice Center, a public interest litigation center, sues the City of Evanston for not allowing...
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