- TOUCH
Brite Winter Festival is slated for this weekend, though tensions over some food truck operations along West 25th Street are lingering.
Historically, Touch Supper Club’s ‘Touch Supper Truck’ opens for business on Fridays and Saturdays in Ohio City, typically near the corner of West 25th Street and Carroll Avenue. Even in colder months, this is how they roll.
But on Feb. 15, West 25th and surrounding neighborhoods will be transformed into the sprawling Brite Winter Festival. And business owners, including Touch’s Robert Ivanov, all agree that that’s a terrific thing. But the folks behind Brite are calling up Cleveland law and bringing all food truck operations under the fest’s umbrella. Ivanov, who along with other restaurant owners in the area received a letter from Brite Cleveland Director Donald Bulea, isn’t interested in ponying up cash money just to do what he normally does with Touch Supper Truck.
“Since we’re there every weekend anyway, how is this affecting [the] festival?” he asks. Although it’s not like relations between Brite Winter and Touch are entirely warm. Ivanov said he’s dropped requests to buy a presence in the festival. A quick look at the map of the festival grounds shows an empty polygon on Lorain Avenue where Touch is located; other businesses are named and given representation on the map.
The letter sent to Touch cites an ordinance in the city of Cleveland that prohibits “mobile food shops” from operating within 750 feet of a “special event,” as deemed so by the city’s permit process. Touch Supper Club’s typical truck-operating outpost falls within Brite’s sprawling festival grounds.
“We’re a community festival, so we’re hoping everyone can benefit from the festival, including Touch,” Bulea tells Scene. “We approached them in the fall about being a food truck vendor, and they declined.”
Bulea closes his letter with a suggestion:
“If Touch Supper Club would like to participate in Brite Winter Festival 2014, please remit payment of $250 to Brite Winter…”
As of Friday morning, Touch hadn’t officially responded to the notice.
“We park there every weekend. What difference is this weekend or next weekend?” Ivanov says, adding that Touch also parked there on the weekend of Brite Winter last year without issue. “If they’re all about making this an event about Cleveland and trying to extort money from a neighborhood place that has a presence and has been there longer than the event has been there, it doens’t sound like they’re doing the event for Cleveland to me.”
This article appears in Feb 12-18, 2014.
Fuck touch and their $20 covers
I guess the difference is when you want to park there while you’re inside the grounds of a festival, it’s not fair to the other businesses and food options that paid money to be included, while you didn’t. I mean, if one person gets away with it just because they park there, then whats to stop other trucks from parking in the area where the festival is going to be all year so they don’t have to pay either when the time comes?
It appears there is one mobile business that wants to financially benefit from the festival….without having to participate in it; which is fine – according to city law – more than 750 feet from the “special event”. Get out the tape measure and good luck.
Guarantee this idiot will stand to make for more than that $250 higher than their usual profits, and it would be all thanks to the organizational efforts of the Brite Winter group. Just pony up and enjoy the extra business.
The “sour grapes” reaction to the end of the gravy train is obvious, though rather disappointing for someone who claims to be a Cleveland neighborhood supporter. If you’re going to whine about fairplay, it’s time to take your ball and go home while the grownups stay to make some real contributions to the art, music and residents of Cleveland.
Typical of the jokers that run Touch. Can’t see forest through the trees.
The fee no doubt goes to operating the festival. Table/vendor fees all contribute to the budget of a festival. Thats how they can manage to prepare lots of trash cans, power the events, and retain staff among other things. I think that Brite Winter does support the community and it is very rude for Ivanov to imply that they are taking more money for personal gain.
What a jerk. $250 is nothing compared to the money they can make with the thousands of visitors flooding the street. It’s not like this winter has been easy money for most businesses.
Ivanov – Douchebag King of Douche, Err, I mea Touch.
I love how every comment on this page basically says they should shut up and pay the $250, and stop whining to boot….yet, all those comments are disliked by “9-10” people (more like 1 or 2). Glad to see the Touch Supper Truck owners have wifi access and plenty of time to check this page for updates.