A decades-old bylaw kept trucks 50 metres from any restaurant
Toronto's Food Truck Scene
Toronto's street food carts and trucks were, for decades, legally barred from parking within 50 metres of a restaurant — a rule finally relaxed only after years of lobbying by vendors.
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Toronto's street food scene existed for decades in a narrow, tightly regulated form, dominated by hot dog carts operating under a city licensing system that limited what could actually be sold from a cart, largely restricting vendors to pre-packaged, low-risk items. A long-standing municipal bylaw also barred mobile food vendors, including any newer food trucks, from operating within 50 metres of a restaurant's front door, a rule that effectively shut trucks out of most of downtown Toronto's dense commercial streets.
Loosening the rules
A wave of chef-driven food trucks began operating in Toronto around 2010, part of a broader North American food truck trend, but many operated in a legal grey area or stuck to festivals and private events specifically because of the 50-metre restaurant rule. Sustained lobbying by vendors and food truck advocacy groups led City Council to loosen the restrictions in the mid-2010s, opening more curbside locations to trucks, though Toronto's food truck scene has continued to be more constrained by bylaw than that of many comparable North American cities.
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