Dining Patio Permitted at The Taco Truck

Partners Jason Scott and Chris Viola are opening the flagship restaurant of The Taco Truck around mid-August in Morristown at 50 Morris St., next to 7-Eleven.

They want to keep the feel of walking up to a food truck and provide an “environmentally conscious quick-service restaurant with truly delicious food.” 

Scott, Lawrence Calli of Porzio Brombert & Newman Attorneys at Law and Anthony D’angelo of Studio One Architects met with the Morristown Planning Board to discuss the addition of the patio for The Taco Truck.

In this Patch article, they summed up the basic set-up for the business and the patio.

Last week was also The Taco Truck’s job fair. Since the Morristown location is quite larger and comes with a large multi-purpose room, Viola said, “We have a lot of room to do training and development as we grow our company.” The room would also be used for birthday parties, conferences, large groups, etc …

“Currently we have about 100 employees system-wide. We’re looking to hire 50 employees for our Morristown location,” he said adding that they’re hiring those who live in close proximity while taking some management from their current operations.

Order type breakdown:

• 40 percent—dine in
• 40 percent—take out
• 20 percent—delivery

Hours of Operation:

• Sunday – Thursday 11a.m. – 10 p.m.
• Friday and Saturday 11 a.m. – 2 a.m.

“We anticipate our busiest days as Thursday – Saturday 12-2 p.m. for lunch and 6-8 p.m. for dinner. We’re not fast food.”

Hours of Operation for the Patio:

• Sunday – Thursday 11 a.m. – 10 p.m.
• Friday – Saturday to 11 a.m. – 11 p.m.

For the front façade, there will be no major changes other than The Taco Truck sign. Scott agreed to the board’s recommendation to add a planter on each side of the front door.

A guardrail will be added on the side of the building

Traffic Flow

The traffic flow in and out of that retail plaza is not the smoothest one and Richard Tighe, vice chairman of the planning board, said that he has “a number of concerns because (traffic flow) can be problematic. Is that (patio) is going to infringe in the traffic flow?”

“It doesn’t look like it would be (a problem for fire trucks). The fire department can get in no problem,” said Timothy Murphy, board member.

Dominic Carrino, Board Engineer, raised the potential issue of sufficient parking as well.

“The egress and ingress out of that lot is unusual. I’ve spent a lot of days sitting out there with a clicker counting the traffic when we evaluated that site,” said Scott. “I agree with you that that spot could be better in the lot, but in terms of available parking, even at peak hours, there seemed to be ample parking.”

“There are large sections of open aisles to get from one place to another. What changes might be made or need to be made in terms of safety for the patrons walking from the parking lot to the restaurant,” asked Carrino, adding that Burger King’s drive thru also adds to the safety concern.

Scott said that the patio would be the only major exterior change made. However, Carrino also said “this is a good reuse of the space.”

Carrino suggested that Scott discuss with his landlord on signage improvements.

“The property owner, they’re making some improvements,” said Scott. “I imagine that throughout this process, we as tenants, we can certainly let them know that we think it’s important that they consider the safety in the lot. Stop signs would be fair.”

Safety/Security

No liquor will be served at the establishment, however, when asked if they’ll allow BYOB, Scott answered that “we may depending on the local ordinances. We do allow our customers in Hoboken to do that.”

Mayor Tim Dougherty brought up safety concerns.

“You would be serving the bar crowd – that would be creating an issue of security?”

Although Scott said, “Hoboken is a very similar dynamic,” the board members and Dougherty mentioned that other factors affect the Morristown location.

“You’re going to have a lot of activity in that parking lot. The biggest impact would be Friday and Saturday night,” said Dougherty. “I think you’re going to find that you’re going to open up on Thursdays. I don’t know what kind of capacity you’re going to draw. It’s an over saturated place too.”

The option of hiring security was brought up because The Taco Truck will serve food up until it closes at 2 a.m. on Friday and Saturday.

“What we do uptown, we have patrols until 3 a.m. in the morning. Maybe you want to look to hire a police officer from 11 p.m. – 3 a.m.,” said Dougherty.

“My only concern is that it’s a new business and it may be too much of an onerous cost to assume from the get-go,” said Calli. “It’s another cost and it’s difficult enough with this type of establishment. Maybe test the waters and see if he can succeed in this town.”

Scott added that at the Hoboken location, in the three years they’ve been open, they’ve only called the police once.

A compromise was reached. The board approved the outdoor dining with the condition that although security would not be required for the first three months after opening, the board consultants will review those months and if there is a security issue, the applicant will provide security. But if there is an immediate serious issue, security will be required before the three months are up.

“Whatever we need to do to make sure it’s safe for guests, we need to do that,” said Scott.

Read more about The Taco Truck in this Patch article