Food Truck Owner Opens at Henderson Walmart After Permit Headaches
After battling regulatory hurdles, Chef Robert Stewart — Chef Stew for short — has opened his food truck, Stew’s Stix, at a Walmart in Henderson. A celebrity chef known for competing in cooking competitions on TV, Stewart has gained a loyal audience on Instagram, where he promotes his signature recipes.
Stew’s Stix offers a different take on gourmet street food. Its menu features lollipop-style dishes like crab lollipops served with mango relish and crunchy potato sticks, chicken lollipops with smoky Gouda mac and cheese, and Moroccan-spiced lamb lollipops served over cauliflower couscous. His menu has traces of pide and mezze but is also a lot more, which makes it a nice addition to the Henderson dining scene.
But launching the food truck was anything but easy. Stewart ran into licensing problems. His Las Vegas business license wasn’t valid in Henderson, and he had to wait six days to get a new one. He had to get a separate business license and undergo a fire inspection, throwing off his soft opening planned for Valentine’s Day. These challenges illustrate the bureaucratic obstacles food truck owners face when operating in multiple municipalities.
Despite initial setbacks in Henderson, he commended the city’s effort to regulate while calling for a more efficient system for food truck owners. “I understand the city’s flight to make sure that everybody is up to code and doing what they are doing expected, but at the same time as an owner of a food truck it has to be a better way that we can go about this collectively,” Stewart said.
His story has also inspired calls for legislative reform. Food truck owners could operate countywide without each city requiring separate permits under a bill Assemblyman Reuben D’Silva plans to offer that would create a multi-jurisdiction business license. This is to relieve the operational burdens so that small mobile businesses such as Stewart’s can operate.
Through it all, Chef Stew’s love for food and determination have brought Stew’s Stix to life. The food truck provides tasty and innovative snacks and has attracted attention for demonstrating the Nevada food truck regulation gap.
