Tuscaloosa, AL Food Trucks & Mobile Vendors: Sidewalk & Mobile Vending (2026)

Section 12-1, carried forward from the 1962 Code and last amended by Ordinance No. 7597 in 2010, makes it unlawful to sell or display for sale on any curb or sidewalk in the city any produce, fruit or other food. The section allows two paths to legal sidewalk sales: operating at a 'duly established curb market,' or obtaining a franchise, permit or other city approval first. In practice that second path runs through Article III's mobile food service vendor franchise process (Secs. 12-50 through 12-54), since a sidewalk food seller without a City Council-approved franchise has no lawful basis to display food for sale on a public sidewalk.

Farmers selling their own fruit or produce are treated differently: Sec. 12-3 lets them skip the city business license by registering monthly with the city clerk, giving their name, residence and the type of produce sold, but that registration does not authorize retail sale contrary to Sec. 12-2's franchise-inspection scheme. Any vendor licensed as a mobile food vendor, franchised or not, must also submit to an annual inspection of the food service unit or cart by the fire marshal before October 1 each year under Sec. 12-2, and the city withholds business-license renewal on the following January 1 until any written fire-code violations are corrected.