Chico's Tex Mex, Long Island Airstream Experience face county hearings after vendor permit citations

Two vendors cited by Suffolk County health inspectors for operating without permits at an April charity event in Stony Brook face health department hearings at the end of the month, said the event organizer and a county spokeswoman. 

Chico’s Tex Mex, in East Setauket, and South Setauket-based Long Island Airstream Experience were among the vendors at a fundraiser the Three Village Dads Foundation held in April at the local Veterans of Foreign Wars hall for St. Baldrick’s Foundation, a children’s cancer research charity. They provided tacos, pizza and themed Airstream trailers to about 100 guests who paid $25 each for an experience that included music and head-shaving, a St. Baldrick’s tradition. 

Chico’s does not face a fine but the county’s Department of Health Services scheduled a May 31 hearing at department headquarters in Yaphank to remind its owner of the “correct procedures in order to ensure future sanitary code compliance,” a county spokeswoman wrote in an email.

Airstream Experience faces a possible fine, she wrote. “The business has previously been informed that the operation meets the sanitary code definition of food service and requires Department permits.”

Chico’s owner Vinay Galani, 35, said he’d been unnerved by a department form letter notifying him of a “formal hearing” that advised him of his right to a lawyer and mentioned possible fines of up to $2,000 per code violation per day. “I think the letter they sent should have just said there’s not going to be any fines, instead of just vaguely putting it in there... ,” he said. 

Airstream Experience owner Thomas Francis, 39, could not be reached. He has previously said that his team helped prepare and serve food but has no food equipment. He likened the April event to a "bake sale or pancake breakfast" where, he said, no permit is needed.

Three Dads chairman David Tracy, 37, a Homeland Security officer, said that Galani and Francis had donated their services for the event, which raised about $25,000. He later paid each $300 to offset their costs and said the foundation would pay “every penny” of any fine assessed at the hearings. Tracy was cited at the fundraiser for "operating a temporary food service event" without a valid permit, but the county spokeswoman said last month he would not be fined, and he had not gotten a summons.  

A department presentation aimed at vendors says it permits and regulates food trucks and establishments to prevent foodborne illness. Permitting takes five days and the application fee for a food truck plan review is $240. 

Galani, who said he had finished “90 percent” of the paperwork needed to apply for a permit, said he lost money at the April event but intended to participate again. “We raised a lot of money and it was all for a good cause,” he said. “This time we’ll make sure we have the proper permit.”