New Orleans ends Lucky Dogs’ monopoly on French Quarter food pushcarts: report

The New Orleans City Council took action Thursday to end one company’s near-exclusive deal to sell food from pushcarts in the French Quarter, following a series of WVUE-TV Fox 8 investigations.

The council voted unanimously to change an ordinance that’s been in place since 1972. That ordinance says the only way to obtain a permit to sell food from pushcarts in the French Quarter is to have continuously operated the same business in the French Quarter for eight or more years before Jan. 1, 1972.

At the time, essentially only one company qualified, Lucky Dogs, which is co-owned by state Sen. Kirk Talbot of River Ridge.

Lucky Dogs has enjoyed near-exclusive rights to sell from pushcarts on French Quarter streets since. After Thursday’s vote, five additional pushcart vendors who are already allowed to sell in other parts of the city will be allowed to sell in the French Quarter as well.

In statement to Fox 8, Talbot said he voluntarily agreed to relinquish permits for seven carts so the city could redistribute them through a lottery.

“We respect what they want to do,” Talbot said. “We’re going to follow whatever ordinances they want to do.”

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