Bernardo Soriano

Bernardo Soriano, Regino’s 24-year old son, owns and operates El Bandolero II, a food truck on the north side of San Antonio.  He vends on private property off of US Highway 281. While there is not much around his vending location, his customers know exactly where to find his food truck.  He learned the ropes from his father when he was a teenager and decided to open his own vending business two years ago.  Bernardo grew his customer base, slowly paid off his food truck, and now owns it outright.

Bernardo has plans to grow his food truck business, but the 300-foot rule is making it very difficult for him to realize his goals.  He has been asked to take on private vending engagements and bring his food truck to his customers.  But restaurants, convenience stores, retail food stores, and grocery stores are ubiquitous throughout San Antonio. The city’s 300-foot rule bans Bernardo from vending within 300 feet of each one.  If customers want to hire him to vend at their function, he would need to reject everyone falling within a 300-foot “no-vending zone.”  For the same reason, it is difficult for him to grow to two food trucks.  San Antonio should be encouraging entrepreneurs like Bernardo, not make it difficult to grow a business.