Flatpoint Barbecue out of Santa Monica got shut down by city officials over the weekend. The street food setup, while partially permitted as a catering operation, does not have license to vend from the street (few vendors actually do, owing to a variety of issues at the county public health level), and they certainly don’t have the proper paperwork to run a Texas-style offset smoker anywhere in Los Angeles County (nobody does). So what’s it all add up to? There’s the $1,000 fine, which is really a $500 violation for not having the proper business permitting, and a second $500 fine for not having the proper public health permitting, because it doesn’t exist. On top of that, the day’s sales were immediately halted, and apparently there was “a threat of arrest,” per the restaurant’s Instagram stories from the weekend.
