Falafel Stand

Hey everyone,
 
I just signed up for roadfood.com, looks like a great community...
 
I am based out of Rhode Island and my father makes the tastiests Falafel's I've had to date. He makes them from scratch and with all organic ingredients... Overseas in the middle east (Jordan and Egypt where ive been), they have many falafel stands that make portion about 8 falafels in a small brown bag, with a side of hummus and sell it as very fast food. I have not seen this at all in my travels in the US and have recently been interested in opening a stand myself. We would sell them for cheap, it would be all organic ingredients, and they will be very tasty! In RI we have Providence, which is incredibly busy and holds many events throughout the week. We also have the beaches which would be a nice place to set up shop.

What do you all think of the idea? I am also extremely uneducated about the industry and figured it would be akin to opening a hot dog stand for health regulations, is this the case? Who would I contact in the state to set something like this up? Thank you!
 

Falafel stands are pretty easy to find in New York. I spent my college years going to Amir's Falafel on 113th & Broadway (note: as with many little places that got too big too fast, their quality has reportedly gone down since then). I recall a really nice guy opened up a falafel cart right at the Broadway entrance to Columbia; he did really well. An ice cream vendor asked him for his recipe, and he gave the general recipe. Next week, the ice cream guy started selling falafel. Luckily, he got the recipe wrong, and the first guy had a bunch of friends on campus, so the first guy won out.
 
Where I work in the East 50's, there are carts that sell falafel practically every block. Most of them sell gyro meat, grilled marinated beef cubes and chicken (and Italian sausages), either on pita or platter (with salad and yellow rice).
 
One thing I have noted is that they don't have the wide variety of condiments that are common in Middle Eastern stands; they stick to lettuce, tomato, onion, tahini sauce, hot sauce, and a non-sweet barbecue sauce.
 
One key feature I have seen in the more successful stands is the owner's pride in their product. They all will generally answer questions, but when someone asks, "is that beef?", those that say, "Yes it is; I pick it out myself, and the marinade is my own recipe. Would you like a taste?" have MUCH more traffic than someone who says, "Yeah." This would be especially useful if you are the first there.
 
The only caveat is that if you are successful, there will be a LOT of competition, very quickly, so your initial goal is not to sell falafel, but to buy customers.
 
Bart