A Tyndall Park resident says an illegal food truck operating in her back lane has turned the alley into a drive-thru.
Christine Mallari has had enough of the stream of vehicles coming down the lane behind Dexter Street to pick up food from Jaspi’s Recipes, whose truck has been parked there since May.
“We thought it was cute at first, we even ordered food from them a few times,” she said Friday. “But it’s been nine months now and I feel like my privacy is being breached.”
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A food truck sits parked behind a house on Dexter Street in Tyndall Park on Tuesday.
Mallari said she constantly finds garbage in the lane, which she guesses is from customers. The truck is also a fire hazard, she said, because of how close it is parked to a home on the same property and its proximity to a community electrical box.
When the Free Press visited the food truck Friday afternoon, Amrit Aulakh, who said she was the owner, said she had not been operating it since November 2025. Aulakh said she bought the truck in 2024 and parked it at several festivals, but ceased operations in the fall when her sister got sick.
Aulakh invited a reporter inside the truck to prove it hadn’t been in use, which appeared to be the case.
The owner said even if she was serving food out of it, what she was doing was “totally legal.”
Mallari insisted the owner had been serving customers, including as recently as last week.
The truck did have an extension cord running from it to an outlet outside the home. A sign fastened to the fence beside the truck read “customer parking.”
Posters tacked to the home’s front window and door advertised the food truck “at the back lane” and a website for Jaspi’s Recipes asked customers to call or text a phone number to order food.
The food truck serves Indian food and veggie burgers.
A provincial spokesperson said Friday afternoon the food truck had the necessary health permits to operate, but it had received a complaint. Complaints to the health department would be subject to an investigation and possible fine, the spokesperson said in an email.
Health permits allow food trucks to operate anywhere in Manitoba, but operators need to comply with requirements dictated by municipal bylaws.
Food trucks operating on a street require a mobile vendor parking permit, which allows them to operate in the winter and in residential areas. Operating a food truck in a back lane is not permitted.
City spokesperson Adam Campbell confirmed Friday the city was aware of the food truck and is investigating.
“Additionally, under the Winnipeg zoning bylaw, operating a home-based business requires a development permit and, depending on the type of business, possibly a building permit,” Campbell said in an email.
“We can confirm that the city has not issued a mobile vendor permit, development permit, or building permit to this business.”
If the business is prepping food inside the home and delivering it through the food truck, it contravenes the province’s mobile food service establishment guideline.
Area councillor Vivian Santos confirmed her office received a complaint about the food truck, but declined to comment further, citing the ongoing city investigation.
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“I trust the administration to appropriately apply our zoning bylaws and issue warnings/citations/orders where necessary,” Santos (Point Douglas) said in an email.
Last week, an online search noted Jaspi’s Recipes was operating from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily. By Tuesday, the restaurant was listed as “permanently closed.”
The resident said she does not take issue with the owner running a food truck, but doesn’t want it in the back lane.
“I expect people to be considerate, and I think this kind of business, it’s very selfish and very thoughtless,” Mallari said.
nicole.buffie@freepress.mb.ca
Nicole Buffie
Multimedia producer
Nicole Buffie is a reporter for the Free Press city desk. Born and bred in Winnipeg, Nicole graduated from Red River College’s Creative Communications program in 2020 and worked as a reporter throughout Manitoba before joining the Free Press newsroom as a multimedia producer in 2023. Read more about Nicole.
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