Why Is Tournai's Vintage SevT'ies Food Truck Back on the Road?
A retro 1970s-styled food truck in Tournai, the SevT'ies, is trading again under a new operator, Dominique Vanacker, according to La DH. The relaunch is a small local win — and a useful window onto how mobile food businesses actually get back on the road in Belgium: a mobile-trader's licence, AFSCA food registration and the commune's permission to pitch.
For readers in and around Tournai, a valued local street-food fixture is back — and for anyone curious about how mobile food businesses work in Belgium, its relaunch is a clear, human-scale illustration of the licences and registrations that let a food truck legally trade. It also shows the resilience of one-person ventures that change hands rather than close.
The SevT'ies is a vintage, 1970s-themed food truck operating in and around Tournai (Hainaut, Wallonia). La DH (La Dernière Heure / DHnet) reported in its Tournai-Ath-Mouscron edition on 14 July 2026 that the truck is trading again under a new operator, Dominique Vanacker, after a pause. The story sits within Belgium's regulated framework for itinerant food trade, which involves the AFSCA (food-safety agency), a mobile-trader's authorisation via an approved business counter, and commune permission to occupy public space.
Background
Over the past decade, street food across Belgium and Europe has shifted from a budget option to a curated, identity-led experience, with vintage styling and single-concept branding. Wallonia's tradition of markets and open-air ducasses has long supported itinerant traders, making the region a natural home for mobile food ventures like the SevT'ies.
What to do
Anyone considering a food truck in Belgium should plan for three steps as of mid-2026: an itinerant-trade authorisation via a guichet d'entreprises (see economie.fgov.be), AFSCA/FAVV food registration and authorisation, and commune permission to pitch (occupation du domaine public or a market place). Terminology differs across the language border — leurhandelaar and FAVV in Flanders — but the federal structure is the same.
Impact
Regional — Tournai and its surrounding Hainaut villages regain a mobile food option that can serve markets, fêtes and private events. The change of operator keeps a local fixture in service rather than losing it, sustaining choice on the town's street-food scene.
Opposing perspectives
- Food-truck operators and mobile caterers
For itinerant traders, a low-overhead van is one of the most accessible routes into food entrepreneurship in Belgium: flexible pitches at markets, fêtes and private events let a single operator build a following without the fixed costs of a restaurant. They argue the model deserves lighter, clearer administration so ventures like the SevT'ies can restart easily and survive the lean winter months.
- Established café and restaurant owners in Tournai
Some fixed-premises operators contend that mobile traders enjoy lower overheads while competing for the same customers at markets and events, and they press communes to balance market-place allocations and public-space permissions fairly. They frame the debate less as opposition to street food than as a question of an even playing field on rent, staffing and inspection obligations.
Sources & evidence
- View sourceLa DH (DHnet) — Tournai-Ath-MouscronPrimary· dhnet.be· 14 July 2026Retrieved 26 July 2026· 12 days ago· Dated
- View sourceAFSCA / FAVV — Federal Agency for the Safety of the Food Chain· afsca.beRetrieved 26 July 2026
- View sourceSPF Économie — activités ambulantes· economie.fgov.beRetrieved 26 July 2026
