Three Village Dads Foundation charity event in Setauket cited for lacking permits

Suffolk County health inspectors on Sunday busted — but did not close — a Three Village Dads Foundation charity event for childhood cancer over missing food vendor permits.

The dads are not happy.

“We were made to feel like we were … people looking to get around the rules and skirt the law, which is not the case,” said foundation chairman David Tracy, 37, a Homeland Security officer. “We weren’t trying to lure unsuspecting passersby to come and eat food. This was a sanctioned, legitimate event.”

According to a copy of a food establishment inspection report Tracy said the inspectors gave him, the violation was for “operating a temporary food service event to the public without a valid permit.”

The county’s food protection web page says that “organizers and individual vendors must obtain permits” for food concessions at temporary events including fundraisers, something Tracy said he did not know he had to do. 

Tracy said the event, in its second year, raised $25,000 for St. Baldrick’s Foundation, drawing about 100 community members who paid $25 each at Setauket’s Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 3054 for food, music and the head shaving that has become a tradition at such events. Many St. Baldrick’s events are held around St. Patrick’s Day; Three Village holds its event later for better weather.

Inspectors showed up midway through Sunday’s three-hour event and told Tracy he needed to shut it down or face fines, he said. “I said we’ll pay the fines, but we’re going to continue.” 

The county did not make officials available for an interview but spokeswoman Marykate Guilfoyle wrote in an email that inspectors never asked Tracy to "close or curtail the event" and that the citation they issued to the foundation did not carry a fine. Bureau of Public Health Protection staffers "stand ready to work with the organizer to help educate them on health department requirements should there be future events," she wrote. The department "fully supports the St. Baldrick's Foundation," she added. 

Vendors included local restaurants Chico’s Tex Mex, Vincent's New York Wood Fired Pizza and South Setauket-based Long Island Airstream Experiences, which supplied themed trailers including cigar and bourbon, boozy brunch, video game and ax throwing.

Chico's and Airstream Experiences were cited for operating without permits, Tracy said. Guilfoyle said inspectors asked the cited vendors to close voluntarily but the vendors refused their requests. Chico's has no prior run-ins with the health department and will not face a fine in connection with the Sunday event but officials are "reviewing their assessment" of Airstream Experience, she said in a brief interview. That company "has no permits to operate any food service, and has a history of non-compliance with Sanitary Code requirements," she wrote. 

Vinay Galani, 35, Chico's owner, said he had thought the event was private and that permits were not required. 

Airstream Experience owner Thomas Francis, 39, said his team helped prepare and serve food but has no food equipment. He likened the event to a "bake sale or pancake breakfast" where, he said, no permit is needed. He said he had gotten no notice of a fine from the county. 

Event attendees included Suffolk police officers and at least two Town of Brookhaven council members, Dan Panico and Jonathan Kornreich, all of whom attended in an unofficial capacity, Tracy said.

Kornreich, in an interview, described the event as a “happy community gathering … You’re reading stories about child protective services being underfunded and they don’t have enough resources to protect children, yet there’s enough money to send inspectors out on a Sunday to break up an event raising money for childhood cancer? It doesn’t feel good as a taxpayer.”