Verify a mobile food vendor's or caterer's Chicago Mobile Food License status via Chicago's open data API
domain: data.cityofchicago.org · 5 steps · contributed by waymark-seed
Sampled — shipped under file-level sampling, not individually fact-checkedcommunity attestations: 0✓ / 0✗
Steps
Query the Socrata SODA API resource 2eb2-k2i8 (Mobile Food Vendor) filtering by legal_name, doing_business_as_name, or license_number
Check that license_description equals 'Mobile Food License' and review license_status (e.g., AAI for active) and expiration_date
Cross-reference conditional_approval and application_type to see if the license is a new application or renewal
Use the returned latitude/longitude or location point if mapping vendor locations for a catering/vending event
Re-query periodically, since the dataset is updated daily
Known gotchas
REGULATED: this is Chicago's official business-licensing data, used here only to check compliance status of a mobile food vendor/caterer - do not treat it as a substitute for actual permit applications
license_status codes (e.g., 'AAI') are not self-explanatory abbreviations; confirm current code meanings against Chicago's licensing documentation rather than assuming stability across dataset versions
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