One of the topics repeatedly discussed during revisions to Seattle’s street food rules: How the costs of operating a mobile business differ from those of brick-and-mortar restaurants. (Some critics in the latter camp feel vendors are at an unfair competitive edge due to lesser permit and overhead fees.)

So how do mobile dollars break down? To get an idea, we turn to Damiana Merryweather. She’s prepping her truck, Damiana’s Blue Truck Special, to launch the week of July 25.

Merryweather ("my parents were hippies") says commissary kitchen fees "can vary tremendously" but put her costs at $500 a month for several hours of daily access. Annual insurance: $3,600. There’s auto-related bills (gas, propane, tune-ups). And some property owners charge $100 for parking during lunch, which quickly cuts into net profit: on a good day a noon-hour crowd generates $500 worth of sales.

Merryweather hopes the new legislation, which opens up parking to public streets, will force proprietors to lower those rates. Under the new law merchants will pay $2.25 an hour for four-hour slots per week per location. That amounts to nearly $500 annually. During City Council hearings, Brian de Place of SDOT said those figures are on par with San Francisco and based on median parking values.

The numbers add up quickly, but Merryweather acknowledges they certainly are lower than opening even a small-scale restaurant and more conducive to first-timers wanting to tap the food industry. Plus, she digs the way curb cuisine brings people together. “I love how equalizing street food can be,” she says, “we’re all kind of the same when we’re standing around with paper plates in our hands.”

Right now Merryweather plans to join the pod at Second and Pine on Wednesdays. Fridays you’ll find her in South Lake Union on Boren and Harrison. Sundays it’s West Seattle between Fauntleroy and 35th Street. Hours are set for 11-1:30, though she’ll stick around until the grub is gone.

As for the sandwich-centric menu, she labels it “elevated comfort food." Many of them, like the hot meatloaf or the fried "bologna," are dressed in Merryweather-made sauces.