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A post shared by Makina Cafe (@makinacafe) on Mar 8, 2018 at 7:09am PST

15 year wait-list for a license

Another hurdle: obtaining a license.

“They have a 15-year waiting list to get a permit in New York City,” Gebre-Egziabher said. “The people who have licenses in the past lease them out to others who are coming in. It's such a big commodity right now that these permits going from $25,000 to $30,000 -- not to own but just to lease. The city could give them out for about $250 each, but they haven’t done that and they haven’t said why.\"

It's a very different story in Philadelphia, which ranked fourth friendliest city in the study. Here, Robin Adema, who runs the popular Foolish Waffles food truck, said licenses are affordable, ranging from $150 to $350. It's finding a place to park that’s hard.

“The biggest issue is where we are allowed to vend,” she told ABC News. “It’s pretty limited in the city center and most of the financial district. Also in areas like University City where there are lots of students and there’s a waiting list to get into those spots.\"

Fried chicken waffles and 'wagels'

Adema, who left her corporate job as a legal administrator four years ago to follow her passion, has built a loyal following with sweet and savory traditional Brussels and Liege waffles. She creates dishes like “wagels,\" similar to a bagel but with waffle dough, the pork belly banh-mi sandwich, the fried chicken waffle with bourbon pickled jalapenos, and the so-called ”sweet and salty” sugar waffle topped with black pepper bacon toffee, housemade salted caramel, whipped cream and smoked sea salt.

Another challenge: festivals and other events take 35 percent of their profit off the top.

“If we go to a venue and they charge us, they end up taking a third of our profit. That’s a lot when we don’t make that much money,” Robin told ABC News. “When a venue is taking 35 percent of our profit, we have to inflate our costs, which makes the customers mad, so we don’t make the money we used to make at those places, which limits the number of areas we can go to. It’s a vicious cycle.”

“We are seeing a real slow-down in growth,” Cawley told ABC News. “Some of the owners said they might hang it up. It’s too hard. ... It would be a real shame if regulation and red tape ended up stalling this revolution in American cuisine.”

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