News from All Over
Posted by Christiane Lauterbach | June 9th, 2010 | Filed under News
In New York City, two City Council members will introduce a new local law giving the Department of Health authority to “suspend any vending permit issued to a truck with two parking tickets in a 12 month period and revoke the permit of a truck that receives three parking tickets in a 12 month period.” Feeding the meter and idling while hogging a parking space should, indeed, be discouraged, but the business resulting from a new generation of gourmet food trucks shouldn’t. http://midtownlunch.com/2010/06/08/city-council-to-introduce-first-anti-food-truck-law/
In Chicago, on the other hand, the City Council just heard testimony from executive chef and food truck advocate Phillip Foss and chef Matt Maroni, author of a model food truck ordinance that has the support of at least four aldermen. In his column, our friend Phil Vettel of the Chicago Tribune begged the city (“Don’t make me go to Hoboken”) to legalize street food. “What we need is an ordinance permitting trucks with onboard cooking equipment, so they can serve hot, made-to-order dishes,” he wrote. “Serving bad, warmed-over food is already OK in Chicago. Let’s amend the rules to permit trucks to serve first-rate food.” http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/dining/ct-play-0603-vettel-food-truck-rant-20100603,0,3811246.column
In Houston, where a local TV station savaged the taco truck industry, blogger J. C. Reid rose to its defense, reporting that there is basically no difference in terms of health rating between a decent taco truck and one of the city’s most beloved upscale restaurants. “What can we conclude from a review of these records?” the author asks. “Most health inspection reports are reflections of exactly what they are: routine inspections where otherwise sanitary kitchens are reminded about actions they need to take to stay clean and compliant with legitimate health codes. Just because violations are found at Tony’s during a routine inspection does not mean it is a ‘filthy’ or unsanitary restaurant. It’s not. But neither is the Taqueria Veracruz taco truck.”
http://www.29-95.com/restaurants/story/khou-does-hatchet-job-taco-trucks
[image by J. C. Reid]
Top Chefs Speak Up
Posted by Christiane Lauterbach | May 20th, 2010 | Filed under Carts
While in Chicago with the Top Chef Tour, Chef Kevin Gillespie of Woodfire Grill in Atlanta and his colleague Mike Isabella from Zaytinya in D.C. declared themselves in favor of street food.
Gillespie thought that “food carts would get people to try new and different food” and that they are “a perfect way to showcase a few treasures from all sorts of cultures.” Debunking the notion that food trucks hurt brick-and-mortar restaurants, Kevin stated that food carts actually increase the likelihood of someone going to an actual restaurant.
[Photograph and quote borrowed from chicagofoodcarts.com]
What We Can Learn from Chicago
Posted by Christiane Lauterbach | April 27th, 2010 | Filed under Carts
A detailed article in the Chicago Reader entitled “The Food Truck Roadblock” reveals that, much like Atlanta, Chicago feels shut out of a national movement other cities are benefiting from.
“Why can’t Chicago have street food like LA or New York?” asks Mike Nualla.
Substitute the word “Atlanta” for “Chicago” in the paragraph below, and you have it in a nutshell.
Food trucks and pushcarts aren’t illegal in Chicago, but they’re heavily restricted. You can’t do any cooking, cutting, or food preparation of any kind on board: everything must be precooked and packaged in a licensed kitchen. You can’t stop anywhere for more than two hours, and you can’t sell anything after 10 PM. So while a handful of businesses like Edgewater’s Vee-Vee’s African Restaurant are able to operate trucks above the radar, serving prepackaged meals to cabbies and others on the go, others that prepare food onboard are doing it illegally.
Fine-dining chefs with vending aspirations are doing heavy lifting in Chicago. Matt Maroni, who until recently worked as executive chef for the private Mid-America Club, recently pitched to alderman Scott Waguespack a 43-page comparative study of food-truck policies in six other cities and a model ordinance for Chicago that would allow truck operators to cook fresh food a la minute for their customers.
Maroni believes that his concept for a truck–flatbreadswith various toppings like short ribs and pork belly-could work under existing legislation, but his proposal would “significantly liberalize the rules on mobile food dispensers in the language of the city’s municipal code.” In his scheme, “applicants would submit a business plan to the city, including a menu and a blueprint of the truck, detailing specs for equipment, counter space, sinks, storage, waste disposal, ventilation, window dimensions, a power source, plumbing, and a source of potable running water.”
Check out Maroni’s advocacy site (chicagofoodtrucks.com) which will “serve as the online headquarters for a professional association of food-truck operators, where for a membership fee they’d have access to information on everything from purchasing equipment to finding locations and kitchens to operate from” and include a GPS feature that will allow customers to track the locations of their favorite trucks.
[Image by Laura Park from the Chicago Reader]
News from All Over
Posted by Christiane Lauterbach | March 30th, 2010 | Filed under Carts
Chicago is staging a revolution of its own. Check out the cute logo, the comments, the frustration and rejoice in the movement started in a great American city pining for the same thing we so desire.
Closer to home, we received this photograph taken in Newnan by street-food enthusiast and political gal Amy Phuong showing a van and a rambling chef obviously looking for exposure.
