Yesterday’s News
Posted by Christiane Lauterbach | April 13th, 2010 | Filed under Carts
Atlanta-approved Streatery passed out free hot dogs on the street yesterday from a new position in front of Peachtree Center. Our dear friend John Robinson snapped some pictures of the appreciative crowd. It was a beautiful day; people loved it; the mood was cheerful and fun . . . all the more reason to push for more food carts!
You Just Have to Know Where to Look
Posted by Christiane Lauterbach | April 5th, 2010 | Filed under Carts
If you are searching for a hot dog cart and a picnic table, you may want to look in front of your local Home Depot.
Street-food enthusiast Alan Raines, who has been storing a couple of hot dog carts in his basement and wants to convert them into tamale wagons, sent us this picture (top) taken in the parking lot of the Home Depot at the corner of Lawrenceville Highway and N. Druid Hills Road.
Following in Raines’s footsteps, we hunted down the two dudes selling Sabrett dogs, gyros, chicken ‘n rice, and other New York City classic street fare out of a fancy trailer. We sampled their inventory (one successful slaw dog and one messier hot sausage with grilled onions, both good) and learned that:
a) they are from New York and may or may not be Russian.
b) they know of four or five other Home Depots offering a similar set-up.
c) most of their clientele consists of local contractors refueling between jobs.
We tried not to get grease and yellow mustard on the Home Depot’s wooden picnic tables, which we suspect are there on display prior to being sold to customers with backyards of their own, but why stand when you can sit?
PBA Does Corn Dog: The Common Touch
Posted by Christiane Lauterbach | February 24th, 2010 | Filed under Carts
Son of a Kiosk!
Posted by Christiane Lauterbach | February 20th, 2010 | Filed under Carts
Where are your wheels, dude?
The city of Atlanta has turned its “on-street vending program” to General Growth Properties Inc, a Chicago-based mall operator, which now oversees the new vendor huts (a.k.a., kiosks) selling junk downtown and the two garish hot dog carts some have described as “top-down, anesthetized, sleek simulacra of the food truck experience.” Notice the dropped panels hiding the wheels.
After an initial hot dog, we can only concur that the experience is mediocre at best, down to the bright-yellow eggy buns and the all-natural but not especially flavorful beef sausages, and that we see Streatery as a bit of a Trojan horse.
Our friend Alfredo Aponte has a more nuanced opinion. “Yes, very franchise-esque,” he wrote, “yet can’t deny it is the first food kiosk so far. Hopefully it will spur other people to ask how they can set up their own, or why can’t they set up their own. Hopefully, it will invite the argument that these kiosks are not the solution to allowing street carts/trucks.”
