Not to mention that street food is a key part of a city's culture and should be allowed to thrive. Anyone who has traveled in Asia can attest to that. Being from Bangladesh, and having had street food all over the world, it's exciting, inventive and also allows cooks to keep traditions alive and create income. I couldn't imagine my culinary journey without street food-- from jhalmoori (puffed rice, mustard oil, cilantro, chilies, tomatoes, onions), fuchka (A spicy bhel puri stuffed with chickpeas and tamarind sauce), kabas, crepes, tacos, hot dogs and satays. Strongly, strongly, support this.

Here is a video that is sure to upset many people here. Watch the whole thing.

I suppose it's fitting that the most ignorant, power-hungry, agenda-driven people are the ones who fenagle themselves into positions where they can pass legislation based off assumption and hypothetical problems versus....you know....like...proven problems.

EDIT: This doesn't pertain to Chicago per se, but i suppose it's on topic enough to share and i figured most of you guys would find some interest in the piece.

To license a hot dog cart in California is similar to licensing a restaurant, since the enactment of Cal Code in 2009. This new law effects all street vendors and to license a hot dog cart requires:

1. Mechanical refrigeration powered by an electric or a gas generator
2. A pressurized water system
3. Three ware wash sinks
4. One hand wash sink
5. An approved and licensed restroom within 100 feet from the cart
6. An approved and licensed base station/commissary to store food and wash utensils/pots
7. Raw food may not be cooked and served from a cart
8. Only prepackaged/precooked food service food may be served from a cart

The concerns with the bacon dog served from a street cart include: cold holding, cooking, hot holding, and covering product. There are also the issues of handling raw, uncooked product and proper hand washing. To my knowledge, as a licensed food handler, I am unaware of any health department that will license a cart to cook and serve bacon.

chicagostyledog wrote:To license a hot dog cart in California is similar to licensing a restaurant, since the enactment of Cal Code in 2009. This new law effects all street vendors and to license a hot dog cart requires:

1. Mechanical refrigeration powered by an electric or a gas generator
2. A pressurized water system
3. Three ware wash sinks
4. One hand wash sink
5. An approved and licensed restroom within 100 feet from the cart
6. An approved and licensed base station/commissary to store food and wash utensils/pots
7. Raw food may not be cooked and served from a cart
8. Only prepackaged/precooked food service food may be served from a cart

So, Chidog - of these requirements, which do you see as reasonable? I'm inclined that #1, #4, and #6 (assuming that this means they have to go back to an area elsewhere to meet this requirement.) are reasonable, although even those aren't being followed with carts I'm personally OK with in Rogers Park. #2 might be a good thing, and instead of #3, maybe some kind of heat sanitizer (if you've got a generator anyway) for your food handling tools? If you were making the rules, how would you do it?

Does raw food include raw condiments/salad that's to be served uncooked?

Mhays, I'm good with 2, 3, 4, & 6. I'd like to have the three little ware wash sinks for cleaning tongs, spoons, knives, and scissors. However, a mechanical refrigerator on a cart can be expensive. The cost of a new cart can range from $2500-$10,000, while a cart with a mechanical refrigerator can cost $8,000-$21,000. Raw condiments that should be cooled include: onions and tomatoes. Relish, pickles, and peppers aren't as critical. Keep in mind, this information pertains only to hot dog carts. Food trucks and enclosed trailers are a completely different mode of mobile food service and can be outfitted as a mobile kitchen with refrigeration and sinks. I'd like to own a Danish street kitchen like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WJuJ_AQqqA As the server, I'd wear gloves and have my cashier handle money and serve drinks.

Sounds like we're in agreement that #s 5, 7, and 8 seem unreasonable, then - after all, why be mobile if you have to have a licensed bathroom nearby (frankly, there are dozens of actual restaurants in downtown Chicago and Lincoln Park that don't have them that I don't get this requirement for mobile carts) Seems silly not to allow raw food if you've got the systems for safe cooking in place, and of course prepackaged food sucks.

I'm guessing there's a semantics issue as regards refrigeration? Hot dogs need to be kept outside the temperature danger zone - how is this done in the carts that don't have a mechanical refrigerator? Are the carts using coolers for the hot dogs? In areas where this is allowed, how does the health code read?

Most hot dog carts are fitted with a "cool box." This is an insulated cooler that's permanently attached to the hot dog cart. Some health departments will also allow the use of Coleman and Igloo free standing coolers. These coolers use bagged ice and must keep the hot dogs at legal cold holding temperature.

Recently Time Out wrote an article about Troy Johnson's "All Fired Up" food truck, which has passed all city inspections, but is in a weird limbo (since according to the city it never should have been inspected). The attention the article brought may result in the truck being shut down. This is a great example to make the case for food trucks in Chicago - I'm not sure if there is any organized effort to make sure this truck stays open, but it is very easy to email the Mayor's office and your Alderman to let them know what you think.

Superb piece on food trucks in Chicago by Comrade Sula.

Does anyone know how to get ahold of Troy Johnston? I don't have a Facebook account, but I'd like to ask him about a gig in our hood next few weeks and then another later this summer.

thanks!

bjt

More food truck vendors organizing

Another item piqued my interest: one of the vendors had a license to sell "uncut fruits and vegetables." That mention has my food-desert antennae all perky - does that mean that licensed food vendors can have fruit and vegetable carts in the city? (IIRC, weren't there fruit carts on State St. in the Loop once upon a time, where you could buy apples, oranges and banannas? What happened to those?)

This link displaying the Food Trucks up for the "Best Trailer" award in Austin makes me extremely jealous

http://www.austin360.com/food-drink/564 ... RTR_257115

I was listening to The Splendid Table yesterday (one of the best episodes I've heard in awhile) and one of the contributors to the episode was Daniel Delaney (of vendr.tv), who was discussing food trucks. One of the points he made was that traditionally, food trucks were ethnically driven and allowed new immigrants to produce and sell food and earn income without the overhead of a restaurant. (Undoubtedly, the relative simplicity of operating a food truck, as opposed to a fixed restaurant, is a boon to those who are new to this country and who, among other things, have a limited grasp of English, our laws, regulations, procedures, and tax system.) Hence, traditional street food. Then in come the newfangled chef-driven food trucks, such as those in Austin, that are now what people typically associate with food trucks, but are actually not the norm. As Delaney pointed out, there's tension between the old and new school vendors -- especially in New York -- because, for the old school vendors, it's a way of life, and for the new school vendors, it's fun. That's it -- fun. It seems like most people jumping on the food trucks bandwagon (no pun intended) are assuming that food trucks in Chicago can only be a good thing, they have visions of these hipster-mobiles that are, I'll be so brave to say -- potentially rebellious and anti-establishment -- and that will harken a new way of eating in Chicago that reflects their lifestyle and values. No more stuffy sit down restaurants with table service! Many proponents of food trucks dream of gold-paved streets lined with the donut truck, the waffle truck, the cupcake truck, etc., like an adult carnival with really good food prepared by three-star chefs. However, Delaney acknowledged that this is largely not the case with food trucks -- based on the number of registered food trucks/carts in NYC (there are ~3100), less than 1/2 of 1 percent provide high-quality, artisinal food that most people associate with food trucks. (Obviously, the statistic of artisinal food trucks in Portland and Austin is much higher.) In other words, your average hot dog cart with half-warmed hot dogs and stale buns is more the norm than the awesome donut truck.

This thread (and these issues) came to mind when, this weekend, I attended a large, well-organized street fair and noticed all the street trucks. At this particular street festival, there was an attempt to have a wide variety of non-junk food, and there was some effort to attract better quality options, but still, most, if not all of the vendors, were selling crappy food. I was later talking to a friend who said that the one food truck that is good at this festival year after year is the prototypical ethnic food truck -- the Thai food truck, which is helmed by a native Thai woman. However, in order to find her, you have to travel away from the festival because the City was charging food trucks different fees based upon their proximity to the festival (in other words, her "overhead" would be higher). So the ethnic food trucks operating on a shoestring were shut out of the game. That's not to say there aren't quality trucks out there, but just because Chicago allows food trucks doesn't mean they'll be worth anything. I can't help but think that for all this bandwagoning about food trucks, people will be surprised that what they end up getting are numerous touristy food trucks littering Millennium and Grant Parks, selling cotton candy and funnel cakes to tourists, that are more of an eyesore than an improvement to our food scene. More hacks than Achatz.

I often hear the argument that food trucks are a way to allow people to operate a restaurant who can't afford the overhead (which, given the number of food establishments in Chicago, is a problem that I'm not sure actually exists or at least is widespread). Sure, with any business it's tough to raise start-up costs, deal with potential investors, etc., but in making this argument, I assume what they mean is that it opens the doors to the ethnic food vendors. Still, I'm not sure food trucks are not necessarily the answer for them either. As Delaney alluded, how do they coexist with chef-driven, artisinal food trucks? I can't help but think that the same essential business issues inherent in operating fixed restaurants will apply to food trucks, too; there will be a hierarchy -- which does not necessarily mean that the ethnic food trucks will win out in this hierarchy. Chef-driven food trucks presumptively will be more profitable and over time, drive the market and consequently, drive up the City's fees and taxes of the trucks. At the end of the day, the name of the game is money; and it might be fun for, say, Graham Eliot Bowles to operate a foie gras/pop rocks food truck outside a bar in River North once in a while, but if it's not profitable at GEB's expected level of profitability, he's not likely to continue doing it. At the same time, ethnic vendors like the Tamale Guy will continue to operate underground if the fees and taxes inherent in operating a legitimate truck or cart are too prohibitive to him. What is left will bear little resemblance to the romantic notions of ethnic or hipster street food -- just carnival vendors selling junk.

Like POTUS says, "Look:" I've got nothing against good food trucks. I've always enjoyed the ethnic street food at flea markets in London, and I have had great chestnuts and hot dogs from food carts in New York. I'd love a sausage and pepper sandwich from the carts on Yawkey Way in Boston. But those carts and trucks that are most dear to me have been integral to those cities' culture for years; they're not integral to Chicago's. I don't think we can artificially resurrect a quality food truck culture in Chicago. Some may call me a curmudgeon, but I'm taking a reserved stance on food trucks. But then again, there are very few "causes" I'll bandwagon for, so maybe that's just me.

Flirty Cupcakes, Chicago's first cupcake truck, officially takes to the street May 10. I couldn't care less about cupcakes so can't work up any enthusiasm for this but I suppose it's a start at least.

Rene G wrote:Flirty Cupcakes, Chicago's first cupcake truck, officially takes to the street May 10. I couldn't care less about cupcakes so can't work up any enthusiasm for this but I suppose it's a start at least.

And . . . here we go. Does Chicago need more cupcake vendors? I mean, if you want a cupcake, can't you visit one of the bajillion stores around town?

Rene G wrote:
Flirty Cupcakes, Chicago's first cupcake truck, officially takes to the street May 10. I couldn't care less about cupcakes so can't work up any enthusiasm for this but I suppose it's a start at least.


And . . . here we go. Does Chicago need more cupcake vendors? I mean, if you want a cupcake, can't you visit one of the bajillion stores around town?

Or BAKE 'EM YOUR OWN DAMN SELF!

Whatever happened to the "Pig Rig?"
I caught an old ep of "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives" that featured it at what looked like a Chicago street festival (Fieri said something about "Northwest Side").

Even our Hammond wrote about it some time ago.

There's indications that one of our members, Swine Dining, may be the proprietor of the rig, but hasn't mentioned it for over a year, or how often the rig gets to Chicago. I'm assuming it isn't based here.

In NYC, food trucks are the culmination of Disnification that has turned Manhattan into a characterless borough. If they take over Chicago, I sure hope the effect is better.

While it's disappointing that the "first" food truck will be selling cupcakes, I would hope that this entire effort will force the City government into approaching this issue a bit more thoughtfully than they have up until now. While I'm sure a lot of the trucks that will come out of this will be crap, hopefully there will be a few gems mixed in that will make life (especially in the Loop) a little better.

At Family Farmed Expo earlier this year, there were representatives of Green Carts, an organization that’s currently operating in NYC and may come to Chicago. One of the goals of this group is to use small carts to bring fresh, local produce to urban food deserts that are not currently serviced by the traditional brick-and-mortar groceries. That, it would seem, is a potentially very good use of street vendors.

The Wife and I were talking about the food truck phenom last weekend, and I mentioned to her that food trucks seem like maybe they just make you buy outdoors what you could more comfortably buy indoors, you know, in a restaurant. She insisted that it wasn’t “the same thing,” and I think she’s right. There is something more “fun” about buying food on the street, and I don’t think having fun as a goal is a negative (yes, Maslow, survival is more important, but we’re all trying to pursue happiness here, however feeble those efforts might be). Plus, there are times when, you know, you’re outside, on the lake front, stumbling out of a bar, whatever, and if the food is right there, well, that’s more than fun: that’s convenient.

Honestly, aschie30, I can’t accept that “Many proponents of food trucks dream of gold-paved streets lined with the donut truck, the waffle truck, the cupcake truck, etc., like an adult carnival with really good food prepared by three-star chefs.” No doubt, some people might talk/fantasize that way, but this feels like a straw man.

On a more local (for me) level, every Fourth of July there’s a fireworks display right down the street from our house at Oak Park River Forest High School (Vital Information and the Local Family are usually there soliciting donations for the next year’s pyro-extravaganza). There are thousands of people in attendance…and one street vendor: a beat-up ice cream truck (retrofitted Mr. Softee, I think) selling the same sorry selections of frozen confections one can buy at a 7-11 or White Hen – nothing remotely attractive to me. Would I like to see more options for me and the rest of the dazed masses exiting the stadium? Of course! Options are good…and there are some outstanding street vendors out there already, as Joel F mentions: Galewood Cookshack is still operational (though cutting back on public events) and has for some years been operated by Grace Delcano/swinedining, a pioneer woman on the frontiers of Chicagoland’s food truck culture, and exactly the kind of mobile food vendor I’d like to see more often. Far from an “eyesore,” her pig rig is a thing of beauty.

Kennyz wrote:In NYC, food trucks are the culmination of Disnification that has turned Manhattan into a characterless borough. If they take over Chicago, I sure hope the effect is better.

I have to agree with Kenny here, if I am right about what he means by disnification. I am likewise lukewarm about the thought of gourmet food trucks roaming our streets. I would however welcome street vending and food carts of the types you see in Queens and even sometimes in Manhattan pushing great kabobs, Central Asian Egyptian or otherwise; or kati rolls; or any number of other great greasy gut bombs that are the hallmark of good street food. Fresh juice trucks wouldn't hurt either.

I'd like to see the well-financed, CIA trained gastro-voyageurs explicitly commit to helping the more traditional, entry-level entrepreneur, recent-immigrant vendors, whether through legislation or cash. But it does not appear to be developing that way. The City clearly finds the "Disney" trucks palatable, and their proponents sometimes seem to distinguish themselves by way of comparison to the grubby carts the City dislikes.

Less irony, more tamales.

PS, there's nothing wrong with cupcakes, but really, you couldn't make up a better contrast to the kati rolls, pambazos and halal mystery chicken I think many here envisioned coming from food trucks.

Habibi wrote:

Kennyz wrote:In NYC, food trucks are the culmination of Disnification that has turned Manhattan into a characterless borough. If they take over Chicago, I sure hope the effect is better.

I have to agree with Kenny here, if I am right about what he means by disnification. I am likewise lukewarm about the thought of gourmet food trucks roaming our streets. I would however welcome street vending and food carts of the types you see in Queens and even sometimes in Manhattan pushing great kabobs, Central Asian Egyptian or otherwise; or kati rolls; or any number of other great greasy gut bombs that are the hallmark of good street food. Fresh juice trucks wouldn't hurt either.

Whether we get the sterile (by which I mean boring...I would hope any food truck would be somewhat clean), corporate, $12-dessert food trucks you're afraid of, or cool, down-to-earth, affordable food trucks would likely be dependent on how much it costs to get licensed. If the independent and/or ethnic-food folks get priced out of the business before they can even get off the ground, that'll pretty much guarantee we end up with investor-funded cupcake trucks and stuff run by LEYE.

Edit: What JeffB said.

JeffB wrote:PS, there's nothing wrong with cupcakes, but really, you couldn't make up a better contrast to the kati rolls, pambazos and halal mystery chicken I think many here envisioned coming from food trucks.

Regarding "envisioned" -- why the past tense? We're talking about this as though the streets are already lined with shiny logo-laden corporate food wagons vending over-priced kobe sliders and miniature "Chicago hot dogs." Some of that may very well come to pass, and its kind of too bad (or the sake of imagery) that the cupcake truck is the inaugural vehicle, but I'm not ready to throw up my hands and moan "Alas, all is lost."

There seems a lot of uncalled for negativity -- explicit and implicit -- about this initiative which is still in its infancy.

David, I think you are reading some hyperbole into my comment that I didn't intend. This is a conversation among people who live in (or near) Chicago and are used to seeing how things sometimes unfold. Don't mistake my gentle skepticism and desire for vendors of the not "Taste of Chicago" variety for defeatism. "Envisioned" just refers to a long history of comments on this board regarding street foods others have sampled in far flung cities and reported back about. The short-term reality is cupcakes. The mobile boti paratha of my dreams is still alive and well.

My negativity comes from being pissed off at what the food truck movement did to my home town. NYC had a vibrant, largely ethnic street food scene via carts and tiny storefronts, then along came shiny trucks roaming the city to dole out crap, and for whatever reason the people flocked away from the real street food and toward these ugly, environmentally-unfriendly vehicles. Like this one:



That was a terrible cup of coffee.

David Hammond wrote:There seems a lot of uncalled for negativity -- explicit and implicit -- about this initiative which is still in its infancy.

Really? Anyone spending two minutes on the internets (especially Twitter) gets the opposite feeling. Besides, I don't think expressing reserve about the issue is negativity, it's just being cautious.

I think there are two things going on.

Some people think of food trucks and they think of traditional food carts, such as those in older cities like NYC, which are ethnic, family-owned and are an easy means for immigrants to peddle food. These type of food carts, (wrongly) associated with dirt and filth, for some reason, have been largely banned in Chicago. Most easily associated with the notion of "street food." Similar to our elote vendors, and the trucks in Humboldt Park, they are integrated into the fabric of the neighborhoods, sell mainly to people who bear the same ethnicity of the vendor, and are extensions of the culture of the neighborhood.

The second category involves the gourmet, chef-driven, trendy food trucks (cite: Portland and Austin, Gourdough's, any cupcake truck) that aims to sell to a more moneyed, younger set. More Disney-fied.

They are two radically different notions. The first group will be shut out if it's too expensive and/or complicated to be licensed and remain licensed as a food truck vendor, and the second group is elusive, as I'm not sure it will be profitable for chefs to operate food trucks for a roving demographic. I'm all for fun and options, but if a chef-driven food truck is too hard to make a profit on, it's just a hobby. My sense is that we'll get something that is neither ethnic nor good (edit: like Kenny's "Coffee of Love" truck, above), so my enthusiasm is tempered, and if you'd like to interpret that as negativity, so be it. But given the level of enthusiasm for food trucks on the whole on this thread, I don't think you can call out a few dissenters for providing different points of view.

My larger issue with food trucks is that this is Chicago, not Portland, NYC, Austin, LA or Fargo. I see the point about Disneyfication, which to me is blanketing everything in easy, approchable, mediocre consistency. Just because NY or Portland or Austin has something doesn't mean I want Chicago to have it. (See this thread for more on this pervasive mentality.) I want to see original ideas that naturally arise out of the fabric of the city; not mere facsimiles of everything that other cities have. To me, the drum beat for Chicago food trucks has largely been about the gourmet category and not about the ethnic group of trucks. (Hence my facetious comment about "gold-paved" streets lined with everyone's favorite trucks from other cities.) For example, Chicago has had a vibrant Mexican vending culture for a very long time. Those are vendors who I'd like to see be legitimized, not Cupcakes Are Us. Achatz, Cantu, Kahan and even Carlson -- those are people with original ideas, vision -- and have done more to put Chicago on the culinary map than a bunch of food trucks ever will.

The one good thing about food trucks is that if the City will address one hole in its archaic food legislation, then maybe food trucks will open the door to addressing others. I'd much rather see the City open the doors for artisinal cured meat makers and allow restaurants to preserve foods than respond to the trendsters' cry for an LA-style Korean taco truck. This ain't LA.

We can dream about a real, honest taco truck run by actual Mexicans in the Loop, but I think it's just a dream, for a variety of reasons. I hope I'm proven wrong.

I don't even know what a gourmet food truck is - never seen one or eaten at one...

.....i just want to see what Chicago's ethnic population would do given the legal option to operate mobile food stands/trucks. For me it's nothing more than that because we all know we'd be in for some good eats.

Having said that, it will quite obviously go the way of "Coffee of Love" if food trucks do become legal in Chicago. Clean, gimmicky, likely overpriced mockeries of real food carts - you know "they" will call for it. They are the same reason places like Chipolte, Jimmy Johns and pretty much all of Roscoe st. in between Damen and Western are still in business.

Maybe aschie30 and Kennyz are onto something - this does definitely seem like a great concept that they would absolutely ruin...and if that coffee of love truck is of any indication, man we're in for some horrible shit.

I still hold out that the ethnic population in Chicago would absolutely tear it up though and that's what i'm looking for.

aschie30 wrote: I want to see original ideas that naturally arise out of the fabric of the city; not mere facsimiles of everything that other cities have. To me, the drum beat for Chicago food trucks has largely been about the gourmet category and not about the ethnic group of trucks.

Bingo! Legitimize the tamale and elote vendors and bring them down to the Loop and Millennium Park. Allow them to roam the Riverwalk and make the rounds outside of Lincoln Park bars. Let them expand into serving full-on tacos and sopes. Now we'd be talking about a Chicago street food scene that's worth bragging about. CIA grads doling out quick-serve versions of restaurant food? I genuinely wish them success, but that's a big yawner for me.

djenks wrote:I don't even know what a gourmet food truck is - never seen one or eaten at one...

Austin Food Trucks

Works for Austin.