Maybe We Should Have Food Carts Rather Than Trucks

Maybe We Should Have Food Carts Rather Than Trucks

In Oak Park last spring we had a food truck rally that can only be described as a “disappointing success.” This parking lot-based gathering of food trucks generated a huge turnout of Villagers, so much so that some vendors ran out of supplies within the first 30 minutes and many more within the first hour. Same thing happened at the very first food truck rally at Goose Island in Chicago several years ago.

In Oakland, California, last month, we went to a food truck rally that had similar problems: trucks ran out of product well before the end of the event, and quality was subpar. We had a hamburger at Doc’s of the Bay food truck – voted #1 food truck hamburger in the area by Serious Eats – and it was dismal. The gimmick at this vendor was that the hamburger is smashed on the griddle with a “sad iron,” which was supposed to make it crisp on the outside and juicy on the inside, but it was overall a mouthful of undercooked mush.

Food truck rallies are, I believe, doomed because:

1. Food truck crews are usually unprepared for turning out food fast for large crowds: regular street-based business flow is usually slower, with people coming up randomly and lines usually small, so crews have time to prepare the food correctly.
2. Rallies defeat the whole purpose of food trucks, which is to bring food to you.
3. The very novelty of rallies draws big crowds, and when vendors run out of food without a supply chain established to replenish supplies immediately, they just drive away.

Of course, in Chicago and Oak Park, there are regulations that make it challenging for food trucks to, for instance, actually cook food on public streets, meaning there’s a lot prepackaged stuff that, you know, sometimes sucks big time.



In Portland, Oregon, earlier this month, I visited several food cart pods, which are incredibly diverse collections of trailer-mounted kitchens that serve excellent food without any of the abovementioned food truck rally problems. To wit:

1. Food cart crews handle moderate crowds, in part because there are so many carts and pods to choose from, so they can keep quality levels high and prepare food correctly.
2. Carts are by nature stationary, so it’s natural that you go to them, just as you would a brick-and-mortar restaurant, and they’re always in the same place, so if you crave Georgian dumplings or Jamaican jerk chicken, you know where to go.
3. When they run low on food, cart vendors have systems established to replenish supplies so it’s less likely they’ll run out.







In Portland, we were impressed with the quality and diversity of the food. Because pods are located on private property, like the trucks at most food truck rallies, they can cook on-the-spot, which radically increases the tastiness and the range of foods offered.

Also like food trucks, food carts provide an opportunity for small vendors to try out new things. One of my favorite carts was run by the friend of a buddy of mine: it’s called Potato Champion, and it sells French fries with several different sauces. Across the street from the pod where Potato Champion is located is a restaurant called Lardo. Not long ago, Lardo was just another cart, but their product proved successful and now they’ve got a brick-and-mortar location. And that, as I understand it, is the dream of many food truck operators as well: to have their own restaurant.

So my question is: why don’t places like Oak Park and Chicago set up food cart pods? I don’t mean to minimize the likely hurdles, but if these mobile vendors are set up on private property – as was done at Oak Park’s Pilgrim Church or Chicago’s Goose Island for their food truck rallies – it’d be easier to deliver a high-quality product at a good price without encountering the problems that seem endemic to food truck rallies.

I've long been a bigger proponent of carts rather than trucks.

The lower startup costs and overhead would allow more interesting and lower cost offerings. I'm not sure about these pods you're talking about, but traditional carts allow a more interactive experience, allowing you to chat with the vendor standing on earth with you, not up high behind a window.
Most (not all) of the trucks I have eaten at seem to have a "just take your food and go" vibe. Carts on the other hand generally seem to welcome conversation.

When I'm eating street food I heavily rely on the ability to see the food being prepared. Walking up to a food cart is like walking back into a kitchen to order, you can immediately see which food items they're preparing well, which ones you'd rather not have, or which carts to simply avoid all together. Trucks can hide a lot from the customer and you usually have to order off a menu board rather than pointing at the food that looks good.

laikom wrote:When I'm eating street food I heavily rely on the ability to see the food being prepared. Walking up to a food cart is like walking back into a kitchen to order, you can immediately see which food items they're preparing well, which ones you'd rather not have, or which carts to simply avoid all together. Trucks can hide a lot from the customer and you usually have to order off a menu board rather than pointing at the food that looks good.

Some of the Portland carts had food prep areas at eye-level, but many did not.

Thing is, though, in Chicago at least, food preparation at carts is usually limited to pulling the bacon-wrapped wiener off the grill and bunning it or dipping the elote in crema and dressing it with lime, chili, etc. The food preparation is very minimal, at least in our town, at carts (which themselves are usually illegal or operating in a gray area where cops can pretty much bust them at will, or not).

Incidentally, one of the stated selling points of trucks is that you're "interacting" with the chef, but I find this usually not to be the case. Even at the Portland food carts, there's a person at the window collecting money, and they seemed way up for chat, but they're not the ones making the food (these guys usually don't have time for conversation when they're working). The nice lady at the cart in pic below at Nong's Khao Man Gai asked me if I knew Steve Dolinsky.

I've been doing a lot of Chicago history reading lately, Mike Royko and the like, and one thing I really like is how they describe the hot dog and concessions carts which used to be pushed through the neighborhoods by "short Greeks". I would love to see that come back. How can it be that a city famed for its hot dogs deprives its citizens of the most natural way to eat said dog: bought from a cart standing on a street corner. The only carts I've regularly seen are the elotes and ice cream sellers in Avondale, and while those are good, more variety is always better. Living in Chicago, this is the only thing I envy about NYC: street carts selling halal lamb and rice, hot dogs, jerk chicken, fried fish, Chinese food and any other crazy thing you could want to eat.

eating while walking wrote:Living in Chicago, this is the only thing I envy about NYC: street carts selling halal lamb and rice, hot dogs, jerk chicken, fried fish, Chinese food and any other crazy thing you could want to eat.

I've been a Chicagoan by choice for the last fifteen years, but the lack of food carts is the thing I miss most of NYC.

Independent George wrote:

eating while walking wrote:Living in Chicago, this is the only thing I envy about NYC: street carts selling halal lamb and rice, hot dogs, jerk chicken, fried fish, Chinese food and any other crazy thing you could want to eat.

I've been a Chicagoan by choice for the last fifteen years, but the lack of food carts is the thing I miss most of NYC.

Based on a very quick trip through Brooklyn and Manhattan last month, it seems to me that most carts (not all) are selling hot dogs. I'm certain there are exceptions, but since my last trip to NYC some years ago, it seems there's been a homogenizing of the offerings. I say "seems" because I don't claim to know these two boroughs well enough to draw strong conclusions, but it sure seems like 2 out of 3 vendors are just selling the wieners.

Would love to know I'm wrong about this perception.

David Hammond wrote:

Independent George wrote:

eating while walking wrote:Living in Chicago, this is the only thing I envy about NYC: street carts selling halal lamb and rice, hot dogs, jerk chicken, fried fish, Chinese food and any other crazy thing you could want to eat.

I've been a Chicagoan by choice for the last fifteen years, but the lack of food carts is the thing I miss most of NYC.

Based on a very quick trip through Brooklyn and Manhattan last month, it seems to me that most carts (not all) are selling hot dogs. I'm certain there are exceptions, but since my last trip to NYC some years ago, it seems there's been a homogenizing of the offerings. I say "seems" because I don't claim to know these two boroughs well enough to draw strong conclusions, but it sure seems like 2 out of 3 vendors are just selling the wieners.

Would love to know I'm wrong about this perception.

2/3 sounds about right, but there are so many that the remaining 1/3 still counts for plenty of variety.

The really cool carts are in Flushing, but over Christmas, I managed to gnosh on kebabs, beef patties, empanadas, samosas, plantains, and some sort of pork (maybe... hopefully) meatball on a stick, all from Upper West side food carts.

Before we had to move my father close to us, I loved the NYC carts. We visited him and I could have lived off of the "street carts". Pretzels that were a favorite of my and then very young kid. There were several carts that did grilled meats in front of you with added ingredients (my favorite was sliced lamb). Against the rules, while my father/wife/kid were in museums I didn't care about I worked a couple of the carts. The old sabrette's recipe that I was told are not made anymore with a different chili topping (but most used bulk canned stuff) was awesome. May the new owners of sabrette's rot in heck forever.
There were a couple of carts that were very expensive, that actually baked/brothed/boiled/bagels. I only bought smoked salmon from them to experience it. Tasted like Homaris (?) from Atlanta in all cases.

The carts where I used to live in Florida had the added "ahem, bonus" of having the ladies "accidentally" losing their tops if a $5 was put into the tip jar. (I was much younger then, in grad school)

While I like the food trucks locally, it is IMHO like a stand up eatery. Place order, get food. Carts have more "personality".

I really liked my time "working" the lamb/pork/gyro/wok carts in NYC. I learned a lot and taught (some) owners of the carts. I would kill to have a skillet lamb cart, and the awesome guy who sold mussel meat in "proper frankfurter/new England/lobster rolls" locally. Dear gosh I would kill to have a mussel roll for breakfast again. Until the day I die, a fried clam roll is the perfect breakfast food. A fried/steamed mussel roll is a second.

exvaxman wrote:The old sabrette's recipe that I was told are not made anymore with a different chili topping (but most used bulk canned stuff) was awesome. May the new owners of sabrette's rot in heck forever.

In front of the Met, I bought a Sabrett hot dog. I asked for onions and received sweated onions in what seemed a thin, catsup-y sauce. It worked, but I was wondering: is this the way onions are usually served at NY carts?

Also, exvaxman, I had a pretzel around Times Square and it had the advantage of being cheap and filling, but man, the salt on there set me back, and I put salt on everything. My guess is there's like one or two vendors who supply pretzels to all the carts.

What I didn't see: anyone selling knishes. They must be somewhere, but I saw none in my travels up and down Manhattan.

The carts that sell hot dogs, pretzels and sometimes kabobs (not chicken n' rice) also occasionally sell knishes. Do not eat. I repeat. Do not eat.

Go here for a pretty good knish.

David, the proper clone for sabrette's topping. However, the dogs in the current day do NOT taste anything like the older "traditional" sabrette's. http://www.copykat.com/2009/05/12/sabre ... -you-live/

As for the pretzel's, look for the "oddball" rather than "every pretzel exact" cart. One cart I only saw once imported his pretzels from Hamburg, Germany. $12 at his NYC cart, the same thing was $6 at Milwaukee Estabrook park last year.

Habibi;
May I say that I really dislike you seeing that link? Not having what I consider a local source and jonesing for a decent knish right now?
Only kidding, a really good knish would be awesome. The best I have had is from an elderly neighbor. In exchange for my smoked fish. She is too old to do them anymore, but I still deliver smoked fish.

David, forgot. The large ice cube trays from the met are awesome. Two HUGE ice cubes.
Just awesome for putting into smaller scotch glasses. Or (may I be forgiven) Bourbon. (My wife grew up on the bourbon trail, literally across from the Woodford Distillery, I almost bought the Maker's founders house many, many years ago).

As Habibi suggests, "really good knish" is not something you get from a cart in NYC. They are a secret peccadillo of mine, but they are really vile. I accept the squirt of yellow mustard and everything. You could do worse than Manny's humongous, gravy-covered gut bomb if you need it. I like the idea of carts, but to be honest, most of the carts in Manhattan suck, even the Halal ones that people are convinced are great.

Speaking of knishes (sort of) and carts, it remainst true that trucks and carts have different, liberal, rules on Park District property, always have, so:

1. Why doesn't an enterprising hipster vagabond gourmond set up something interesting and semi-permanent in Humboldt Park, that remarkably beautiful green space that is literally surrounded by the foodsters of Logan Square, Wicker Park and Ukie Village???

2. Why doesn't anyone ever post anymore about the Puerto Rican trucks that have long plied said park, what with their papas rellenas and such. Does a kid with an ironic beard and glasses, looking like Che' or his stand-in from Bananas, have to reclaim PR truck food first?

exvaxman wrote:As for the pretzel's, look for the "oddball" rather than "every pretzel exact" cart. One cart I only saw once imported his pretzels from Hamburg, Germany. $12 at his NYC cart, the same thing was $6 at Milwaukee Estabrook park last year.

Sounds like solid advice. I'm pretty sure the factory-made pretzel I bought from a car was like $3.00.

JeffB wrote:I like the idea of carts, but to be honest, most of the carts in Manhattan suck, even the Halal ones that people are convinced are great.

No way! I love those halal carts. The lamb and rice plate covered in yogurt sauce or whatever that white stuff is, is perfect sloppy street eating. OK so not all of them are great, but even if the food isn't always good it's still cool that they're around. The Loop would be a lot less boring food-wise with a bunch of carts scattered around, even if the food is mediocre.

JeffB wrote:1. Why doesn't an enterprising hipster vagabond gourmond set up something interesting and semi-permanent in Humboldt Park, that remarkably beautiful green space that is literally surrounded by the foodsters of Logan Square, Wicker Park and Ukie Village???

Because transplant hipsters are scared of Humboldt Park.

eating while walking wrote:I've been doing a lot of Chicago history reading lately, Mike Royko and the like, and one thing I really like is how they describe the hot dog and concessions carts which used to be pushed through the neighborhoods by "short Greeks". I would love to see that come back. How can it be that a city famed for its hot dogs deprives its citizens of the most natural way to eat said dog: bought from a cart standing on a street corner. The only carts I've regularly seen are the elotes and ice cream sellers in Avondale, and while those are good, more variety is always better. Living in Chicago, this is the only thing I envy about NYC: street carts selling halal lamb and rice, hot dogs, jerk chicken, fried fish, Chinese food and any other crazy thing you could want to eat.

This was in NextDoor Bridgeport today. What a bummer.

"Wow, the Alderman got his way again, he has shut down the ice cream trucks from the neighborhood for the kids and now he is shutting down the Hot Dog Vendors. Great little cart on 37th & Emerald Mr Big Dog, nice people great hot dogs and now the Alderman shut it down. How about worrying about all the crime going on in the neighborhood and stop worrying about the little people who are trying to make a little money for their families. Makes no sense!!!!!!!"

JeffB wrote:2. Why doesn't anyone ever post anymore about the Puerto Rican trucks that have long plied said park, what with their papas rellenas and such. Does a kid with an ironic beard and glasses, looking like Che' or his stand-in from Bananas, have to reclaim PR truck food first?

Though I lived within walking distance for a long time, I gave up on the Humboldt Part PR food trucks after I spent a whole afternoon in 2011 trying every single one with kennyz and laikom. Aside from some decent morcilla, I didn't find a single thing I wanted to go back and eat.

I know laikom took pictures of everything we ate, but I don't know what ever happened to them. Was intended to be an epic (though bland and greasy...) post.

-Dan

dansch wrote:Though I lived within walking distance for a long time, I gave up on the Humboldt Part PR food trucks after I spent a whole afternoon in 2011 trying every single one with kennyz and laikom. Aside from some decent morcilla, I didn't find a single thing I wanted to go back and eat.

I know laikom took pictures of everything we ate, but I don't know what ever happened to them. Was intended to be an epic (though bland and greasy...) post.

-Dan

Oh man, I am so with you on this. Didn't want to be a downer (thanks for handling that for me), but the food I had at those trucks was all so disturbingly one-note, mostly fried carb, flat. It can be tasty with a beer, but after three or four bites, I'm ready to shove back from the table (or curb, as the case may be).

Ursiform wrote:This was in NextDoor Bridgeport today. What a bummer.

"Wow, the Alderman got his way again, he has shut down the ice cream trucks from the neighborhood for the kids and now he is shutting down the Hot Dog Vendors. Great little cart on 37th & Emerald Mr Big Dog, nice people great hot dogs and now the Alderman shut it down. How about worrying about all the crime going on in the neighborhood and stop worrying about the little people who are trying to make a little money for their families. Makes no sense!!!!!!!"

Sorry to hear it. If an old-school neighborhood like Bridgeport is shutting down its hot dog carts, what hope is there for the rest of us?

A question occurs to me about this: is Chicago's discouragement of cart and truck vendors due to political pressure from restaurant owners? I am thinking that the McD's, Potbellies, Jimmy Johns, Dunkins, etc in the Loop would have considerable clout against lunch cart options appearing downtown.

Following in the footsteps of their food truck brethren, Chicago's street cart vendors are pushing for legalization of their trade.

http://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20140403 ... -food-wars

Food Carts Cleared for New City License

http://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20150916 ... harassment