No Downtown Hot Dog Carts - Why?

I was just curious why there are no hot dog carts near Downtown. I am assuming there are health code and/or licensing issues that prevent them. It would just be nice to grab the occasional dirty water dog while walking around Downtown - like you can in New York, London, Toronto, etc.

Inquiring minds want to know...

Whatever ordinances have been passed, I don't know, but I have heard that the mayor has long wanted to eradicate all such street food vendors. Resistence to this was raised by the Hispanic community and the City/his Lordship backed off, so you will find push-cart's selling tamales and elote and such around certain neighbourhoods (mine included) but no hot dogs.

They're unsightly, I suppose, at least in someone's opinion.*

Antonius

* I'm sure it helps business a little at the fast-food chains and such, but that couldn't be a consideration for any politicians... Just kidding...

Health issue I believe. back in the day my uncle had a hot dog truck that would sell to UIC students. Told me stories of having to wrap up $20 bills with the hotdogs he sold to the cops so they would leave him alone.

Ah the good ol days.

Hot dog vendors where it is legal are most likely licensed in some way.

The vendors with the coolers selling tamales, etc., are not. A blind eye is turned on this illegal activity and it flourishes. Close to me, you have to compete for the street with the vendors.

I've lived here for close to 40 years and I always heard it was Daley that thought they were tacky. Kind of like how he feels about the bars that don't serve food.

Mr. Delk, a New Yorker, and I were having this conversation the other day. We drove out to Bridgeview to be a good son/son in law and spend the day with my mom.

Neither of us really cares to drive, and hopping on an expressway makes me want to stop and smell the roses so to speak, and I find it just a bit more comfortable to scoot about side streets.

The bonus, is, these are the streets of my youth, and I get to regale Barry with torrid tales of my teenage trevails...Anyhow, we pulled over on 59th between California and Kedzie because I saw a hot dog cart and a parking spot so I felt it was Kismit.

Extra points for natural casing! Barry garbaged his up with everything, I demurely opted for mustard only.

Bear in mind, I'm just a mere 44 years old, yet I don't recall any downtown stands. Others might, I don't. That being said, my childhood was awash in hotdog stands. Fond, fond memories of the stand on 48th and Bishop, in front of Sal's barbershop, the guy on 78th and Western that sold to us Quigley South students in the '70's, 50th and Oakley, to and from swimming at Cornell Park on countless summer days, 47th, just west of Western visiting my dad's twin brother, 51st and Justine and then to Universal's on Ashland for ice cream....

Guess what I'd do with a time travel machine??????

Back in the day [defined as the late 70's for purposes of this discussion] there was a hotdog truck that would park at 58th & Ellis to serve the U. Chicago staff and the students who understood what eating well was.

Being REALLY broke during college, I seldom indulged. But I can still remember the steamy smell of hotdogs and onions drifting into the quads....

[and when are we going to get the drooling and barfing emoticons??]

Giovanna

Oh, the $$$ Hot Doug could make if he were allowed to park a cart down in the Loop, or by the Art Institute...

We've got a catering truck that comes to work each morning. This guy has BK Whoppers from last night and Mac's breakfast stuff along with a horrid selection of food. Disgusting to say the least. I have been known to get a doughnut or a coke from time to time. The old man driving the truck told me it's all Mob run. This company is out of franklin park. Who knows. I'd rather eat from a hotdog vendor anyday!

There were a bunch of street vendors on State Street when Jane Byrne turned it into a pedestrian mall. I don't remember for sure if there were hot dog vendors in the mix, but it turned out to be a bust for all the State Street merchants and as soon as Jane was gone, so was the pedestrian mall along with its cart vendors.

While Jane was done in 1983, the mall did last until 1996....
State Street Mall 1979-1996
Jane Bryne 1979-1983

I wouldn't be surprised if it's a Homland Security / Post-9/11 thing that stops congregation of small vehicles like that in public plazas. Not a federal thing, but Da May'r could have done something like that.

this has nothing to do with Sept 11. When I moved here in 94 you could buy roasted nuts (in the colder months) from these sweet little lighted carts on State Street. I was smitten. And then in the thick heat of the summer you could buy these lovely little cups of fruit, usually grapes and strawberries. I do not remember hot dogs but that doesn't mean the carts didn't exist, I just loved the nut and fruit carts, they made me feel so big city, waiting for the #6 Jeffrey. I think their disappearance has to do with 2 things, Daley's maniacal clean it all up freakshow thining and a sort of business corrdior racism: the carts were all owned/staffed by African-Americans. When the decision was made to open State Street back to cars, poof! away went the carts, the message seeming that they were either undesirable in themselves or drew in an undesirable element, but my goodness, it's not like they were selling ciagrettes and girlie mags. I miss them so.

bjt

bjt wrote:it's not like they were selling ciagrettes and girlie mags. I miss them so.

Those guys got put out of business, too. Or at least driven underground to the Pedway. I, too, recall the carts on State Street, which I frequented circa 1991-94. My favorite was 3 bananas for a dollar, and the churros carts (that was my first experience with what I called "doughnut sticks"). And there was also the State Street Woolworth's and Kroch's & Brentano's. Times change. Non-bus traffic has been allowed on State Street for 9 or 10 years now. But those sidewalks on State Street are still wide enough to handle a few carts. My theory has always been that the State Street chamber of commerce (de facto) objected to the competition from sidewalk food vendors that got people filled up before they even got to the threshold of their stores.

CHURROS?????
CHURROS?????
http://www.thebsquad.com/

click on Fakertrix, upper right...
hehe

Hot dog carts have been doing a thriving late-night business outside of nightclubs for quite some time now. I'm unsure of the legality, but they're certainly popular at 4am.

The ordinance in Chicago is that food carts doing cooking must have potable running water. Most carts do not. Hence no hot dog carts downtown.
The tamale carts etc are usually unlisenced since they don't have potable water. Many a sanatarian has told me of stories of chasing these carts only to find them a few blocks away the next day. They are not legal and if the health department catches them they do close them down.
The ordinance does state that you don't need potable water if you are setup outside of your business that does have the water, so places who have water such as the hispanic supermarkets have the carts "legally".
Paulette

paulette wrote:The ordinance in Chicago is that food carts doing cooking must have potable running water.

That's true, but there are many more hoops to jump through than that, and you still can't "legally" sell food on the city of Chicago sidewalks. There are certain exceptions like parks or Navy Pier, but the number of permits are even more limited than liquor licenses.

I think the reason Daley got rid of the carts was for health issues, but it seems to me that they could inspect carts just the same as they do restaurants, and it would be another source of revenue for the city.

So if anyone's starting a petition to get this great cultural expression back on the streets of Chicago, sign me up!

Greasy Spoon wrote:

paulette wrote:The ordinance in Chicago is that food carts doing cooking must have potable running water.

That's true, but there are many more hoops to jump through than that, and you still can't "legally" sell food on the city of Chicago sidewalks. There are certain exceptions like parks or Navy Pier, but the number of permits are even more limited than liquor licenses.

I think the reason Daley got rid of the carts was for health issues, but it seems to me that they could inspect carts just the same as they do restaurants, and it would be another source of revenue for the city.

So if anyone's starting a petition to get this great cultural expression back on the streets of Chicago, sign me up!

Where is the line drawn between cooking and holding at temperature? If the actual heating of the food products is handled properly in an approved commissary, and then held at temperature in a food cart shouldn't that be allowed under the ordinance? It works for caterers, why not hot dog vendors? In fact, I think this recently was addressed in Wheaton.

Flip

I think I might know the answer to this. When I was a kid, we went to Europe and I loved all the food you could buy from a cart on the sidewalk (crepes, ice cream, roasted chestnuts, sausages, etc.). When we came back home, I asked my parents why we didn't have that sort of thing here in Chicago. They said Mayor Daley (the current one's dad), had a sweetheart deal with local restaurateurs who didn't want any "competition" with street vendors who didn't have to pay the kind of overhead such as rent, utilities, (and graft to inspectors ) involved in operating a brick-and-mortar restaurant. Daley's public face on the issue had someting to do with carts being unsanitary rodent magnets.....Whatever the reason, I think there is an institutionalized bias that continues to this day...

While it was dear Richie J, it, at least on the surface, had nothing to do with restaurants. From what I've heard it was part of his plan to beautify the city. He thought that hotdog carts and sidewalk cafes were unsightly and brought his not insignificant political power to bear in getting them out of downtown.

Antonius wrote:Whatever ordinances have been passed, I don't know, but I have heard that the mayor has long wanted to eradicate all such street food vendors. Resistence to this was raised by the Hispanic community and the City/his Lordship backed off, so you will find push-cart's selling tamales and elote and such around certain neighbourhoods (mine included) but no hot dogs.

They're unsightly, I suppose, at least in someone's opinion.*

Antonius

* I'm sure it helps business a little at the fast-food chains and such, but that couldn't be a consideration for any politicians... Just kidding...

Here's some background on what Antonius alluded to. Several aldermen tried a few years ago to outlaw the Mexican vendors of corn, etc. A very good article by Neal Pollack appeared in the Reader in 1997:

http://www.openair.org/alerts/corn/viva.html

As you'll see, the claim that this is a "health issue" is really just a scare tactic.