selvaggiamente.

Why is TO charging for

food truck events??

The above pic taken from randomly from blog-o-rama is not Toronto, Los Angeles, or even New York. Shockingly, it's of downtown Portland, OR, a.k.a. the birthplace of the food truck!

To give you an idea of the food truck culture there, in downtown PDX alone, there are approximately 4 main "pods" or groupings of trucks with at least a dozen vendors each.

The one that I visited was located on the sidewalk on the outskirts of a small parking lot - good luck to the owner of that lot 'cause it would be an absolute nightmare for cars to enter/exit with all the people milling about!

According to a 2011 census, Portland's population is close to 600 000. So how come Toronto, a city with 10Xs (600 000 X 10 = 6 million, right?) the population, as per a '11 census as well, can't get it together? Why are we still selling only hot dogs, people??

The closest thing that I can think of that we have to compare to the above food truck "pod" is the World Café at Harbourfront Centre. It's not centrally located, but fairly accessible, and it's only open seasonally, i.e. when it's not freezing out. Trucks aren't set up at this location, but it's more of a large tent with numerous stalls consisting of various ethnic foods.

A few weeks ago, I found out through a Yelp Toronto thread about the city launching a "pilot project" that will allow trucks to set up at 5 TO parks. Click here for CBC article. Sort of pathetic, but a start nevertheless!

Actually thinking about it, aside from parks, where else would food trucks have space to operate that would maximise their exposure for pedestrian traffic?? Hmm...

What really prompted me to write this post was this announcement for yet another food truck in Toronto. I'm soo outraged that I don't think this event even deserves to be mentioned by name, so you can click on the link if you're really curious! :S

Anyway, at the bottom of the mini article states the admission fee for "festivities". Brace yourselves. Are you ready? And I quote "a modest" $14.50 for day and $17.50 for evening festivities!!!

What exactly would these "festivities" consist of? Walking from truck-to-truck while elbowing people out of your way? Certainly these festivities would NOT be free samples in which I would almost entertain the thought of going!

Here's an idea, T.O./rip-off organisers of such food truck events: Why not gather up as many food trucks as you can, stick 'em in a relatively accessible area to the public, and have the public pay for the food they want to eat??

Ridiculous.

Labels: Toronto food trucks scene is lame bad weak

posted by Stephania at 1:45 pm
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