New York Street Food

Maximus Minimus (Seattle)

Last week the Seattle City Council voted unanimously to allow food trucks in public spaces instead of limiting them to private lots.  Some of the terms seem like they could serve as a blueprint for New York City to come to terms with the explosion of food trucks.

As part of the Seattle rules, vendors must set up more than 50 feet from restaurants, only two trucks or carts will be allowed on each block, and they won’t be allowed at all in residential areas.  They must also stay at least 1,000 feet away from schools, and I don’t know how they are going to enforce this, but food truck owners must also sign an agreement that there’s access to a restroom within 200 feet of every location.

As for parking, the vendors will apply for city spots and curbside locations with the city’s Department of Transportation to park their vehicles for as many as six hours at a time.  Food-truck owners will pay the city a parking fee of $2.25 per hour.

“The desire here is to hit a balance,” said council member Sally Clark. “There are neighborhoods where this probably will not work because of the parking demand, because of the parking that’s necessary. And there are other neighborhoods where it might work.”

The city says this is a work in progress, with possible changes down the road, but more and more people appear to be ready to make food trucks a regular part of their routine.

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Molly Moon's Homemade Ice Cream

Seattle is one of the cities at the forefront of the mobile food revolution – and their Maple Leaf neighborhood has a number of trucks heading there on a regular basis.

Maple Leaf Life gives a rundown of the food trucks coming to their part of town – Fusion on the Run, Molly Moon’s Homemade Ice Cream, Buns on Wheels, Got Soup? and several others. (more…)

On March 13th in Seattle, there was a Mobile Chowdown between some of the best food trucks from Seattle and some of the best ones from Portland.  Both are great street food cities, and 3 of the vendors from Portland drove up to Seattle for this challenge.

There were several challenge categories such as burgers (Burgerville-Portland vs Gert’s BBQ-Seattle), poutine (Potato Champion-Portland vs Skillet Street Food-Seattle) and kimchi quesadillas (Koi Fusion-Portland vs Marination Mobile-Seattle), as well as other vendors serving up their best.

Anitas Crepes

You’ll have to check out the article to see who won, but it wasn’t really about the competition so much as everyone coming out to have a good time, support their favorite vendors and try out some new ones.  There are a lot more pictures and description of the event if you click through. [Serious Eats]

Marination Mobile quesadilla

Kao Samai pad thai

On Saturday, new Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn, a Democrat, held an open house at his office in City Hall, followed by a free concert outside. The cuisine was provided by local street food vendors, spokesman Aaron Pickus says. [USA Today]

Can’t think of a better way for a politician to keep their credibility after being elected than having street food at their inauguration.  Too bad Obama didn’t have shave ice at his inauguration, although it was pretty cold that day.

Thai Fusion, a restaurant in Seattle, has paired Thai street food such as satays and skewers with PBR (16 oz) tall boys.  During happy hours every Mon-Wed from 3-6, satays, skewers and PBR tall boys are just $1 each.  Sounds like a marriage made in heaven. [Seattle Times]

If you know of any place in NYC with a comparable deal, please post it in the comments for everyone to enjoy.