Posts tagged ‘Food vendors’
The Food Trucks Cometh
Over the holidays, my wife received an email promotion from Washingtonian magazine for a great new dining experience here in MoCo – the Corned Beef King food truck. Corned beef? One of my favorites. And it just so happened that the King was going to park on Fishers Lane just off Rockville Pike near where I get my car serviced. So just before noon we stopped by to sample the corned beef sandwich.
As advertised, the food truck was parked at the curb and a couple of people were walking away with sizeable portions. As an added bonus, dessert was nearby. Cravin Cookies and Sweets, serving up cupcakes, cookies and other sweet fare, was in an adjacent parking space. So the main course and the dessert were just a few parking spaces apart.
People were coming out of the nearby office buildings for lunch. Several cars drove up, people who had been noticed through Twitter or Facebook to the day’s location. It was cold and rainy, but the food trucks offered people the chance to walk to lunch. Locations change daily so the food trucks can reach a larger audience.
People emerged from the office buildings on Fishers Lane to enjoy the curbside cuisine of two food trucks: the Corned Beef King for a main course and the other Cravin Cupcakes and Sweets for dessert.
Let me add that the food was terrific.
It was the second time in a week we came across a food truck. On Christmas Eve, walking past Colesville Road and Georgia Avenue toward a restaurant, a papusa food truck was parked at the gas station on the corner and folks were picking up food on the way to the subway or headed home.
It’s great to see access to diverse food extending into areas like Fishers Lane in Twinbrook as well as the downtowns. While some may view the food trucks as a challenge to store-based food providers who pay rent or property taxes, food trucks circulating around the county, generally offering food that’s different from the restaurants, can coexist with stationary businesses.
The food trucks provide opportunities for new entrepreneurs to get established in the food business with smaller amounts of capital. Vendors can earn revenue for their business to grow. In the case of the corned beef truck, it represents a spin-off of an existing business that includes catering. The cupcake truck is run by Valerie and her two daughters. They have two trucks to cover a bigger area.
Buying cupcakes from a food truck is an unexpected treat. Valerie and her daughters may be onto a great idea, and County office workers have something sweet to consider for lunchtime dessert.
Like the gentleman selling the nuts beside Veterans Square in downtown Silver Spring we wrote about early last year, welcoming new ideas in food will bring more people onto the streets, where the added activity benefits everyone. And with the growing diversity of the County, we can look forward to new opportunities in mobile food.
Considering the state of the economy, it is a positive sign to see these new businesses starting. As more food trucks get started, there will be a growing need for the providers to network and help each other. For example, Valerie chooses where she will set up by following where the main course is going to be. Simple: she provides dessert after the sandwich.
A good example of small entrepreneurial collaboration is happening in the Long Branch neighborhood. A group of women have created a sewing group called El Rozal de Long Branch. They were most visible at a holiday market held on Saturdays in December at the Flower Avenue Shopping Center in East Silver Spring. The women have banded together to help each other in their craft of sewing, creating new products as well as taking in repair work. They were aided in forming their group by IMPACT Silver Spring. I received a terrific shopping bag in traditional patterns with the sewing group name on the side for Christmas. It will be great in avoiding the new bag tax — which is how the women marketed it at their table.
The Sewing Circle, which got its start with help from IMPACT Silver Spring, was a regular at the former Fenton Street Market. Photos courtesy IMPACT Silver Spring
The sewing club is a model for other start-up groups to consider to bring strength in numbers to their trades. It is also a good example of the emerging business trends in the county, reflecting the changes in our demographics. Since most new businesses are expected to be both minority and women-owned, the County, with its continued growth in immigrants, has a real opportunity to create new businesses and wealth for our residents.
Later this month, we will present ideas on how the changing face of the county will impact County services to the County Council. Our approach to small business is a part of this discussion. Can we help trades create new business networks like El Rozal or a web site for the food trucks to network? Simple ideas, yet a huge leg up for our enterprising residents.
The opportunities are limitless. A growing population of young entrepreneurs and consumers are looking for ways to network and socialize. Cities are promoting food trucks as an attraction. Creating opportunity for new ideas to grow and create synergies between them – as simple as the corned beef truck parked next to the cupcake truck – is an important economic development and cultural amenity that will help our County prosper.
I have talked a lot about what I call the Nine Elements of Sustainability, which outline the elements we should think about in our decision making. These include the following:
• culture
• health
• infrastructure
• food
• economics
• environment
• knowledge
• energy
• materials
My hope is that by bringing these nine elements into our decision making, we will raise awareness of how creating links between them will make our efforts more sustainable. The food trucks and the Long Branch Sewing Circle are good examples of how one activity crosses over many elements of our daily activities.
The cultural aspects of the sewing club are linked to creating economic opportunities for moms working from home. Home occupations allow the mothers to play a bigger role in their children’s lives, such as helping with their education. Assembling the materials they use, like the traditional fabric material used to make my shopping bag, spurs more commerce.
So tomorrow when you are hungry and lunch time approaches, check out where the food trucks are or where your nearest small restaurant might be. Or next Saturday, bundle up and experience the nearest open air neighborhood market. Consider the multiplier effect of the Nine Elements and the opportunities your shopping habits create.
We have a rich mosaic of cultural diversity, and we are better place for it.
Street Vendors – We’ve Arrived
I went out for a walk through the Woodside neighborhood tonight with my wife, checking out the fall colors and thinking of home back in northern Ontario. On the way back to my condo in downtown Silver Spring we stopped at the grocery store for some steak and veggies. Walking past Veterans Plaza, we passed something extraordinary. I did a double-take.
Right there, across from the movie theatre entrance, was an older gentleman with an Italian accent and a vendor license around his neck selling roasted nuts. Amazing. I was transported back to the streets of Toronto and the smell of entrepreneurs selling roasted chestnuts on so many street corners. Then I realized. Silver Spring and Montgomery County have arrived.
His selection was terrific. I went for the roasted almonds with sweet coating. Two bucks and worth every penny. The only downside is I now know this fellow is there and will change my route home to Fenton Street so I can pass him again. At two bucks a day, five days a week, I figure I will spend $40 a month on roasted almonds. Fortunately, that’s less than a monthly bill for cable television, which I’ve never had.
Some of my staff have patronized an African food vendor for lunch at Colesville and Georgia. It’s part of a welcome trend. But we need more of them.
The nut vendor is great. Stop by, buy some nuts and let him know that he is a true pioneer in retailing and culture. For when you get people like this setting up on the sidewalk, it is the sign. The Holy Grail. When a street vendor sets up to sell roasted nuts, it means you have something. And that something is what all the great places in the world have. This is real economic development. And we all need to support him and the faith, courage and boldness he has to be among the first.
Sure, you can have movie theatres and chain stores anywhere, but they are supported by hundreds around the country while they get established. This guy has no other outlet or franchise. He deserves our patronage.
Montgomery County has more folks like him. We were filming for an upcoming cable show in Wheaton the other day and I found a source for Italian tuna (there is no going back once you have had Italian tuna). Marchone’s Deli is on the alley facing parking lot 13 on the north side of Reedie Drive. I went in because I heard the proprietor himself had lunched on that same tuna. Sure enough, the tuna was on a shelf on the grocery side of the deli. I bought four cans. The owner was amazed at my fondness for the tuna and his Genovese sausage, so he threw in some fresh bread, gratis, to munch with the tuna. Retailing at the grass routes. We discussed my 61 Alfa convertible (sadly now sold) and he asked if I was Italian. He immediately won a repeat customer.
There is so much diversity in our retailing, yet so many folks are drawn to the big stores. Yet, it is the small businesses that can be our strength. They can draw people to places like Wheaton, Long Branch and Takoma Langley. The more we support the small papusa shop, the more people will take a chance on opening a new shop or restaurant.
See this interview with the co-owner of Hollywood East. Janet Yu has transformed her family restaurant into a Wheaton institution.
One of the great things about shopping in places like Paris is not the big chain stores but the small patisseries, clothing stores and wine shops. I always wonder how these businesses make a living in only 40 square metres (410 square feet). We are so programmed to the 15,000-square-foot bakery or 20,000-square-foot clothing chain store. The answer is simple. The people of cities like Paris, Vienna, San Francisco, Toronto, Montreal, and Pittsburgh support these great adventurers in retailing.
Soon, we will post the presentations from our recent speaker series session on diversity. Several of the shows highlighted the diverse retailing east county has to offer that so many of us overlook. Ever eaten chicken on New Hampshire? Shop at the food emporium on Fenton south of Bonifant? What about the spices in an Indian market in the heart of Takoma Langley or a breakfast sandwich in Wheaton on Saturday morning?
Try it. This is the future of the county and it is terrific.
