Roaming Dragon ready to roll
By Mia Stainsby, Vancouver Sun
June 15, 2010 8:11 PM
Vancouver City Hall should be rolling out its liberalized street food plans any day now.
And Jason Apple and Jory Simkin are ready, with sleeves rolled up. They’re ambitious and they’ve got a business plan ready to go.
So far, they’re proprietors of Roaming Dragon, a 25-foot gourmet food truck that began selling pan-Asian foods at Richmond’s Summer Night Market last week, with food by consulting chef Don Letendre, who, until recently, was the executive chef at the city’s hip boutiquey Opus Hotel.
They entice with fried rice balls, Chinese pork bun sliders, Korean short-rib tacos, Asian duck confit salad and Japanese chicken karaage, $6 bucks a pop or two for $10.
That’s so far.
The business partners also set up Gourmet Syndicate, set to provide wannabe street food vendors with start-up services up to and including turn-key trucks or carts. They have Letendre as food consultant, graphic artists to come up with logos and graphics for trucks or carts that they can outfit quickly with whatever’s needed – fryers, cappucino machines, freezers, fridges, grills, sous vides, whatever it takes.
Food trucks and carts have taken cities like Los Angeles and Portland by storm, especially since the recession pounded people’s pocketbooks in the U.S. as well as taking the stuffing out of restaurants. There are an estimated 70 gourmet food trucks in L.A. and the city even boasts a “bustaurant” or restaurant in a bus. All of a sudden, a good-deal meal, has become very attractive and businesses are busting out niche concepts. New York has a Big Gay Ice Cream Truck (described by The Village Voice as a cross between Mister Softee and Mario Batali, the product combines the soft ice cream cone with toppings like wasabi pea dust, dulce de leche, olive oil and sea salt). In Washington, DC, there’s an Indian food truck complete with a travelling culinary carnival circus act. In San Francisco, a 1957 Greyhound bus was converted into the first “bustaurant” and another’s set to open later this year. Toronto is in the second year of a three-year pilot project introducing ethnic and sustainably-sourced foods on city streets.
In L.A., a two-hour parking bylaw requires food trucks to move on after that, creating a social networking system through cyber informarts, giving heads-ups on where these trucks will be.
“The whole street food scene is looking to create an indescribable sixth sense when looking to eat. We want to see this industry thrive. Vancouver deserves it,” says Apple.
mstainsby@vancouversun.com
Read more:
http://www.vancouversun.com/life/Str...#ixzz0qzLJzT00
Prev
Linear Mode
