ottawa foodies

Hey everyone,

Hoping you guys can help me find a location for my chip truck. Ive been having a hard time finding a good spot in the city where theres a lot of potential. Seems like everyone has already found all the good spots.

So im hoping some of you have some good ideas to where I should look, or maybe somewhere where a truck was and has left.

Also, Id like to know what you guys would like to see on a menu at a chip truck. I know theres a lot of hype about health food and multi cultural or ethnic food and some people are still all for good canadian burgers and poutines. Let me know what you think would be a good seller

thanks
Potato Head
Mike

korean tacos, or any tacos for that matter. sorry no clue where to park

Taco stand LA style would be heaven.

What about near the Byward Market, say Clarance or one of those streets East of Dalhousie?

Do not sell fries. Sell tacos. Kimchi tacos. Or else.

Preston St? The closest ones I know of around here are on Booth near Carling Ave.

Tacos, kebobs/skewers

Tunney's Pasture area built in clientale. There is a hot dog cart at the corner of Holland/Scott and a chip truck in the beer store parking lot.

Yum, Korean Tacos... I agree that the market is underserved for street food. There used to be a blooming onion truck at the corner of York and Dalhousie - probably did a brisk after bar business! I would totally eat tacos after the bar. Or right now. Fish tacos for all!!

Confederation Heights area. Lots of Feds, and the kids from Brookfield. And almost no competition!

My driveway next to the Parkdale Market ... for a nominal fee

Hunt Club/Auriga/Prince of Wales area - large business park that is under serviced by cheap walk up too food services.

In front of my apartment building-;) In all seriousness though, parking a truck in front of any park in centretown would be sweet. On Elgin in front of Confederation Park or on Elgin in front of St. Lukes (the kids at Elgin Street Public School and the nearby office workers would love you for it) come to mind. Any foods except hot dogs would make me happy.

Potato head, do you have an idea who you want to market to - that can help point you to where and what to cook? If it's drive-by, Mon. to Fri. noon traffic, you may want to look to industrial areas; weekend work look where people shop on weekends; walk-ups are probably pretty much taken in the core area; any area a chip truck has vacated may have been less than lucrative. Do you have what it takes to create your own market and following as Bexx (Bexx Eatery ) seem to be doing?

Somewhere near the Alcatel campus on March Rd in Kanata. Huge population of diners with disposible income, quick service requirement, and a limited selection (Subway, BK, Phu Yen). Just have to keep off any KRP property, but I am sure there is something close.

The city controls ALL public food vending spots (Truck/Cart/Trailer etc.) And I think they are all spoken for. Need to check with the By-Law folks.

The alternative is to park on private property like Bite This does on Scott St.

Like I said ... my driveway next to the Parkdale Market - with lots of walkby traffic

Fish taco please :-)

hey guys thanks for the replies
the city of ottawa guys told me that there is no new street parking locations for mobile food trucks. the remaining ones are grand fathered in. I can park on private property but im pretty sure it cant be someones driveway lol. Im going to go back to the city on monday to ask if private property has to be commercial zoned.

Idealy id like to put it in a business park, industrial park etc. Lots of daily traffic, people on the go. Some parks are mixed commercial and government which would open a wider market. Tunneys does have a hotdog guy but there are special rules applying to non motorized food carts which allow him to be on the sidewalk.

i will be on the hunt for locations tomorrow and making a list of potential spots. It would be awesome to find a vacant lot like the one Bite This has but the city is being swallowed up so fast by new construction that all these spots are vanishing. Gas stations, oil change centers, large mall parking lots etc seem to be whats left.

as for the food, Tacos? seriously? ive never really thought of tacos that way. i dont think it would be good business idea to only have tacos but ill consider having it on the menu

any more ideas would be greatly appreciated

I will repeat again that taco stands in LA are killer and make killer business.

omg I'D LOVE for a taco truck.. like a Chipotle on wheels. That'd be AMAZING.

OK if you want to branch out past tacos, burritos. Kim chi burritos. I'm about to leave for San Jose. I'm specifically going out of my way up to San Francisco to make a pilgrimage to the S. Mission area as well as Off the Grid which is a daily gathering of food trucks at various locations in the city. While regular tacos will be sought after in S. Mission, I'm really hoping to find some korean tacos, (or any other yummy out of the way stuff) at the Off the Grid meet up. I can report back on the truck situation there later this weekend.

Sourdough: I just came back from SF, where I tried this Peruvian food truck next door to Anchor Brewing:
www.sanguchonsf.com/
I had the spit-roast chicken sandwich. Good stuff!

I walked from Sanguchon to the Mission district and came across a taco truck at 16th and Shotwell, El Tonayense. Time for some pork adobos tacos!

Have fun.

I will add to the growing chorus of taco truck appreciators. Especially Bajan Fish tacos. I'd also like to see someone do really good home made pierogies, cheese blintzes, and fried seafood poboys, all of which I've had from trucks in other places. Re:location, I have a friend who has successfully opened several locations of his family's small fish and chip places and he has one rule for a location: It should have parking, a bank, and either a liquor store or a beer store in the same strip.

Alas I could not find the off the grid location in SF - so cannot report back on food truck status there. However I did completely stuff myself with tacos (cabeza and carnitas) as well as a super burrito (went with cabeza again) at a couple of locations. I really wanted to try sampling some more stuff in SF that day - but the super burrito put me over the top until the next morning.

a new truck is opening on preston, right beside heart & crown. it looks like fries, hot waffles and ice cream sandwiches. a very strange combination. you'll have to look elsewhere.

would a food truck festival work in Ottawa much like in Toronto and several places in America?

i would love a food truck festival here in ottawa!

tacos tacos tacos tacos tacos

Go look here: www.mogobbq.com/

Here in DC, food trucks are a (quasi-legal) institution. People follow them on Facebook and Twitter to know where they'll be. I've had incredible bulgogi and summer rolls, fabulous fish tacos, empanadas stuffed with all manner of delights.... It's really incredible. In his case, I really do think "if you build it, they will come". Ottawa is actually aching for this! On a side note, Mr Saffron ate at a food truck in Penn Quarter today that was actually Ottawa style, in that it served hot dogs and poutine. He reported that the poutine was made with grated mozzarella (poutine is trendy here, but no one knows what curds are), and that the gravy had "the wrong flavour", but he couldnt explain why.

Seems like people are raving Tacos! check out the truck in Montreal...they have the best ive tried so far...
grumman78.com/en/

Saffron, i am currently planning to roadtrip with friends next summer to try all the food trucks in NY and Washington...Can`t wait!

@hipfunkf. we do have an annual food truck festival...kinda. just look at the trucks that gather on canada day near the war memorial. there were food trucks galor including non-chip trucks.

Tacos seems like a great idea. That Mtl place has my mouth watering. The Frisco Peruvian sandwich place looks great too.

Are there any trucks with charcoal grills? I'd love this. For souvlakis specifically, on a stick and pitas. Loukaniko (sausage) too, grilled peppers, onions, the works.

Philly cheese steak would be awesome too.

I have to chime in as well in favour of tacos....

I would totally suggest my driveway as the location too, not because of foot traffic, just because I could stop cooking almost entirely :)

www.calgaryherald.com

Interesting.. I wish Mayor Watson would do the same.

Ha ha I was just coming in to post the same thing :-)

I just emailed a link to this article with a letter to my councillor. Thanks Ravi. I don't know a politician who wouldn't appreciate that kind of press.

And I've just done the same thing to my Councillor.

Good 'ol Ronnie had covered the latest on this issue back on Dec 20th.

blogs.ottawacitizen.com

Best lines from the beaura-crap that is dragging his heels on this are:

"... We have so many competing interests to consider.”

“So, while we’re slow and methodical, at the end of the day we want to do it right.”

When trying to please everyone, nothing gets done.

What are the odds that our MPPs could assist in moving this forward? I'm asking honestly, because maybe there's a way to raise the level of engagement and speed things up.

(You may now laugh openly at my naïveté.)

Here is what happened in Toronto with it's A La Carte pilot program.

www.toronto.ca

One vendor sunk $89,000 into a failed cart and is looking for compensation from the city and is threatening to sue.

news.nationalpost.com

Here is the latest from TO on red tape/by-laws vs. new food vendors.

www.thestar.com

Anyone know of any new carts/trucks starting up this summer on private property like the successful Bite This ? Bite This

I love food trucks! Moving from Atlanta, GA where there is a ton of food trucks featuring every type of food you can think of and want. They even go as far as having food truck events where in a certain location once a week, 10 or so trucks park and everyone comes to them. All over the city on certain days there are food trucks at different locations around lunchtime. When the weather is nice and people are walking around, food trucks are a great idea. I really hope they catch on more around here.

I love food trucks as they are often cheap food. It is for that very same reason most small local restaurants hate them! It is a low cost operation that can really cut into a small guy's business. Most restaurants want to make sure that no food truck ever parks anywhere near them.