Street Food

The city of Seattle has begun making an earnest attempt to foster a street food scene. This is good news because there is very little street food here at present, and its a great way to build community, encourage entrepreneurship, and make some wonderful food available.

I attended a panel discussion this afternoon with representatives from the city, some other food vendors, and folks involved in street use permits and special events. I doubt anything is going to come of it in the immediate future, but they seemed to honestly want to hear our opinions, and see what they could do to remove obstacles.

The most onerous difficulty that every one of us named was the health department's unwillingness to work with us. I've called them and asked what it would take to have a tamale cart, and they said it was impossible: they only issued permits for carts for hot dogs. (Does anyone actually believe that hot dogs are inherently safer than tamales?) Other vendors expressed similar frustration with their inflexibility.

There was no health department representative at the meeting, which was probably fortunate because it enabled us to talk more freely. The folks from the city noted our concerns and frustrations, and they'll meet with them separately.

Who knows? Maybe it'll be the start of something.