Recent Stories with tag mobile chowdown

When Seattle Magazine decided to throw a street food extravaganza, it sounded like a great idea: tons of mobile food carts, collected together in one place, providing mini-bites.  What could possibly go wrong?

But the first Mobile Chowdown, held last October, turned out to be a clusterfuck of epic proportions: poorly organized, misused space, crazy-long lines, and carts running out of food.  It was a post-apocalyptic hellscape *thisclose* to being The Road.  Everyone I know who went took one look at the mess and left.  Those who stayed suffered. (Seattle, the only city in the world where folks will patiently wait in line for hours, and then complain.)

Tomorrow (11 a.m.-3 p.m.) marks the second attempt, and word is that this time around, organizers have taken steps to ensure it runs a little more smoothly.  The site's the same--the parking lot at 1616 W. Vertona--but now the carts will be spaced farther apart to keep the space organized.  There will also be more staff on hand to help direct people, more clearly designated vendor line areas, and plenty o' port-a-potties.  Because yes, even that was a problem last time around. ...

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Skillet's poutine, courtesy of The SunBreak Flickr Pool member 7502winona

Seattle magazine, as a side order of their October issue street food coverage, have cooked up a cool idea, a Mobile Chowdown featuring some of Seattle's favorite food trucks: Marination Mobile, Skillet, Maximus Minimus, Kaosamai Thai, Gert's BBQ, El Camion, Parfait Ice Cream, and Dante's Inferno Dogs.

It's this Saturday, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., at 1616 W. Bertona in Interbay. There's also an ongoing Twitter contest for followers of @mobilechowdown. They're asking one question each day from October 1 until October 10, (total of 10 questions) all having to do with the food trucks or the prize providers. The prize is dinner for two at Tilth Restaurant, a night at the Sorrento Hotel, and a year's worth of Seattle magazine.

This is all very good. For a start. But the obvious question is why can't I have my street food in one convenient location all the time? (Convenient, by the way, rules out Interbay.) This kind of forward-thinking is one more area in which Portland has Seattle beat. First of all, Food Carts Portland shames us with its very existence and abundance of wagon-prepared fare.

But secondly, Portland has a street food corral downtown, where a wagon train of street food vendors have set up shop on the perimeter of what I vaguely remember to be a parking lot. This is a stroke of genius. Downtown workers are always in a rush to get a cheap lunch.

We still have the chance to one-up PDX on this, though.

We could line Occidental Square with carts (or run them down the center). That would give people (besides our wishfully labeled "transient" population) a reason to sit down and enjoy the tables and chairs set out there. If we wanted to progressive about it, we could even use the rent the city charged the carts to fund homeless services in the area. Who do we talk to about getting this going?