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Toronto eyes expanding street vendor menus
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| PurpleHaze |
| quote: | TORONTO - Councillors will look at letting street food vendors spice up their menus next week.
The city’s licensing and standards staff is recommending freeing up street food vendors to add items to their menus provided they the new food gets the green light from public health officials.
Bruce Robertson, the city’s director of licensing services, confirmed if the change is approved, the city’s existing hot dog vendors would be able to serve up any item they want on their menu provided they get approval from public health.
The changes would also let vendors serve up some foods without public health approval including pre-packaged fruits, vegetables, salads, nuts and seeds.
So far, falafel and roast beef sandwiches have been some foods vendors have suggested they would like to offer.
Licensing chairman Councillor Cesar Palacio said staff should have a solution by November that sorts out issues between street food vendors and bricks and mortar restaurants.
The proposed street food shake-up comes more than a year after city councillors scrapped the failed Toronto a la Cart program that mired a pilot group of vendors in red tape.
Marianne Moroney, executive director of the Street Food Vendors Association, welcomed any step forward and hoped councillors would accept it.
“There is a heck of a lot of bureaucracy in this for sure,” Moroney said. “I think what has happened is the movement from the public has garnered enough momentum that all the (city) departments are starting to listen.”
Moroney has been able to serve up food prepared at Barberians Steakhouse from her cart for the last year include prime rib sandwiches, corned beef sandwiches, pulled pork sliders, baked potatoes and sweet potatoes.
“I would never give up my hot dogs and sausages because they are the backbone of my business,” she said. “Toronto is iconic for its hot dogs and its sausages now there is lots of room, there are lots of people that want more and that’s where we’ll be able to fill the void.”
Councillor Paula Fletcher says she was excited to see change in the works for the city’s street food.
“It’s time for Toronto to grow up and serve other kinds of things,” Fletcher said. “Every menu tells you that you have to have more than a couple of food groups or a couple of items.”
Fletcher stressed she’s not saying anything bad about sausages and hot dogs.
“People want more selection,” she said.
Here is the rundown of foods vendors could offer if city council approves the latest changes staff are recommending when it comes to the city’s street food. City staff say these foods could be offered without changes to the existing hot dog carts or approval from public health:
Pre-packaged cut fruits and vegetables using only vinaigrette dips
Whole fruits and vegetables, including corn on the cob
Pre-packaged fruit salad
Bagels with individual serving containers of butter, margarine, peanut butter or jam
Pre-packaged nuts and seeds
Pre-packaged salads containing only vegetables and/or fruits with all dressings to be pre-packaged and not requiring refrigeration
Pre-packaged Tabbouleh salad and pita bread
Soups
Pre-cooked veggie burgers
Coffees and teas
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This is one of my biggest pet peeves about Toronto in general and more specifically food licensing & standards - the limits that the morons at city hall put on our boring ass options!! This is such a prime example of how the food scene in Toronto sucks: overpriced, very controlled (they stopped issuing hot dog cart permits and banning some food trucks from selling in private lots) and definitely under proportioned!
I can't believe it's actually taken them this long to even "open their eyes" to consider an “expanded list” of pre-packaged bull that you can get at any convenience store or supermarket. What the ?! How is this supposed to be appealing to us, the consumers? City council needs to GTFO of the street food business because they are clueless and holding Toronto back from having a super duper tasty food truck scene!! Let public health and the inspectors deal with this and not the councillors who know jack about what WE want. I’m so sick of hot dogs and sausages ... give us the good !
pulled pork sandwhiches
Kobe sliders
Curries and roti
Fish and chips
Spicy jerk chicken
Prime rib sandwhiches
deserts like creme brule, chocolate bread pudding, waffles, cupcakes...
hot tamales, spicy pork tacos with cilantro
**dr000l...:crazy: **
It's a step in the rigth direction...but still coming up short in my books!
/Rant |
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| samhouse |
Bay and King...
I love the spicy jerk roti and curry beef roti they serve at this vendor.
And the owners are super nice too :) |
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| Wurm |
We only have Mountain Dew and Crab Juice
Ewwww |
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| PurpleHaze |
ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhahahah yesss!!!
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| patpicos |
i second everything stefan said.
Why should they be dictating the menus for food carts....especially in such a multicultural city |
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| patpicos |
| quote: |
Milczyn said council doesn’t block new brick-and-mortar restaurants from competing with existing players, and the same should be true for food trucks. “We don’t put restrictions on how many restaurants can be in one block. This should be no different.”
Mammoliti disagreed.
“We need to remember that there are property-tax payers out there. As far as I’m concerned, we have to respect the property-tax payer. In my opinion, they do come first, before the vendors.”
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Dont food cart have to pay some kind of fees to equate taxes?
http://www.thestar.com/news/cityhal...-city-hall?bn=1 |
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| kotsy |
| quote: | Originally posted by devnull
Why should they be dictating the menus for food carts....especially in such a multicultural city |
+1
I was blown away in NYC at the variety of food you could buy from vendors. Toronto needs to step it the up. Hot dogs and sausages are not enough! The list of foods is a step in the right direction but maybe hot dog vendors will be able to get more creative because it says in the article "the city’s existing hot dog vendors would be able to serve up any item they want on their menu provided they get approval from public health." |
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| planetaryplayer |
| quote: | Originally posted by Wurm
We only have Mountain Dew and Crab Juice
Ewwww |
LMAO one of the best quotes ever |
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