Gorilla Cheese at the Food Truck Eats Festival
The reviews for the Food Truck Eats Festival have come in and they’re overwhelmingly positive — but organizer Suresh Doss acknowledges there are lessons to be learned before the next festival on August 20.
He admits to being surprised that more than 3,000 people attended the event. Which might’ve been the problem: by 1 pm, lines snaked around the Jazz festival stage and choked the Distillery District courtyard. The lines were so long it was hard to know what one was queuing for; others left as they heard that food was selling out.
Doss says he’s trying to address those issues and encourages anyone who was frustrated to be patient and give the festival a second try.
“They need to understand that this is a very new thing for Toronto,” he says. “It illustrates that Toronto is very hungry for this. I encourage them to be patient and show up to the next one.”
Saturday’s Food Truck Eats is the first of three events that aim to broaden Toronto’s taste for streetfood beyond the usual hotdogs — items went for $5 or less. Some of the items that sold out included gourmet grilled cheese from Gorilla Cheese, tacos of El Gastronomo Vagabundo and cupcakes from the Cupcake Diner. The event included both food trucks and vendors in tents who, while they don’t have trucks yet, plan to get in on the action as soon as the city relaxes its rules around street vending.
Saturday’s event had four trucks from Hamilton, Niagara and Newmarket. A fifth truck was on site for show, but it wasn’t ready to serve food in time for the festival.
Doss has a pretty straightforward solution for the August 20 event: more food and more trucks. Next month, Doss says there will be 10 trucks. “There will be more trucks and definitely a few surprises in terms of who are operating these trucks.”
The event will again take place at the Distillery District, but the trucks and vendors will be separated to allow for clearer lines. The vendors will be on the north side and in some laneways and the trucks will be a centralized in one location facing away from each other.
Doss said he also plans on making the second event longer, though exactly how much longer hasn’t been confirmed with his partners at the Distillery District.
As organization improves and the event gets more ambitious, it sounds like Doss is set to create a new annual feeding frenzy — but that’s not quite the plan.
“In an ideal world, I wouldn’t have to do this next year because you’d be able to see these trucks all over the place.” he said. “The response that we’ve gotten is an indication the city needs to make changes to allow these trucks on the streets on a more regular basis.”
The August 20 edition of Food Truck Eats will be getting political. There will be a tent dedicated to getting people to sign a petition to have the city relax the rules around mobile food vendors (remember Toronto la Cart?).
Doss even plans to invite Mayor Rob Ford to next month’s event. Yes, this is probably one of the only festivals in Toronto that wants the mayor to come kill it. In person.
“If after the third event, council doesn’t make any changes then we will see Food Truck Eats come back next year for sure.”
