A mixed bag of ink splot for this week’s blog, so let’s get right to it shall we?
A City Harvest
This Sunday, November 20th, marks the 1st of many City Harvest Events hosted by Atlanta’s own India Ramos of Urban Vines. The eclectic four course dinner – wine pairing features labels crafted in Ms. Ramos’ micro winery located right here in the city! Now you should be forewarned that an evening spent with India can be extremely spontaneous and adventurous. So, if you are up for a good time, before the relatives come a knocking for Thanksgiving, get on over to her website and buy some tickets. Rumor has it that some classy giveaways are available for ticket holders who buy online.
Generation Sell
If you missed this past Sunday New York Times there was an enlightening Op-Ed piece on the Millennial’s, (the population segment born between the late 70’s and early 90’s), and the methods they have adopted to affect social, political and economical change. Seems those enigmatic twenty and thirty somethings, call them Generation Sell, are using the small business model as a way to define their own generation, while simultaneously transforming our stagnant political and governmental landscape. “It’s striking,” says author William Deresiewicz, “forty years ago, even 20 years ago, a young person’s first thought, or even second or third thought, was certainly not to start a business. That was selling out — an idea that has rather tellingly disappeared from our vocabulary…The small business is the idealized social form of our time. Our culture hero is not the artist or reformer, not the saint or scientist, but the entrepreneur. (Think of Steve Jobs, our new deity.) Autonomy, adventure, imagination: entrepreneurship comprehends all this and more for us. The characteristic art form of our age may be the business plan.” To read the whole article click here.
5,000 Mobile Food Units
Ok, I know some of you are sick and tired of food truck articles, but I wanted to quantify the growth of the industry for perspective of where this might all be going. Some quick background; according to a 2007 U.S. Census Bureau-Statistics of Mobile Food Services report; the U.S. mobile food services industry realized a 35% decline between 2002 and end of year 2007, a $264 million loss. Fast forward to Los Angeles circa 2008; in the midst of the worst U.S. economic recession, a perfect storm was brewing that ultimately ushered in the modern day mobile food movement. Mass layoffs put many unemployed in search of new business ventures that could produce quick cash flow solutions without large capital investments. Concurrently, in the culinary world, the popularity of Asian and Latin street foods were on the rise in major metropolitan areas all across the U.S. Of the newly unemployed, many were 1st and 2nd generation immigrants with deep connections to authentic, ethnic cuisines. Throw into the mix the communal Gen Y’s who were coming of age with disposable income to spare and voila, the gourmet food truck movement was born. Where is the industry now? A good indicator of the current health of the mobile food vending industry can be found by analyzing recent food truck and trailer sales.
According to a recent report from The Atlantic Magazine; “business is so good for food truck manufacturer Armenco that the Spring Valley, California-based company is moving to a new factory this fall, where it expects to double its annual output of the rolling kitchens that have revolutionized urban street food in many U.S. cities in the last few years. In the last year or so, demand has been so strong that Armenco hasn’t been able to stock enough new chassis to keep up with orders from independent chefs looking to break into the mobile cuisine business.”
So many mobile food vendors are on the streets in New York that the city has exhausted available permits. It’s estimated that over 5,000 street food vendors inhabit both New York and Los Angeles. Portland, Oregon estimates close to 650 food carts and Austin, Texas more than 1,620. Miami, Dallas, Nashville and Philadelphia have significant street food vendor numbers too. And there are over 20 additional U.S. cities with populations of over 400,000 that are relaxing street vending ordinances and becoming more food truck friendly. Do the math and strap yourself in because it’s going to be a wild food truck ride!
