You may have heard: Mobile Chowdown III is coming up. It was announced right after the second Mobile Chowdown and the people at Seattle Mag want you to mark your calendar for Saturday, March 13, 2010 10:00 AM – 3:00 PM!!!
But you know what? I’m not going to.
You may remember the second half of my post about Tacos el Asadero, where I talked a bit about what was going on with mobile food in Seattle (back when Skillet Street Food & taco trucks were basically your only options). I talked about how excited I was that things were changing. Having lived in Portland for years — a city that has TONS of cheap, accessible, year-round and late-night street food — one of the things I was bummed about up here was the lack of it. I wanted to be able to walk through downtown, Cap Hill, or South Lake Union and get myself some creative, tasty, cheap meals. That’s where I thought Seattle was headed.
Instead, we got Mobile Chowdowns.
I was excited about the first one — cool, a festival showcasing street food that will be the catalyst for more vendors to start up, I thought! I could even get on board with the second one. But I’ve come to realize that if this is all Seattle can do, it is not enough.
Skillet prices have gotten out of control. $13 for a BURGER from a trailer? No thanks, no matter how good they are. Only 3-5 mobile food options in the ENTIRE city, spread out and with limited hours? No thanks again — it’s just not enough.
Sure, I’ll support the ones already out there, like Maximus Minimus, hoping it will keep them alive and encourage others. And I luuuuuurv Burgerville, a Portland vendor that’ll be at the upcoming Chowdown. But I’m just not going to support an event that encourages only sporadic street food with access to multiple vendors, because this should be a day to day reality in my mind.
Why should we be limited to these couple days a year, where we face ENORMOUS crowds and rapidly sold out food options? Mobile Chowdowns are the equivalent of Black Fridays for street food. And I hate Black Friday.
So what do you say? Protest Mobile Chowdown 3 with me, and advocate for more day-to-day street food? I hope so. We need to let entrepreneurs, Seattle Mag, and the city at large know that we want a change — and that only having regular Mobile Chowdowns isn’t it!
What’s your opinion about the mobile/street food here? What about the Chowdowns?
