Off the Grid: San Francisco, in partnership with the Recreation and Parks Department of San Francisco, is set to launch two Street Food markets in San Francisco’s Civic Center and Upper Haight neighborhoods (this week) on September 9th and 10th.

Key Details-
Off the Grid: Upper Haight
Soft Launch Date: Thursday September 9th
Times: Thursdays from 4pm- Dusk (Approximately 9pm)
Location: Closed street west of the intersection at Stanyan and Waller Streets.
Participating Vendors Include:
51st State, Chairman Bao, Senor Sisig, Seoul on Wheels, Le Truc, Hapa SF, Curry Up Now
Flowers For Sale By: Lilybelle Flower Cart

Off the Grid: Civic Center
Soft Launch Date: Friday September 10, 2010
Initial Hours: Fridays from 11am-3pm
Vendor Information: Every other week the same group of 5 vendors will return to the Civic Center Plaza location.
September 10th Rotation: Liba SF, The Southern Sandwich Company, Hapa SF, Ebbets Good To Go.
September 17th Rotation: CupKates Truck, Chairman Bao, Curry Up Now, Seoul on Wheels.
Music By Terrance Brewer: Playing Wes Montgomery’s classic album, “Boss Guitar” in full.

Up to Date Event Information Available At:
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/OffTheGridSF
Twitter: @sfcarts

(SAN FRANCISCO—September 6th, 2010)

Off the Grid: San Francisco is proud to announce the launch of its 2nd and 3rd Street Food market locations in the City of San Francisco: “Off the Grid: Civic Center” and “Off the Grid: Upper Haight.” Both markets seek to continue Off the Grid’s commitment to bring value priced, local, artisanal food experiences to San Francisco neighborhoods, and provide small entrepreneurs with an opportunity share their products with a wider audience.

Off the Grid: Upper Haight, located just west of the corner of Stanyan and Waller streets in the Upper Haight district, will feature a rotating list of San Francisco’s best traditional and nouveau Street Food vendors selling outstanding food, from a variety of cultural backgrounds. Occasional live music will accompany the food, and seasonal flowers will be available for purchase. The market will operate from 4pm to Dusk (approximately 9pm) every Thursday evening. Fresh cut flowers will also be available for purchase weekly through the Lilybelle Flower Cart.

Off the Grid: Civic Center, located in the middle of Civic Center Plaza (or Alioto Plaza) between City Hall and the Asian Art Museum, will feature a reoccurring list of San Francisco’s best known Street Food Vendors every Friday from 11am-3pm. Five vendors will alternate every other week, to provide the Civic Center area with an amazing variety of international Street Food. Occasional live music will accompany this event as weather and scheduling allow. This week Terrence Brewer will be playing Wes Montgomery’s classic album, “Boss Guitar” in full (from 12-130pm).

####
ABOUT OFF THE GRID: SAN FRANCISCO:
Off the Grid: San Francisco is an event management company whose goal is the establishment of gourmet mobile food markets throughout the Bay Area. Off the Grid runs the successful “Off the Grid: Fort Mason Center” Friday evening market in San Francisco, and actively works with non-profits, small entrepreneurs, and municipal governments to support increased street vending in urban areas. Each Off the Grid market seeks to serve delicious food, and assist in formalizing spaces for mobile entrepreneurs to operate legally and safely in order to be able to positively contribute to the communities they serve.

MEDIA CONTACT:
Matthew Cohen-
Founder, Off the Grid: San Francisco
415-425-8444, matt@offthegridsf.com

@stfood is a super simple way for street food vendors to update their location on the SF Cart Project street food map. When any vendor mentions @stood in their tweet, it will automatically populate on the map. Well (you say) what happens if want to send something for tomorrow? No problem. Just do this:

“At 54th and Hollis in Emeryville tomorrow from 3-5 pm.”

Want to use a date? No problem:

“At 54th and Hollis in Emeryville from 3-5pm on 6/29.”

On your way to a gig and want to update on the fly? No problem:

“Going to be at the Ferry Building from 10-2 Thursday for lunch.”

The more specific you are, the more easily the system will be able to find you. So if you are serving in Emeryville, “E’ville” doesn’t work so well. On the other hand, “the corner of 54th and Hollis” works just fine.

If you’re a street food vendor in the bay area, give it a shot and see if you like it. Our goal down the line is to allow you to embed the map an your site so your customers can graphically find you whenever you want without ever leaving your website. But. until then, enjoy!

(Sidenote: You need to be on this list for it to work. To be added to it, just email Matt(at)sfcartproject.com)

Off the Grid: San Francisco launches Off the Grid: Fort Mason Center in partnership with Fort Mason Center, La Cocina and the SF Cart Project to create an Asian and Latin evening Street Food market, Friday nights at Fort Mason Center.

Key Details-
Soft Launch Date: Friday June 25, 2010
Initial Hours: 5-8 (Expanding to later throughout the summer)
Weekly Date: Fridays from 5pm
Number of Food Vendors: 8-15
Website: OffTheGridSF.com
Event Updates: Off the Grid Facebook Page
Twitter: @sfcarts
Location: Fort Mason Center, Lower Parking Lot Entrance.

(SAN FRANCISCO—June 17, 2010)

Off the Grid: Fort Mason Center was established to create a unique San Francisco night market experience that highlights the vibrancy and culture of Asian and Latin Street Food markets, and provides legal opportunities for food entrepreneurs to showcase their products. Located in the parking lot directly behind the entrance to Fort Mason Center, Off the Grid: Fort Mason Center will feature a rotating list of local artisanal Asian and Latin Street Food vendors selling outstanding food, from a variety of cultural backgrounds, in a uniquely San Francisco setting. Live music will accompany the food, and beer and wine will be available for purchase at the event (for those 21 and over).

“The relationship of farmers, food preparation and community that Off the Grid: Fort Mason Center represents is a legacy of 30 years of operation that Greens Restaurant is pleased to support”, said Annie Somerville (Head Chef Green’s Restaurant).

Participating Vendors:

Peko Peko Catering
El Huarache Loco
Kung Fu Tacos
Chaac Mool
Hapa SF
Seoul On Wheels
Soul Cocina
Onigilly
Azalina’s Malaysian
Global Soul
…and more to come.

#### ABOUT OFF THE GRID: SAN FRANCISCO:
Off the Grid is an event management company whose goal is the establishment of gourmet mobile food markets throughout the Bay Area. Each market seeks to serve delicious food with a free side of amazing music. We work closely with local city governments, parks organizations, and private industry to formalize spaces for mobile entrepreneurs to operate legally and safely so that they can openly and positively contribute to the communities where they serve.

About Fort Mason Center:
Fort Mason Center’s mission is to provide a dynamic waterfront destination for thought-provoking programs, events and organizations which support and reflect the evolving cultural fabric of San Francisco.

About La Cocina:
La Cocina is a ground-breaking busi¬ness incu¬ba¬tor designed to reduce the obsta¬cles that often pre¬vent entre¬pre¬neurs from cre¬at¬ing suc¬cess¬ful and sus¬tain¬able small busi¬nesses. The mission of La Cocina is to cultivate low-income food entrepreneurs as they formalize and grow their businesses by providing affordable commercial kitchen space, industry-specific technical assistance and access to market opportunities. We focus primarily on women from communities of color and immigrant communities. Our vision is that entrepreneurs will become economically self-sufficient and contribute to a vibrant economy doing what they love to do.

MEDIA CONTACTS:
Matthew Cohen-
Founder, Off the Grid: San Francisco
415-425-8444, matt@offthegridsf.com

Pat Kilduff-
Director, Marketing and Communications
Fort Mason Center
415.345.7540, patk@fortmason.org

Leticia Landa-
Programs Manager, La Cocina
415.824.2754×303, leticia@lacocinasf.org

But, based purely on guesses, here’s what I feel pretty safe saying won’t change (and should) in the new legislation:

1) Grandfathered in hot dog carts will continue to serve from carts that aren’t anywhere close to the current standards for mobile vending of any other type of food. In fairness, this is a CA health code issue, but the fact is that if it is safe enough to continue serving then why can’t everyone use that standard? SF is progressive and smart enough to address this issue of basic fairness that hot dogs don’t deserve a double standard.

2) There likely won’t be a way for health code certified trucks to quickly, inexpensively and legally serve a location (where they park on the street) for one night (or once a week) for a short period of time. And by the way $190 to serve for one night under a special event permit with the health department, and 153 dollars to shut down a meter, is neither inexpensive nor quick.

3) There likely won’t be any change to late night food service permitting.

4) There likely won’t be any new mechanism for allowing push carts to move around legally.

5) There likely won’t be any method of lowering the entry costs for new mobile entrepreneurs. Carts will still be required to have three part sinks (even though they’re required to operate out of commissaries to prep their food where these sinks are available). Griddles will need to continue having mechanical ventilation and ansul fire suppression systems when the open air and fire extinguisher would logically seem to suffice.

Now, this isn’t meant to say there isn’t a possibility of good things coming out of this legislation. But here’s my list of what I (continue to) want included (and Street Food vendors should fight for regardless of the current legislation) that would really create an amazing Street Food scene (without compromising food safety).

1) Suggestion: Eliminate the need for 3 part ware-washing sinks for all carts that operate out of a legal commissary.
Result: This would significantly lower the entry cost of building food service carts without compromising public health at all. It would also allow carts to be build small enough so that they might actually be able to be pushed (or peddled) around. The fact is that the only thing ware-washing sinks do is increase the size and cost of mobile food carts to be impractical.

2) Suggestion: Eliminate the need for a ventilation hood for griddle carts that operate outside.
Result: Immediate decrease in cost and size of legal carts with absolutely no cost to public health or safety. Fire extinguishers work equally well, and are approved for farmer’s markets and special events. Can you say double standard?

3) Suggestion: Allow catering trucks that have health certificates to register to park in a location of their choosing (on the public street) with the permission of the brick and mortar business they are parked in front of, for 3 hours (per day) no more than 50 calendar days per year.
Result: This would allow mobile vendors to work happy hours, catering events, evening engagements, and late night service in a way that would ensure that they are not in the same place every night. Is this a nightmare to enforce? Nope: Require all vendors to maintain a log of where they’ve parked. If they can’t produce the log for a permit officer immediately, they loose the right to work that location until they bring the log (and pay a fine) at the police station. How does the Police Department know where they are? Before they start serving, they come down to the police station and submit a stop request with a schedule of when they will be at a location. Is there a limit to the amount of vendors that can work a spot? Yeah, one at a time. Mobile trucks would happily pay 30$ per location to have clarification on this issue.

4) Suggestion: Allow carts and trucks to maintain a temperature of 38 degrees refrigeration in any manner they like.
Result: Current standards require new carts and trucks to install expensive mechanical refrigeration units although there are grandfathered carts and trucks all over the city that maintain healthy food temperatures with ice and less expensive technologies. 38 degrees is 38 degrees. It shouldn’t matter the method of how you achieve the temperature as long as it doesn’t affect food safety.

5) Suggestion: Create a mobile food peddler permit.
Result: There is currently no way to sell food from a cart that moves around. Create a zone were this type of service is allowed and encourage vendors to sell there (with legal, cheaper, carts).

6) Suggestion: Cut the distance requirements in half.
Result: Reduce the minimum distances from other vendors or similar food types from 2 blocks or 300 feet(which ever is greater for trucks) to 1 block or 150 feet (whichever is greater) for both trucks and carts. This would exponentially and immediately increase the amount of spaces for available for legal service.

7) Suggestion: Explicitly state that street vending is allowed at night.
Result: Currently the SFPD doesn’t approve permits for night vending. This would force them to allow night vending under the same standard that they permit day vending.

Every single one of these suggestions follow a standard that exists for either special events, or farmer’s markets, and also is under the purview of San Francisco City government to change. These changes would substantially reduce both the size and entry costs of carts, without sacrificing food quality at all. And, best of all, they could all happen within the existing permit structure. Now, the question is, will we see any of them in the new legislation this summer? I’m waiting to see like everyone else….

Some relevant comments from the meeting:
“None of these people out selling street food are getting rich. They are just getting by.” -Chile Lindo
“Why do new vendors need these new expensive carts when there are older (mostly hot dog) carts serving perfectly safe food every day in SF who don’t need to upgrade?” -Smitten Ice Cream
“Is the 1500 foot minimum distance from schools really relevant to the food that modern street food vendors are selling?” -Bevan Dufty
“We should begin looking at a process that allows for vending  at time outside of normal daytime hours.” Regina Dick-Endrizzi

Here’s my key take aways for how best to move this process forward:

1. Don’t kill Street Food with Kindness.
The fact is that most street food businesses are not getting their owners rich (even the most popular ones).  By adding increased regulation and oversight to Street Food, SF risks making the financial burden to start a cart even more challenging and unrealistic for these vendors.

2. Mobility and Proximity.
Right now there isn’t good legal locations to serve from and, if you find one, the law doesn’t allow vendors to move around or congregate together (even if they want to). How about some changes that allow vendors the flexibility to move where they want, and sell with whom they want?

3. Reduce the cost of entry.
Its a simple truth: It shouldn’t cost $20,000 in order to build a legal Street Food cart.  Thats just crazy. It is not unheard of for San Francisco to pick and choose the California Law that it enforces. I suggest that without the SF Health Dept reinterpreting Health Code rules under the spirit of the laws, rather than the letter of them, most vendors simply won’t be able to afford to sell legally.  Specifics for this include: Regulating refrigeration temps by duration of service period rather than mandated mechanical refrigeration,  accepting commissary 3 part sinks as an adequate replacement for a cart 3 part sink, and allowing carts operating outdoors to not have commercial ventilation.

On a final note, congrats to Regina Dick-Endrizzi in the Mayor’s Office of Small Business, Nick Kinsey in the Parks Dept, Inspectors Lee and Reyes in the Health Dept., and Dan Sider in the Planning Dept for moving this process from just a task force to something that could provide meaningful legislative reform.

Its going to be an interesting summer.

_____________________________

Dear Supervisor Dufty:

I am a resident of San Francisco District 8 and a committed supporter of San Francisco’s innovative Street Food culture. I appreciate your offices’ initiative in beginning this public discussion of Street Food on March 8th, and I hope that you’ll work to support the many small businesses and local artisans who are seeking to participate in this industry in a legal and fair way.

Primarily, I hope that you will support the following changes to current San Francisco Street Food regulations:

1. Allow for mobile push cart vending, rather than limiting mobility to Mobile Catering Trucks.

2. Encourage the SF Health Department to review their code requirements to allow for more inexpensive cart designs, while still maintaining the necessary health requirements for protecting public health.

3. Enable vendors to congregate together.

4. Encourage the Police Department to allow evening and night vending in San Francisco.

5. Encourage the planning department to ease the restrictions on private property vending in order for property owners to make their own decisions about the best use of their property.

I thank you for supporting District 8, and San Francisco, entrepreneurs in a way that recognizes the value that this type of innovation brings to our community.

Kind Regards,

Matthew Cohen
(XXX)XXX-XXXX

1) This subcommittee is intended to be the first public sounding board for the variety of feelings on how street food should be regulated within San Francisco. Now is the time to be vocal in support of easing the barriers to entry and mobility of Street Food in SF, and letting the board know that this is more than an issue of small entrepreneurs vs. established brick and mortar restaurants. Many of the Supervisors may not be involved in the online community that has allowed Street Food culture to flourish in the city, but by making our voices heard now, we have the ability to move the goal posts on this issue from “Should Street Food be legal?” to “How do we make Street Food available throughout the city?”  We have the opportunity to show the Board of Supervisors the true extent of support that Street Food has within the San Francisco community.

2) The Parks and Recreation Department has recently begun awarding parks contracts to new vendors in certain spots within San Francisco. This is a good first step, but there needs to be some recognition from the city that the interest in having diverse street food options throughout the entire city exists, is not going away, and that the city has a responsibility to allow this market to grow without hindering it with burdensome costs and confusing regulations.

3) The SF Planning Department and Police Departments are in the process of reviewing their processes for approving Street Food locations, but it is the responsibility of the Street Food community to express to the Board of Supervisors the overwhelming interest in support of allowing vendors to congregate together, in order to attract the broadest customer base possible.

4) The Mayor’s Office has been working with the Police Department and Health department to look at how the existing police code might change, and where the various regulatory responsibilities might shift if moved to another department whose mission was to encourage Street Food entrepreneurship, rather than simply regulate it.

5) There has been some question from the business community about unregulated vending in San Francisco, and how it might harm existing businesses. Because many of these established businesses have a relationship with their supervisor(s) it has been easy for them to share their story.  It is the responsibility of the Street Food community in San Francisco to tell their stories to all the Supervisors. Don’t let this be a one sided argument; Street Food helps activate underutilized space, it provides job opportunities entrepreneurs at all levels of the economic spectrum, and has the ability to provide the city with increased tax revenue (and jobs) at a time when it would clearly be valued.

So here’s what to do:

Attend the March 8th meeting at City Hall of the City Operations and Neighborhood Services Committee. The meeting is going to be in Room 250 and starts at 1030am. Street Food regulation is the 4th item on the agenda.

Reach out to your friends, neighbors and social network to spread the word about this meeting.

Communicate with your local Board Supervisor’s Office (via phone calls or email) your support of Street Food in San Francisco, and your desire to see more of it throughout the city.

You information will be used only to contact you for SFCP related events and services. It will never be sold to any 3rd party vendors.

As I mentioned at the event, the next SF Cart Project event is tentatively planned for Monday, Feb 15th from 1pm-230pm and will hopefully include participation from both the San Francisco Health and Police departments. This event will be structured as a more formal question and answer workshop, where both departments will be able to detail their individual permit process for San Francisco (both public and private property permitting). If you are interested in attending this event, please click here and fill out your information in the form.

Thank you again for your support!