Pieter deJonge of the Meatball Shoppe encourages Hamilton to come out and try the meatball poutine at #SewHungry. (Lisa Polewski/CBC)

Thousands of people are heading to Hamilton’s Ottawa Street to eat at one of dozens of food trucks and curbside restaurant spots.

Last September, the gathering drew an estimated 15,000 people. Some lined up for an hour to eat from one of 22 mobile eateries.

The event won the city of Hamilton’s Economic Development department a national marketing award.

“The marketing has only been through social media,” said Michael Marini marketing coordinator of Hamilton’s Economic Development Division, Planning & Economic Development Department.. “It’s marketing the city but not spending any money doing it. It’s a testament to [the vibrancy] of social media in Hamilton.”

Friday’s event will feature 40 trucks and curbside restaurants offering eveything from crepes to grilled cheese to traditional First Nation’s cuisine. There will be free shuttle bus service from City Hall to the event starting at 11a.m.

A Hamilton man’s quest to educate on First Nations culture with food

CBC Hamilton will cover Sew Hungry live all day. Most stores stay open until 8 p.m. Check back here for the sights and sounds from Hamilton’s spring food truck street party.

http://www.cbc.ca/hamilton/news/story/2013/05/03/hamilton-sew-hungry-2013.html

By Dan Kislenko | The Spec

GORILLA CHEESE truck operated by Graeme Smith, left, and Scott Austin, right. John Rennison/The Hamilton Spectator

You’re ready for your close-up, Hamilton.

Gorilla Cheese was announced Friday as the winner of a continentwide search for a food truck to appear on the Food Network program Eat St. The show’s producers had run a contest through January to let fans vote on who should appear on the program that is broadcast across the United States and Canada.

“We’re over the moon about it,” says Graeme Smith, who along with Scott Austin owns and operates the specially equipped Gorilla Cheese truck. They have been serving up gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup at various locations around the area since last summer. “The support from people has been incredible, not just for us but for the city as a whole.”

To be in the contest, Smith and Austin had prepared a short test video that voters could watch online.

The Eat St. producers then chose the grand prize winner from among the top five vote-getters. Smith said he and Austin did not receive an explanation as to why Gorilla Cheese was chosen, other than a reference in the email to “outstanding support in Ontario.” Gorilla Cheese received 4,127 votes.

Smith said an exact schedule for filming has not been set, although he expects the Eat St. crew will be in Hamilton sometime this summer, with the episode being broadcast next fall.

“In most of the episodes you see 20 or 30 people lined up at the truck for the food, but we want to make the Hamilton show an extravaganza, with hundreds of people eating in Gore Park,” Smith said.

http://www.thespec.com/living/food/article/669393–hamilton-s-gorilla-cheese-is-bound-for-tv-stardom

By Ron Albertson | The Hamilton Specator

trucks35434.JPG Robin Hallam sampled deli food from Caplansky's truck at Friday's food truck rally on Ottawa Street. Ron Albertson/The Hamilton Spectator

The guys from one of the Dofasco labs were taking a bit of long lunch Friday. They needed to in order to eat their way through the whole of Sew Hungry.

Joe Geric, Mike Zadravec and Colin Bowen were lining up at food truck after food truck to sample the specialties.

“There’s quite a buzz about this event,” said Geric, adding that the trio intended to try something from every truck.

Sew Hungry was a rally of 10 food trucks from around southern Ontario put on by the Ottawa Street BIA. They were joined by more than a dozen local establishments offering street food, and attracted an estimated 8,000 people to the stretch between Barton Street and Roxborough Avenue.

“We wanted people to come for lunch, to take a break. We couldn’t do it on a weekend because all the trucks are booked solid for festivals and the like,” said Elisha Proietti, who was in charge of organizing Sew Hungry.

In addition to people who live and work in the area, she arranged for free HSR shuttle buses from McMaster University and Mohawk College.

Food trucks rely on social media to let customers know when and where they will be but that wouldn’t work for Janis Burke of Hamilton.

Burke was first in line at the Gorilla Cheese window some 15 minutes before it opened to what had already grown to a crowd of about 24.

“Ordinary grilled cheese I can have at home,” she said. “I saw them on TV and wanted to try it, but I don’t have a computer to follow them so this was my chance to see them.”

Minutes later she was munching on a golden brown Gorilla Sarducci with mozzarella, tomato, red onion and basil, and a Lumberjack with cheddar, Granny Smith apple and bacon.

“First rate, well worth the wait,” was her verdict.

Christine Chesebrough brought a group of friends to try the dressed-up poutine from Smoke’s Poutinerie. The company’s outlet in Hess Village does a roaring business as the bars close, and the truck came from Toronto.

“We’re pretty anxious. We were the first ones here,” she said as her friends laughed. “We were inspired by the bacon.”

Meanwhile, Geric and friends were polishing off pizza from a wood-fired brick oven installed in the side of a truck.

“This is phenomenal,” he said of the thin-crust meat and potato pie with hot peppers.

Proietti was encouraged by the turnout and enthusiasm of vendors and visitors. “We’ll have to do this again,” she said.

http://www.thespec.com/living/food/article/595579–a-food-rally-on-forty-wheels

Just as the craze is beginning to wane in the United States, the food-truck trend is revving up in Canada. Across the country, from Vancouver to Hamilton to Toronto and Ottawa, a small but growing brigade of Canadian chefs are taking their food to the streets, following the path blazed in recent years by American food-truck vendors.

But can Canadians avoid the pitfalls of food-truck mania?

Jay Cho of Comafood truck in Vancouver says he got his inspiration to launch his Korean-Mexican-American food-truck business this spring from his years of working in Los Angeles, ground zero of the food-truck trend. Like many independent truck operators, Mr. Cho always wanted to open his own restaurant, but didn’t have the money for a bricks-and-mortar establishment.

“The leasing, buying up the space, [the cost] was ridiculously high for me to start off,” he says.

But after seeing the phenomenal success of L.A’s Kogi BBQ-To-Go, the Korean taco truck credited for starting the trend, Mr. Cho realized he, too, could roll out his kimchi quesadillas and Korean barbecue burritos. Since launching his truck about two months ago, business has been brisk in a city that, like most others in Canada, has been devoid of street-food options beyond hot dogs and fries.

“It’s been very busy,” Mr. Cho says. “I guess I’ve been doing it right.”

Strict municipal regulations have been blamed for limiting street foods. But as late adopters of the trend, Canadian cities, truck operators and diners may be able to learn from the American experience.

Jason Kessler, an L.A. writer for Bon Appétit magazine, says the food-truck craze veered downhill almost as soon as it began. In an essay last month, titled “I’m Sick of Food Trucks,” he lamented that the independent, grass-roots phenomenon has morphed into a cash grab.

“The first wave was exciting and fun, and it seemed like each truck represented a different kind of cuisine,” Mr. Kessler said by phone from Los Angeles. “But I think it probably first started to run away from the initial concept when the imitators started coming out.”

While grimy, mobile “loncheras,” or “roach coaches,” had existed in the city for years, it wasn’t until Kogi Korean BBQ-To-Go emerged that eating at food trucks became an event. Diners began following gourmet food trucks on social media, and showing up in droves wherever they stopped.

Instead of focusing on quality food, however, imitators began offering franchising opportunities straight out of the gate, Mr. Kessler says. Even fast-food mega-chains such as Taco Bell and Jack in the Box began deploying food trucks, and the market became oversaturated.

“The blind grab for my food dollars makes me a little sick – possibly sicker than a crunchy beef melt would already make me,” Mr. Kessler says.

Meanwhile, cities from New York to Portland are reportedly cracking down on food trucks in busy areas and ramping up food-safety checks to control their proliferation.

In Toronto, however, the situation is quite the opposite. Regulations here are preventing what could be a flourishing food-truck scene, says Suresh Doss, publisher of Toronto’s food and cultural events site SpotlightToronto.com. Mr. Doss is organizing the first of three food-truck festivals in the city’s Distillery District on July 2 to showcase gourmet street food and convince city hall to relax its regulations.

So far, he says at least five food trucks from various parts of the province will participate, and several more are expected to join by the second and third dates, which Mr. Doss has yet to confirm.

“I think there’d be enough noise that the city will realize there’s enough interest in gourmet street food, but also food that is a lot healthier than the hamburgers and hot dogs that you see,” he says.

Contrary to what many believe, however, there are actually few restrictions on what food trucks can serve, says Jim Chan, manager of Toronto Public Health’s food-safety program.

“Food trucks, because they’re fully enclosed, they actually [can offer] so many more options than a cart,” Mr. Chan says. “If they are in full compliance with the food-premises regulation –namely that they have mechanical ventilation, hoods … mechanical refrigeration, they have sinks and basins, they have water heaters – we treat them just like a restaurant.”

Food-cart vendors are allowed only to reheat pre-cooked food because they prepare it in open air. But food trucks that have his department’s approval can serve anything a restaurant can, Mr. Chan says, noting that several trucks have been operating in the city for years.

The biggest hurdle for new food trucks in Toronto is the restrictions on where they can operate. The city has a moratorium on new vending permits on streets in the already congestedcity centre. Trucks, however, can operate on private property with proper zoning, says Pat Thornback, acting supervisor of the city’s licensing services department. They can also sell food at special events, where streets are closed. Otherwise, truck operators can apply for licences outside of the downtown core.

Zane Caplansky, of Caplansky’s Deli in Toronto, says he expects he’ll be able to operate happily within those restrictions when he launches his first food truck this month. He plans to be open seven days a week for lunch and late-night snacking, and at special events.

Already, his truck has garnered an enormous amount of attention online, on Twitter, food blogs and local media, and Mr. Caplansky says he hopes it will help him build a following of customers.

Mr. Caplansky’s answer to avoiding a food-truck backlash is simply to keep customers happy. “I believe in the free market,” he says. “If you serve schlock, people will reject you.”

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/food-and-wine/trends/trends-features/kimchi-on-wheels-food-truck-trend-gears-up-in-canada/article2060493/

Graeme Smith, left, and Scott Austin are launching their Gorilla Cheese food truck in Hamilton this summer. GLENN LOWSON FOR THE TORONTO STAR

HAMILTON—Welcome to Steeltown, henceforth to be known as Food Truck Town.

This feisty city of 500,000 is poised to welcome two trailblazing food trucks dishing out gourmet cupcakes and grilled cheese sandwiches.

Natalie Ravoi’s should start this week. You can’t miss it — it’s the pink Dodge Sprinter.

Graeme Smith and Scott Austin expect their branded truck to arrive next month. It will be big, black, emblazoned with gorillas, and prowling the city by July.

Sorry food truck fever is passing you by, Red Tape Toronto. At least you’ll probably get a food truck festival this summer. Hamilton, meanwhile, is more than happy to pave the road for kitchens on wheels.

“It makes me feel really giddy and excited that we can do it here,” says Ravoi.

“There was an urgency, a feeling that we have to do this now — this year,” admits Smith. “We don’t want to lose the coveted position of being the first of a kind.”

Canada has precious few gourmet food trucks. Vancouver has a fledgling scene. Toronto is still dithering about its disastrous A La Cart street food project. El Gastronomo Vagabundo, the gourmet taco truck that weekends at Flat Rock Cellars in Jordan, has added a farmers’ market and golf club to his stops, but still can’t rove in St. Catharines.

Toronto blogger Suresh Doss (publisher of Spotlight City) is planning a food truck festival in late June. Cupcake Diner, Gorilla Cheese and El Gastro are expected to join Toronto truckers from Smoke’s Poutinerie and Caplansky’s Deli plus restaurant chefs doing street food.

Compare this meager list with America’s food truck revolution.

Bon Appétit just did a cheeky timeline tracing how “yuck trucks” evolved into a craze that has gone full circle with food truck chefs now opening permanent spots. Even so, food trucks have their own show (The Great Food Truck Race), iPhone app (Eat St.) and book (Food Trucks: Dispatches and Recipes from the Best Kitchens on Wheels).

“If a trend hits the shelves at Barnes & Noble, is it still trendy?” the magazine wonders.

Food Truck author Heather Shouse thinks so. “Favouring quirk over pomp, talented cooks and critically acclaimed chefs are ditching the brick-and-mortar standard for kitchens on wheels, churning out incredible food for a new breed of diners more interested in flavour than fuss,” she concludes.

That description fits Ravoi, who’s 26, lives in Ancaster and has a master’s degree in sociology. Baking has been a passion since she got an Easy-Bake Oven at age three.

Opening a brick-and-mortar cupcake shop held no appeal. Driving a food truck did.

Ravoi, whose fiancé lives in Toronto, admits she looked at Hogtown first but immediately hit a wall with permits, bylaws and licensing. She found Hamilton’s rules for refreshment vehicles “reasonable and doable.”

The city is so keen on new business, it created the Business One-Stop that brings all the needed departments (like zoning and licensing) into one location. Hamilton already has hot dog carts (including one that’s doing crêpes), French fry trucks, ice cream trucks and catering trucks, and doesn’t restrict the type of food that can be sold.

Ravoi had to equip her Cupcake Diner with a “watch for children” warning sign, amber lights that flash when she’s stopped, and a rear bumper guard to deter kids from standing or sitting on it. When she parks (legally, of course), she must set out a garbage can.

The biggest rule is that food trucks can’t stop within 100 metres (328 feet) of an eating establishment (unless they have written approval from the owner), school, recreation ground, playground or public park.

Undaunted, Ravoi found enough potential stops to make a route. She aims to visit four each weekday, but also secured a Hamilton Farmers’ Market space and some festival gigs.

Gorilla Cheese also hopes to park at festivals, events and corporate parties, while roving to capture the bar and concert crowd.

Devoting himself to grilled cheese has been a longtime dream for Smith, a 40-year-old steelworker currently locked out of his job. He honed the idea while getting a culinary diploma from Liaison College, then partnered with his friend Austin, a 40-year-old, recently outsourced creative designer.

Gorilla Cheese is a play on words, but gorillas are Smith’s favourite animal because “they have strength, bigness and boldness, yet they’re a gentle creature just like us.”

The men are having a 24-foot Purolator truck renovated by an Alexandria business into Gorilla Cheese for about $40,000. It should be ready next month.

Ravoi, meanwhile, spent about $20,000 for her used Dodge Sprinter (plus a flight to Missouri with her dad to pick it up). She had it “wrapped” here with her pink colour scheme and 1950s-inspired logo that shows her holding a chocolate cupcake with pink buttercream icing and a cherry on top.

The Cupcake Diner won’t be used for baking, so it had minimal health regulations to contend with — just a hand-washing system and a cover for the cupcakes. Ravoi plans a rotating selection of 25 cupcakes “curbside” at $2.75 a pop. She loves working local, seasonal fruit into her creations.

The Gorilla Cheese truck will have a kitchen to turn out signature and build-your-own grilled cheese sandwiches, tomato soup and baked beans. Jensen Cheese from Simcoe will supply the main ingredient.

Both trucks will — of course — post their schedules on Facebook, Twitter and their websites.

“I’m going to say that by next year you’re going to see even more food trucks in Hamilton,” predicts Smith. “We’re not going to see them as competition. We really want to start a whole new food culture here.”

Ravoi, whose bid for a CNE spot was rejected, still hopes to one day rove Toronto with her Cupcake Diner.

“What charm and character they would add,” she muses.

Don’t we know it.

http://www.thestar.com/living/food/article/994775–food-truck-fever

by TheSpec.com

cheese Graeme Smith, left, and Scott Austin of Gorilla Cheese: Twitter and facebook your way to a gourmet comfort-food experience. Gary Yokoyama/The Hamilton Spectator

Graeme Smith got a perfect score on the restaurant mockup project when he was studying at Hamilton’s Liaison College. Now he and business partner Scott Austin have their fingers crossed that the success will translate into real life.

Smith’s mockup was a restaurant specializing in the ultimate comfort food — grilled cheese sandwiches. Not your processed slices on bag-o-bread, but the real thing, done to order.

“I’ve had the idea for 16 years now,” Smith says. There’s been one diversion in that time. Instead of a restaurant, the grilled cheese is on four wheels. Smith and Austin are the owners and operators of Gorilla Cheese, which will begin serving up high-end sandwiches from the back of a truck within a few weeks.

Gorilla Cheese will be the second gourmet food truck in Hamilton, part of a craze that is sweeping North America. The idea is to offer fresh, local and custom-made food at various spots around a city. It relies heavily on social media such as Twitter and Facebook to let potential customers know when and where the truck will be parked.

Gorilla Cheese is actually a child of the economic downturn. Smith was laid off from U.S. Steel and Austin later from The Hamilton Spectator. Smith enrolled at Liaison College to become a professional chef, and Austin became an enthusiastic home cook.

Now they’ve teamed up to take their skills to the streets.

“I always thought this was a great idea,” says Austin. “Who doesn’t like grilled cheese? A couple of months ago we said if we’re going to do grilled cheese, we’ll do it now and from a truck.”

They’re not talking about pre-wrapped sandwiches in a van. Gorilla Cheese is a big black converted Purolator delivery truck emblazoned with a billboard-like logo. The vehicle is currently in Montreal being custom fitted with a commercial kitchen that includes two stovetop elements, two refrigerators, multiple sinks, an industrial hood fan, a sprawling 48-inch griddle and an ergonomic floor.

Austin and Smith expect to take delivery of the truck in three or four weeks, and to be on the road in time for Canada Day. “We’re looking at two or three stops a day for two to four hours at a time,” Smith says, noting that they will abide by parking and food service bylaws at all times (see sidebar). “We’re looking to blanket the city, but we’ll focus on places like Innovation Park, Bayfront Park and downtown.”

However, both men expect the core of their business will be from private and corporate functions that hire them, as well as public special events and festivals, but they will be moving around the city as well. There are about 500 people already using Gorilla Cheese’s Twitter and Facebook connections, and people who have the EatStreet phone app will soon be able to track them.

They’re in the process of developing the menu for Gorilla Cheese, so are reluctant to get into too much detail about specific features. But there will be a build-your-own option in which customers pick from several fresh breads, a selection of cheeses, and toppings such as back bacon and caramelized onions, and the sandwich is prepared fresh to order “We will offer five or six specialty sandwiches as well,” Smith says. “There will also be basic grilled cheese but made with real cheddar, and we want a uniquely Canadian flavour.”

Austin says that sandwiches are not enough. “We’ll have tomato soup, possibly a second soup of the day and baked beans, all made from scratch.”

They expect prices will be $5 to $6 for a sandwich and $10 to $12 for a combo of sandwich, soup and side.

“There’s an untapped market and we think people will like this alternative,” Smith says. “Our food culture will be high-end but affordable.

“We want to put Hamilton on the gourmet truck map, and want work with restaurants with things like occasional specials that feature food from a certain supplier or establishment.”

Contact info

Website: gorillacheese.com (still under construction but active in about two weeks)

Email: info@gorillacheese.com

Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/gorilla_cheese

Facebook: facebook.com/gorillacheeseonfb

Phone: 905-741-5805

http://www.thespec.com/living/food/article/533987–comfort-food-by-the-truckload