All photos by Heather Rourke
Hands up if you compulsively watch the Food Network—especially “Eat St.”, their celebration of great food trucks around the world. Til now, Ottawa has not made the cut as a great street food city, but that’s all about to change.
On Wednesday at lunch time, City Hall previewed a welcome addition to our food scene – some of the new food trucks and carts that were recently granted licenses to operate around Ottawa.
Like plenty of downtown office workers and urban residents, I’ve been counting the days til these trucks grace our streets. So when I heard about this Street Food Showcase, benefiting the Shepherds of Good Hope, I rounded up some friends and headed over to sample some of the street eats that will delight our tastebuds in the coming months.
Imagine my dismay when I got there at 11:40 to find MASSIVE lines and all of the sample bracelets sold out. It was plain that I am just one in a horde of people who are excited about street food. Several of the new trucks and carts were there, including Royi Fruta Bar, Mr. Churritos, Urban Cowboy and others, but the buzz and really big line seemed to surround Streat Gourmet (“you gotta try the blue truck”). James Cunningham, host of Eat St., was on hand taping a segment and sampling their fare.
Mayor Jim Watson applauded city councillors for breaking through the permit logjam and finally encouraging food diversity on our streets. He said that the first trucks will start up next week, and information will be available on ottawa.ca – so check online and keep watching the streets – we’ll have tasty new food curbside any day now.
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