Right now I’m at about the half way mark of filming Season 2 of Rebel Without A Kitchen. I have seen some great cities, met fantastic people, and I have eaten a shit ton of good food. Legit. I’ve gained 14lbs and now juice when I come home.
The food has ben fantastic. I’ve seen it all; everything from a crab truck off a mountain in Cape Bretton, Isaraeli tapas in Philly, a lobster roll with a pound and a half of meat in Boston. But despite the food being ridiculously good, I’ve seen some other things going on in these cities that must truely be taken note of.
Philly and Detroit: Both these cities offer some very unique perspectives on opperating as a streetfod small business owner. Philly the mature in it’s foodtruck conquest, they have lunches at city hall and other Philedelphia landmarks. Funny, not hidden in a random park. But out in public. Crazy talk. Plus markets and city cornerstones have tremndous streetfood options. And most are bread and meat heavy which kind of bodes well for me. Then top it off at a night market featuring over 30 truck right on the streets with live music, djs, outdeer beer vendors … oh and bars and restaurants. 30, 000 people came and they were all packed. Trucks, restaurants, bars and craft beer tents. All were busy. Crazy.
Detroit although way more juior in it’s foodtruck position than philly offers one very uniqe business opportunity. Smaller local food businesses (Trucks, Snadwich shops, BBQ joints etc) makeup the majority of the food optionsat professional sports games. Annnd Philly too. That’s American baseball and football games being fed by local pioneers of each respective city.
Boston i a whole other beast. Considering how many restaurant tehre are in Boston and Cambrige I never thought I would have seen as many foodtruucksas I did. Every popular cityscape, nook and cranny within the city had a foodtruck. While I stood in city hall square with half a fried oyster roll hanging out of my mouth I met a lovely young lady who actually worked at city hall. When I asked her what she did for the city, she responded by saying that she worked at the department of yes. This was her job. The department of yes. Now despite the tartar sauce on my chin, I was still able to professionally ask her what exactly was that she did in the department of yes. She said… people come with a problem or an idea to help make this city better, andour goal is to do everything it takes to get to the answer yes. Wowwww. I was blown away by this, from afar it looked like she was breaking up with me for sure.
So, why bring this up. Why now. Well, as FG is literally weeks away from turning 2, I sit back and wonder if my city, my home has been there for me in the same way. The people; yes 100%. But what about the decisions made. The rules enforced or the popossed solutions being given as a “pilot”… Toronto streetfood just like anyting else worth being passionate about has created a community of believers, entraprenaeurs, an economy, jobs.. So it’s time to start looking at vendors as buisness people. This is not a matter of foodtrucks, but rather small business.
In a perfect Toronto we would have 30000 people between Bathurst and Queen and Ossington. Food trucks line the streets, restaurants are packed to the brim – craft beer flowing by the pint full, tunes blasting… and really long lines. But we’re not perfect. So we keeping working.
Viva la Revolucion
One of the hardest things about opening a restaurant was my fear of losing that pop-up heart and soul. Being incredibly different and spontaneous is what helps a popup do so well. If you (or ) opens a restaurant and the same exact things happen over and over. What was it all for then?
Sooooo, now 5 months later Lisa Marie has a pretty good groove going on. So time to shake stuff up! Here are some regular weekly events that we’ll be throwing at Lisa Marie and for 1-off evnts at the space or on the truck you can always check out our events page /events/ … ole!!!
Also we now take reservations at Lisa Marie call 647.748.6822 or email [email protected]
ALL-IN TUESDAYS:
Our cicchetti menu is great for peeps who want to try a lot of what we offer at Lisa Marie. Here’s the best part about trying our whole menu on Tuesdays… it will cost you less! All-in Tuesdays means that you can order our entire cicchetti menu for $85 (retail value normally $130). It doesn’t matter if you are one hungry person or a team of 8, it’s $85. That’s our entire cicchetti menu for $85. Can I get an ole!!!
WINO-WEDNESDAYS:
Hump day just got that much better with half priced bottles of wine. You can try anyone of our Ontario VQA reds or whites along with some our specialty Italian and Spanish vinos. Drink whatever you want, just pay half price for it. Plus DJ Maya Chilton spins starting at 9:30pm – no door fee!
BRINGING DOWN THE HOUSE THURSDAYS:
We take a lot of pride in our house made cocktails. Every Thursday we take a different one and offer it at half-price so you can try something new with some of our bad ass new sharing platters like the Do It Yourself porchetta sandwiches or the new Korean BBQ platters!
JAIL HOUSE ROCK’N FRIDAYS:
Every Friday night you can rock out at Lisa Marie with $6 Sprtiz or one of our friggin rockin house DJs including Diggy the DJ from Down With Webster and local legend DJ Carl Allen.
THIS IS HOW WE DO SATURDAYS
Starting in October legendary DJ Carl Allen will be our Saturday night DJ! ole!!!
POPUP SUNDAYS:
Starting this Sunday I will start to feature popup/ supper club-esque dinner menus that will constantly change. This week you get the return of Meat Sweat Sundays – Steak and Whisky special … can’t go wrong with a $30 (normally $40) dry-aged Canadian Prime striploin steaks and cheap booze! Happy Sunday – Call 647.748.6822 or email [email protected] to book your resos
Save the date: Tuesday, July 9 at 7pm EST
Have a burning
question about your food business? Join me and the Insight Team for an exclusive Google Hangout next Tuesday. I’ll will share my Top 5 Tips to getting
your food business off the ground, and you’ll have the opportunity to ask me ANY question about your own food business.
Register for this FREE
hangout here (sign
up in the e-mail signup box). We’ll send the Google Hangout link and
instructions on Tuesday. Only the first 10 people to sign up will get access to ask
questions live on-air, so sign up QUICK!