The Louisville Street Food Scene

Actually Louisville has a booming fast food scene. Yuck. This is our version...a drive-up window.

There is a lot to be said for the role the city plays when it comes to street vending as well. Where you can park your cart and for how long, how much it costs to vend in the first place, the health department hoops to jump through. It can be a real hassle. We have looked into it and at the time it was not cost effective to pursue. We are looking into a carny trailer as a possibe alternative.

With the arena, street vending seems a bit more lucrative...

Oh brother...... ***throws hands up****

Don't give up or get too discouraged; I'd love to see some really good street vendors out there. Just don't want to see someone lose their shirt on a prospect that isn't as viable as it might first appear.

The pedestrian and cyclist vs motorist ratio in NY and other cities are much higher than in Louisville. In other cities, most street food patrons actually walk or cycle to the cart/trailer/truck. Much of the vendors' customers are probably regular due to the simple fact that the vendor is on their walking or cycling route to work or near their workplace for lunch.

With the exception of the hot dog carts downtown and at the medical center, people drive to what little there is of Louisville's street food scene.

I am willing to bet that our penchant for being motorists pretty much squelches any idea of a successful street food scene in Louisville. This is probably a good thing. Not only is driving to eat street food almost an oxymoron, it wouldn't improve our ranking as the 7th fattest state!

All that said, I love driving out to Las Gorditas. I just don't think that Louisville is a street food scene type of city.

Points well taken, but having worked downtown several times I agree that both the downtown office area and the medical center area are very good markets for street food for lunch as walking is a necessity. For dinner, though, be careful- folks immediately leave downtown for their commute and won't stick around for street food. If you could do days near the offices and nights by the arena when there is an event, I think you could have a lot of interest.
Deb

A food truck splitting time between downtown and Baxter/Bardstown should make a killing. Downtown for the lunch crowd then on to the drunkards. Not only do people constantly drive from surrounding areas for food/drink, there are a large number of people that walk around that part of town. I'm also not buying that people won't drive to food trucks. If it is something special or different, people will make the effort to find it. The taco/hotdog trucks just won't cut it anymore. When Juan opened his truck, the authentic taco thing was new and the cart flourished, now there are taquerias all over town. People are still driving to the Cuban and Gordita trucks, so it is possible.

I feel that it is an untapped resource. I have been researching this idea for about 2 years now and have some pretty functional ideas. With all the stuff there is to do downtown it is becoming more of a destination place. I think around the Hospital areas could work, the health department makes it a bit tough with their licensing but nothing unmanageable for sure.

The most cost effective way to get this done is a "carny trailer". A regular concession trailer could cost as little as 5k to invest in if you bought it used it would sell around that to recoup expenses. Clearly I feel it could work because I've already invested time and money into it. I just like to get feedback from people and both positive and negative points are well made. Its a risk but in life there is no reward without it.

As far as the concept, gourmet burgers are all the rage in places like California, Las Vegas, etc. That has been our plan to offer gourmet burgers and fresh cut fries to start and see what kind of response we get. Not a lot of money down, just some time and a hamburger is comfort food but comfort food with a twist you haven't seen before might make people excited about the food.

I think it will make a killing as well and I am ready to dive in head first.

As far as the concept, gourmet burgers are all the rage in places like California, Las Vegas, etc. That has been our plan to offer gourmet burgers and fresh cut fries to start and see what kind of response we get. Not a lot of money down, just some time and a hamburger is comfort food but comfort food with a twist you haven't seen before might make people excited about the food.

I think it will make a killing as well and I am ready to dive in head first.

http://www.grillemalltruck.com/

Very similar concept to the "Grill Em All" truck. I'd drive to check it out. What usually makes food trucks attractive is the price point. I love good/gourmet burgers, but hate paying $10 for them, so it might work. I'm sure the downtown area would be great for foot traffic on event nights, but would be dead other nights. Parking downtown can be a nightmare and I wouldn't be willing to drive to a food truck where parking is an issue.

Yeah the idea of it as a driving destination isn't really a feasible idea unless it were a festival or some specific special event. The sporadic event calendar of the Yum center might actually be a good thing with the city permits and all.

In those off times there are events like the Lanesville Heritage Festival, The Harvest Homecoming, St James Art Fair, etc that could also provide a maximum of foot traffic and offset potential losses from the nights Justin Bieber isn't performing at the Yum.

Another thing I think of are the people downtown during the day yearning for another food choice. The lines are always long in restaurants downtown at lunch and most people only get 30 minutes. They need a fast option and if you parked strategically then you could potentially get 2 or 3 large corporate populations walking by you en route to Subway for the third time this week. I know in the past I have thrown away a lunch I brought to work when a better option presented itself.

Overall I think that strategic planning would be the key to success here. Observing the market trends and assuming that you could get the permits and locations you wanted I think you could blindside people with another option.

Matt,

Justin's suggestion of Bardstown Road for non-event nights is a great one. The food, of course, would need to be really stellar and well-priced given all the competition. The challenge would be having a place to put it- parking's at a premium. Maybe you could work a deal with a day-time business for afterhours. Like the car repair place by Seviche...

Deb

I just checked out the grill em all truck, I had watched them on the food truck race.

The similarity in our websites is kinda cool. Since they are successful and all. Not much different than the ideas that I had. I had never seen their website before.

Yeah we thought about approaching Akikos or a place that doesn't serve food and working out a partnership with them. There are many businesses in the Highlands that might allow us to park in their parking lots for a monthly fee during non business hours for them, might be a good way for them to offset some monthly expenses.

The evenings in the Highlands is definitely on our radar and has been since the beginning. The problem would be the abundance of destinations on Bardstown Road for food. But again a new option right across the street and a long wait at most restaurants might facilitate some sales.

Yeah we thought about approaching Akikos or a place that doesn't serve food and working out a partnership with them.

That is how the Nom Nom truck killed it on Food Truck Race.

The problem would be the abundance of destinations on Bardstown Road for food

I wouldn't view it as competing with the restaurants in the area, but as catering to the late night bar crowd.

I just hope you do it, what and where ever you decide.

The problem would be the abundance of destinations on Bardstown Road for food

I wouldn't view it as competing with the restaurants in the area, but as catering to the late night bar crowd. I just hope you do it, what and where ever you decide.

Agreed - very few people are ordering food at O'Shea's, Molly Malone's, Flanagan's, etc. late-night. Even if you wanted to, it's just so darn crowded.

Being as that would be the primo area of town on a non-arena event night, you might talk to the people at the Outlook Inn. As far as I know, it's the only spot in that area that does not offer food, and it has a nice little parking lot as well.

Yeah in theory you would think that places that didn't provide a late night menu for their customers would appreciate an option like this. Zero investment on their part, only cost the word "yes" and a couple of parking spots. Normally to offer food options it would cost tens of thousands of dollars to implement.

Overall there are valid points on both sides of the argument. I think if it were strategically done it could be success. Also with the domain name like louisvillestreetfood.com there could be the option for people that want to get into it to all invest in their own vehicle and all work under the franchised name. Much easier to advertise one name than several.

The question isn't IF I do it, the wheels are already in motion. We plan on going live for Thunder Over Louisville 2011 and I will definitely utilize ideas and weigh the valid criticisms from this brainstorming session. My wife and I have researched this to death and feel that we will be on the forefront of a new food trend in Louisville. We were afraid to even mention our ideas this early before getting started because we felt we that others might jump all over the idea.

I appreciate the feedback that I have gotten so far from everyone and I encourage the discussion to continue. Getting professional and private feedback like this is how successful businesses are created.

Yeah in theory you would think that places that didn't provide a late night menu for their customers would appreciate an option like this. Zero investment on their part, only cost the word "yes" and a couple of parking spots. Normally to offer food options it would cost tens of thousands of dollars to implement.

.

Matt,

Not to dissuade - I think it's a great idea. But I would suggest talking to a few potential locations before assuming that is their reaction. They may have insurance/liability issues that you aren't aware of. I know our lease at our store forbid doing any kind of portable food or smoker in the parking lot. Always good to know where the "gotchas" are ahead of time.

Best of Luck-
Deb

Definitely good to know thanks Deb. Many times there can be some zoning restrictions to I think.

Always good to have a list of negatives that you expect to come up. Communicating with these people up front is a good way to go so this option can either be expected or ruled out so other avenues can be approached if its not an option.