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Just a little place in the park (Toronto's unique dining experiance)

jaycola

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I'm just throwing this out there as a possible new food program for Toronto, that could help wipe clean the stain left from the, oh so badly failed, "A La Carte" fiasco.

Toronto is quickly falling behind on the food truck sensation that swept the continent and while there is still some hope for this industry to have some life in the city, maybe there are new options out there that are more fun and could be a Toronto original.

The city could give out maybe a dozen permits for setting up food concessions within city parks.

Forget about selecting and imposing a location, hours and menus on the operators. Give them carte blanch to set up in which ever park they want whenever they want, (subject to minor provisions regarding safety of customers and proximity to other food service operations). One could operate out of a fully equipped concession trailer while another could operate on a picnic table with a grill and some coolers. Let the operator decide.

Maybe one week they set up on the Beltline north of Eglinton for lunch and Dufferin Grove Park for dinner. The next week you find them in Grange park during the day and Gzowski park at night. Have lunch overlooking the bluffs one day and at the bottom of the Ski Hill at Earl Bales on another.

Sometimes they could set up in groups and sometimes alone, let them choose. Sometime you may find them at the mouth of the park, close to transit and parking, on some days you may have to hike in hundreds of meters to enjoy your meal.

Oh...and let them sell beer and wine! (that's a dream that will never happen).

People could make adventures out of visiting them, experiencing new parks where they may have never ventured.
We can track them by Twitter, Facebook and on city sites.

1000-tastes.jpg

One of Toronto’s 1,000 tastes, from last year’s festival (Image: Luminato via Torontolife.com)
 

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the food in the picture looks really bland and boring.

If all that the food trucks can serve is burgers, hotdogs and fries (nothing is more boring than these), they might as well not exist.
 
I think this is a good idea, but also a bad one. Great idea, because it would bring more people to city parks, and they might get more attention from the city to take care of them or update them. The bad part is that these vendors could damage grass, and bring more litter to parks.
 
I think this is a good idea, but also a bad one. Great idea, because it would bring more people to city parks, and they might get more attention from the city to take care of them or update them. The bad part is that these vendors could damage grass, and bring more litter to parks.


I ate at the food trucks that are parked around Franklin Square park in Washington. The trash cans were overflowing with garbage!! it was a lunch buffet for the homeless, It was absolutely disgusting. Late afternoon early evening the trucks left the park and an army of city workers showed up for the clean up. DC and other big cites are enacting laws that restrict where food trucks can serve customers in proximity to their rivals and for how long. I would rather see no food trucks in Toronto than have let's say 10 to 20 trucks parked around Saint James Park or Queens Park.
 

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