Wed 28 Oct 2009 3:49 pm
Just when we were getting comfortable bragging about Seattle’s burgeoning street food scene, a winter hiatus has hit.
Maximus/Minimus, the roaming “urban assault pig” serving up pulled pork sandwiches (not to mention vegan sandwiches), will shut down after Oct. 31, with plans to return April 1. It will be back, “100 percent,” guaranteed Kurt Dammeier, owner of parent company Sugar Mountain.
Meanwhile, Skillet Street Food, the daddy of this resurgence, has also gone on winter hiatus, though it’s still available for box lunches and for fans who can guarantee a baseline turnout of hungry people. Parfait Ice Cream is done for 2009. The folks at Marination Mobile wrote me on Twitter that “we’re sticking it out… so far.” They bought a tent so their “fantabulous marination mob” can at least enjoy kimchi fried rice under cover.
Dammeier told me today that his business is going well — especially on sunny days — but that he thinks street food is necessarily seasonal in this sort of climate. “The few really rainy, windy days we’ve seen, it’s pretty disastrous,” he said. A hiatus “just makes more sense,” partly because of the bottom line, partly because food quality will suffer if there isn’t a steady stream of business coming through.
Clearly, there’s still a pent-up demand for street food in Seattle, as we saw with hours-long lines at the recent “Mobile Chowdown”. Dammeier thinks we’re only going to see the number of carts increase — and he doesn’t see it as a negative to take the winter off. “I was in New York recently, and Shake Shack…a breakout, unbelievable, over-the-top-success with a one-hour line most of the year,” also started out with a winter shutdown.
(Note: Updated to reflect that Shake Shack originally shut down for the winter, but is now apparently open year-round.)
6 Responses to “ Street Food Winter Shutdown ”
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i dunno. if you can’t stick it out over winter then you’re not true street food. get yourself a roof and call it a restaurant.
and seattle folk, life doesn’t stop because it’s misting outside. put on a jacket, pull out an umbrella or do something to support the street food businesses. otherwise, they’ll be gone and you’ll be left bitching about how portland is so much better.
here’s a research paper about street food winter shoutdown. the best way of planning,when should be start and ends depending to the organizer and climate.
There will still be street food all winter on Sundays at the Ballard Farmers’ Market. We’re there rain or shine, even without those cozy, expensive trailers. (And yes, we do lose money sometimes, but we think it’s very important to have continuity.)
I noticed that the street vendor at 4th and Dayton in Edmonds, WA, is still open as usual on Wednesday. Has anyone tried it?
As for me I think it’s really interesting!