The co-owner of the El Grito food cart wasn’t shy about expressing his dissatisfaction with the results of the 2016 city of Madison food cart review. In an Oct. 12 blog post Joshua Barraza notes inconsistencies in the number of reviewers that visit each cart and the undue weight of seniority points that dampen the chances of new carts to land well trafficked spots on the Library Mall/ Capitol Concourse. This year, 60 carts were vying for roughly 40 prime spots.
Barraza tells Isthmus that he and his partner Matthew Danky were “stunned” by the cart’s low ranking of 49. He is curious about the food knowledge of the city’s review panel, which amounts to around 20 volunteers, each of whom must visit 80 percent of the carts. (Full disclosure: I was a member of the panel this year.) Barraza thinks that food professionals should make up more of the panel.
Jennifer St. Cyr of the Pickle Jar, which like El Grito probably scored too low (48) for a Library Mall/Capitol Square site next year, says there’s no way her cart can make a go of it without that central location. St. Cyr thinks the majority of the review panel should be food professionals, journalists or chefs. “I like having people who work around the carts participate, but it should be less than half the total judges and they shouldn’t be allowed to judge for more than two years in a row,” St. Cyr says. She says the system does not seem to take into account that she sources high quality ingredients from Wisconsin and makes her barbecue and pies from scratch.
She also argues that when an existing cart changes its concept and menu entirely, it should not retain its seniority points. That situation occurred this year as FIB’s second cart morphed into Orchid, a soup and salad concept.
Seniority points can make a big difference in a cart’s ranking. All of this year’s top 10 had from five to the maximum seven points for seniority.
St. Cyr also wishes carts could get written feedback. “Nothing is more frustrating than getting a ridiculously low food score and no reason why.”
Christine Ameigh, owner of Slide Food Cart (which ranked 14 this year) and organizer of the cart support group Let’s Eat Out, says that it’s an anxious and stressful week for cart owners. “Basically there are 20 people in control of your small business,” she says.
Ameigh supports some kind of system to allot key sites to the city’s food carts, but underlines that before things can change, someone has to come up with a workable alternative to present to the city’s vending oversight committee, which is in charge of making any changes to Madison’s current rules.
El Grito’s Barraza says he plans to attend the city’s vending oversight committee meeting on Oct. 26 to voice concerns with the process.
One idea that’s been floated is a lottery where each year 15 sites would be up for grabs, with a three-year site guarantee. Ameigh commends the stability of this plan. The system has become more crucial as Madison reaches what Ameigh terms cart saturation: “If too many open, no one earns enough money.”
