A cart for Tavernakaya

City reviewers liked the new sushi and poke vendor, but the number of new carts is down

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The results have been tabulated in the city’s annual food cart review, which took place Sept. 10 – Oct. 6, 2018. There were originally 53 carts applying; 49 completed the review process (down from 63 in 2017). Reviewers, all 32 of them, are volunteers from the community.

The top 10 carts in the reviewer’s scoring for 2018 were:

  1. Tavernakaya (to be known as TK)
  2. Braisin’ Hussies
  3. Common Pasta
  4. El Burrito Loco
  5. Caracas Arepas
  6. Fresh Cool Drinks
  7. Ugly Apple
  8. Surco Peruvian
  9. Banzo 1
  10. Curt’s Gourmet Popcorn

Tavernakaya, the only new cart in the top 10 (it will vend publicly starting in spring 2019) is an offshoot of the Japanese gastropub of the same name on East Main Street. The cart will offer sushi rolls and poke bowls. This marks a return for sushi in carts, missing since the Bluefin Sushi and Zen Sushi carts closed.

Reviewer’s evaluations are not the end of the story, though. Once seniority points are added and health department violations are subtracted from the review scores, the city creates a final ranking that determines the order in which carts get to pick their Mall-Concourse vending spots for the coming year. That final adjusted list is:

  1. El Burrito Loco
  2. Fresh Cool Drinks
  3. Surco Peruvian
  4. Banzo 1
  5. Curt’s Gourmet Popcorn
  6. SoHo Gourmet Cuisines
  7. Curd Girl
  8. Banzo 2
  9. Pagoda Smoothie
  10. Good Food 2

The number of new carts is down this year — Tavernakaya and Peruvian Loco were the only new carts. In contrast, the number of new carts wanting Mall-Concourse licenses hit a high in 2016, with 19. Last year, there were nine new carts.

Some favorites will be missing from the Mall-Concourse next year. FIB’s, the long-running and high-scoring Chicago dog and Italian beef purveyor, suffered a fire in July and owner John Handley retired. Metropolitain Handcrafted Street Food also called it quits.