The 2019 Mall-Concourse food cart season, with new carts and cart placements, started with a whimper and not a bang on April 15. In years past, it was a day to investigate new vendors and cuisines, but this year only two new carts have been out with regularity. A cart from Tavernakaya, the brick-and-mortar restaurant at 27 E. Main St., has been serving sushi rolls, poke bowls and rice bowls on Library Mall. And a second cart from Umami Ramen & Dumpling Bar on Williamson Street has been serving housemade ramen soup, dumplings, and rice bowls on the Capitol Square. Umami’s first cart, Umami Buns, has been vending on Library Mall since 2013.
The El Grito taco trailer, in prior years a fixture at the top of State Street, has moved to Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. No cart has come to replace it next to the Wisconsin Veterans Museum. City street vending coordinator Meghan Blake-Horst says that Little Chicago is assigned there, but has not yet completed the licensing process. That’s true of a number of carts, says Blake-Horst, citing Buraka, for one, that she hopes will complete its licensing and take its spot on Library Mall as the weather warms. Blake-Horst is still tinkering with site assignments.
She has also granted new licenses to several carts to begin vending at sites other than on the Mall-Concourse. Jak’s Ohana will serve Hawaiian dishes including shrimp tacos, shrimp curry, loco moco (beef, gravy and a fried egg over rice) and huli huli chicken (a grilled sweet glazed chicken plate). LT’s Aloha Wagon will also be serving Hawaiian cuisine, also including huli huli and loco moco, as well as char sui pork and rice ‘n macaroni salad.
And Pudgey’s serves grilled sandwiches and sweet pies inspired by the cast-iron camping griddle called a pie iron, as well as smoothies and malts. Pudgey’s will mostly be vending at events and as a pop-up at breweries like Hop Haus and Capital. LT’s will be part of the Let’s Eat Out food cart collective that rotates through Madison neighborhoods. The Let’s Eat Out season starts June 10.
