Food trucks an option for dining out, but there’s a hiccup: eatery owner
Even if the Quebec government gives the green light for restaurants to open up again, Gaëlle Cerf will not be reopening Grumman ’78 any time soon. The Grumman ’78 co-owner simply feels it’s too dangerous for her staff and clients to be at the restaurant during the COVID-19 pandemic.
But Grumman ’78 also has a food truck and Cerf said she believes food trucks might just be the ideal solution for physically distant dining this summer.
There’s only one hiccup. Cerf, who is also vice-president of the Quebec Food Truck Association, has been trying to reach people in Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante’s administration for several weeks to talk about using food trucks in the city this summer, but has yet to receive a response.
“They have something against food trucks and it’s hard to explain,” Cerf said. “I think they feel that they have to help (the restaurants) that are there ... we’ve been pushing because we feel the trucks are a sanitary solution, but we’re not getting answers right now.”
Grumman ’78 remains open for takeout at the moment.
The mayor’s office issued a statement via email: “All municipal installations and activities on the city’s territory are presently the object of analysis, including street food, and we have to follow the recommendations of the Direction de la santé publique.”
Said Cerf: “Eventually they’re going to reopen the offices and the restaurants are going to be closed and the food courts are going to be closed because the shopping centres are going to be closed. So what is left is takeout counters and food trucks. But there won’t be any food trucks if they don’t move fast. That’s the problem.”
In the meantime, a number of food trucks are operating off-island. Le Gras Dur food truck set up in the parking lot of the Canadian Tire store in Repentigny on Monday and will remain through Wednesday. The truck is allowed to be there because of an agreement with Canadian Tire and because it is helping raise money for the store’s foundation.
“I think it’s better to eat at a food truck outside than to go into a restaurant,” said Annie Clavette, owner of Le Gras Dur and three other food trucks. “With the food truck, we can bring joy to the people ... I think (the city) doesn’t want to look at it as a solution. They just look at it as a problem.”
Indigo Park, Canada’s largest owner of parking lots, is in talks with the Quebec Food Truck Association to have trucks set up in its mostly empty parking lots to serve food. The lots have almost no cars because most people are still staying home. But the plans can’t go ahead without the city’s approval.
Indigo Park says it is busy with many plans for its empty parking lots and is also mulling over the concept of doing comedy shows or concerts in the lots with the audience remaining in their cars, drive-in style.