‘ Bricks- and- mortar’ restaurants keep close eye on new food carts

The B. C. Restaurant and Food Services Association is warning the City of Vancouver to limit new food carts being added to Vancouver streets, or risk seeing those vendors struggle in a saturated market and cut into business at established fast- food restaurants.

“We’re getting to the point now where it’s pretty much at the maximum,” association president Ian Tostenson said Tuesday.

“You don’t want the food carts losing business to each other,” he added.

The city is planning to add 12 new stationary food carts to the streets this spring, bringing the number to 103. However, the long- term plan calls for 130 carts, with the additional spaces to be allotted over the next year.

Tostenson said so far, he’s been pleased with how the city has dealt with food cart applications to ensure they have not encroached on Vancouver’s “bricks- and- mortar” restaurants.

The city has made sure to avoid placing food carts in locations that conflict with existing restaurants, such as putting a Mexican food cart outside a Mexican restaurant, he added.

Coun. Heather Deal said the city intentionally set out to add food carts slowly over the four- year program, now in its third year, so council could monitor progress and ensure existing businesses are not penalized.

“We want to keep an eye on the capacity level. So far it’s been a very successful program,” she said, adding some cities such as Portland, which is smaller than Vancouver, have hundreds of food carts that haven’t hurt existing restaurants.

“We feel it’s a very different audience,” said Deal.

Tostenson agreed food carts serve a specific market of people wanting fast food on the go. But if there are too many, this could cause problems for established fast- food restaurants. So far, however, he hasn’t received any complaints from his members about food carts cutting into their business.

Natasha Batiste, manager of the Art Gallery Cafe, said she hasn’t experienced a drop in business despite the presence of a few food carts nearby at Robson and Howe.

“It’s a completely different type of food service,” she said. “You can’t have a lunch meeting on a sidewalk.”