(Ok, this post was started yesterday afternoon)
Mmm, its lunchtime here at FOF Headquarters and the whole house smells like Bacon. Well at least I can smell it right here, and it was good. BLT with Gruyere and heirloom tomatoes, yum. I love bacon, heck I like most pork products in their various forms, and it got me thinking about this Holiday Weekend’s menu. I’ve got about 45 minutes before its off to the Kitchen to get things going for Friday night Bites on Broadway, and parts of Monday’s big 4th of July bash out at the Kite Park in the Berkeley Marina. Its gonna be a blast, and its looking really good for the weather too. As any long time resident of these parts know, the June gloom tends to linger into the 4th of July weekend and most of us will end up with a sky of colored clouds and a lot of big booms. But perhaps, this year will be different. I sure hope so.
We are packed to the gills with product. We are ready for our first 10 hour day on possibly one of the windiest spots in the entire Bay Area. All the walls will be up and accounted for, and we’ll be set out at the Kite park. Anchors, Cinder blocks, and a whole lotta dough! I also hear that the fella who runs the Kite park is trying to line up all of the biggest Kites to make for a spectacular backdrop to the evening’s Big Show out on the water. I went out and checked the spot and yes, very windy it will be. I hope we can hold the tent down.
But bigger news is that I have entered a contest of sorts, sponsored by La Cocina In San Francisco. This year’s annual Street Food Festival is happening August 20. They are offering up 4 free spots to the street food vendors that can get the most votes over the next few weeks, and now is your chance to Vote for us. Click Vote for your Vendor before July 20th, and login via your facebook account, and select Fist of Flour. We are 4 vendors down, right up front, it only takes a second. The competition is tough, there’s a few big names there, and a lot of newcomers like myself. The four winners get a chance to participate in this year’s Festival, kitchen time and business advice. Not to mention great exposure in San Francisco. So get out and Vote for us today!
And, at the beginning of this blog i was prepping for Bites on Broadway. As many of you probably know by now, the popular and very short lived experiment on 45th st. came to a screeching halt last night as O.P.D. shut us down after just 3 previous weeks. Apparently there were some high level complaints placed against the event, so they told us to pack it up by 7 pm or face penalties like fines and citations. We managed to sell for the hour and a half, and the cops took off. Business was bustling and everyone was confused, stunned, and a little disappointed. Especially the newest vendors, some was their first time. 6:57 pm and the Sergeant rolled up, followed by two or three squad cars. Nice. So, the last pie got tossed in the oven and I was folding tablecloths as they approached. They were totally cool, nice even, and also expressed some level of unfortunateness for the whole thing. Officer X (i forgot his name) told me this is what the neighborhood needs but it was above his payscale, and he was following orders. I was like, yeah I know. I kinda saw it coming, especially with the recent fall of Forage SF’s very successful SF Underground Market. At some point the cities take notice, and this could be the start of a crackdown of sorts here in Oakland. I hope not, but there is a lot of food truck/cart activity here now, and the City’s laws and policies forbid a lot of whats really going on. They are slow moving to change anything as well, which makes it harder on us, small businesses who Want to operate here, who Want to pay taxes to the City, who Want to service their own communities with healthier alternatives to traditional fast food.
But we press on, I press on, and on. I’ll focus on other things, maybe lay low for a bit on the blatant stuff. Stick to house parties and private property. We have a lot more leeway when we’ve been invited to a spot. I dunno, we’ll see what happens with Bites. I heard there is a meeting with the city to discuss the permits again, but I doubt it will be resolved before next friday. We shall see.
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