If Chicago legalizes mobile food trucks with cooking on the premises, they should be confined to “food deserts” and neighborhoods with a shortage of restaurants, the president of the Illinois Restaurant Association suggested Monday.
“If these things really work by social media, they could just go to food deserts. There are plenty of neighborhoods in the city that have a shortage of restaurants and grocery stores or late-night places to eat,” said the association’s president, Sheila O’Grady, Mayor Daley’s longest-serving chief of staff.
“The thing that appeals to people is they think some fabulous chef will be producing some amazing street food. They use Twitter to say, ‘I’m gonna be at this corner at this time. Come meet me.’ If that’s really how it works, people will follow you regardless of where or who you are.”
The Chicago Sun-Times reported last week that Chicago restaurant owners were mobilizing to try to block City Hall from creating what they call an “unlevel playing field” for their brick-and-mortar businesses — by legalizing mobile food trucks with cooking on the premises.
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