It’s baaaack! Off the Grid’s Friday night street food festival @ Fort Mason kicks off its second season tomorrow night.
One could say that the Fort Mason event is the ’daddy’ of all weekly street food festivals in the Bay Area — it’s definitely one of the most popular. You can expect Matt Cohen (the mastermind of the Off the Grid festivals) and his team to deliver a tasty time each week with an abundance of taco truck vendors, live music and drinks.
I had an opportunity to speak with Matt this week about the festivals new additions and his thoughts on where street food is heading — here’s what he had to say…
1. Off the Grid saw tremendous growth this year. This idea was obviously what San Franciscans wanted! What was your inspiration for starting them?
I’d been consulting for mobile vendors to help them launch and improve their businesses for quite some time. One of the most often asked questions (from the vendors) was, “how can we find more locations to sell?” Eventually, we decided that rather than waiting for the system to change, we’d go and establish legal locations for vendors to group on our own, and the result was Off the Grid.
2. What new vendors or activities can attendees expect to find this season at Fort Mason?
Fort Mason Center this year is going to be awesome. The bold font highlights are:
- 30% more vendors and 50% more space.
- 12 new vendors.
- Magnolia and Alembic taking over bar in the space.
- One additional hour of service (from 5-10pm) weekly.
- And loads of creative surprises at the season progresses…
3. What are your plans for all the festivals moving forward?
We’re working on expanding to both the East Bay, North Bay and the Peninsula/ South Bay. We’re also working on adding more infrastructure to our existing markets to make them more comfortable and accommodating.
4. Where do you think street food is heading?
We’re heading toward a place where it will be more ubiquitous. Hopefully that means we’ll also be moving toward more adventurous, creative, cool food. But we’ll all definitely be seeing Street Food around more often.
5. Any words of wisdom for those looking to start a food tuck?
Think carefully about it. Have a concept that is easy to understand and a core product that reflects that concept. Find locations, and become intimately familiar with the permit process. Nothing is guaranteed in the Street Food business, but if you like interacting with your customers and owning your own business, then Street Food might be the right choice for you.
CONTACT: Off the Grid: Fort Mason • San Francisco, CA • Hours: 5-10pm • Admissions: FREE • offthegridsf.com • Facebook • Twitter: @sfcarts
NOTE: This Friday, $5 from each Off the Grid t-shirts sold will be sent to support the efforts in Japan through the National JETAA USA Fund.
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