Montreal Needs Some Street Food
Can anybody explain the reasoning behind the ban of street food vending in the city? Even Ottawa, which sees the most action during its annual Tulip Festival, has hot dog vendors on street corners, serving wieners to the busloads of Montreal retirees. Come to think of it, I have this odd suspicion that our local old people are using the tulip festival as an excuse to go eat some greasy wieners off these carts.
The arguments against street vending are always the same: they are not hygienic, it would create even more trash in the city and the carts would eventually be taken over by the local mob to launder drug money. These arguments are all well founded and actually make a lot of common sense, but the drunken teens coming out of the clubs at 3 am need more than just common sense to understand why there are no hot dogs or giros ready to quench the alcohol in their system.
And then we wonder why the Americans coming into town are always yelling in the middle of the streets once they leave the clubs. These people are driving all the way up from Massachusetts, Vermont and New Hampshire for some under 21 drinking and partying, only to realize that there are no Hot dogs on the sidewalks after they leave the clubs. This typically comes as a shock to them, and as you might have noticed that is usually when all hell breaks loose. Mr. Mayor, these are our guests and the Montreal Tourism board should at least provide them with a ‘sorry no street dog’ disclaimer on the home page of its website, as well as any Montreal ad campaigns run in other cities.
In all, Street food vending will probably cause some inconveniences to the city from all the dirt and loitering it would generate. But all it takes is a bite of some real street food in New York and yes, even Ottawa, to realize that even with all its restaurants, Montreal is still not perfect from a culinary perspective. We have one more step my friends, one more step to reach perfection. And no, that fake shit with the Canadian Tire barbecue sets at the Jazz Festival is not real Street Food.
If there was a ‘Do Not Discover’ section on montrealing.com, then I would have posted this under that category, but I guess the ‘Discover’ section will have to do for now. If you are planning on visiting Montreal for the first time, consider this as your only disclaimer. We apologize on our city’s behalf.