Hi, Awesome Peeps!!

Welcome to the temporary home of gorillacheese.com, a blog site meant to keep you up-to-date as to where-we’re-at!

Our new website is currently under construction, but the wait will be worth it, as we are working to make a website that will adequately represent the AWESOMENESS that is Gorilla Cheese!!

Here, we will post our scheduled stops, news and maybe even some random musings,  so stay tuned and check back regularly!

Thanks!!

The Gorilla Cheese Team

Open Forum Discussion For Restaurants, Food Trucks and BIA’s

The Hamilton Chamber of Commerce will be hosting a meeting of interested stakeholders (restaurant owners, refreshment vehicle owners, BIAs) to discuss the City of Hamilton’s Refreshment Vehicle Licensing and By-Law amendments:

Thursday May 31, 3-4pm
Location: Waterfront Centre, 555 Bay Street North
RSVP: w.simmons@hamiltonchamber.ca or via phone at 905-522-1151 ext. 100

The Hamilton Chamber would like to provide a communication role to help gain an understanding of issues from stakeholders regarding the proposed by-law changes.  The Chamber, through its Business Development Committee, has adopted a policy resolution which is attached.

Thank you

The ByLaw Amendment Proposal

 

Tomorrow morning (Tuesday May 14( at 9:30, the Planning Committee at City Hall will hear delegates speak regarding the proposed amendments to the foodtruck bylaw in Hamilton. We, at Gorilla Cheese, are in favour of the amendments, and believe they will be key in developing a strong and progressive food culture in our awesome city.

Here is the ByLaw proposal up for debate tomorrow at City Hall.

If you support the proposal, there are several ways you can help:

- Register on our Petition

- Send a letter of support to lettersofsupport@gorillacheese.com that we can present at the City Council Planning Committee meeting.

- Come, witness, support, listen, even speak at tomorrow’s City Council Planning Committee (Tuesday May 15, 9:30am City Hall Council Chambers)

Thanks for your support! Free the food trucks!!

 

 

An Open Letter to the City, the Citizens, the Businesses and the Restaurants of Hamilton

The Ontario Restaurant Hotel and Motel Association (ORHMA) is campaigning strongly against the progression of food-truck culture in Hamilton. They have issued a letter to the Mayor and Councillors of Hamilton in an effort to stop the proposed amendments to the bylaws that will give food-trucks some more freedom to operate and serve the people of Hamilton. They are also campaigning on foot, going door-to-door to restaurants and businesses around the city seeking support and creating an atmosphere of misguided fear amongst the restaurant community. Gorilla Cheese and the members of the Ontario Food Truck Association refute their claims, as they are based on misconceptions that seek to misinform not only those for whom the letter is intended, but also their own membership.

Their letter is in response to City Council’s draft proposal to change the bylaws in Hamilton regarding Food Truck operations. The draft has not been posted to the City’s website at this time, so we can’t link to it, but the key points are reducing the distance that we can operate in proximity to a restaurant from a vast 100-metres of the property line to 20-metres from the entrance, providing a plan for our water and grease disposal, and a minimum distance of 1.5-metres from a property line on a private lot that we can operate. We worked carefully with City Licensing, BIA’s and Councillors to create a draft that gave food trucks fairer freedoms to serve the community, while still respecting the operations of local restaurants.

We are reaching out here to ask for your help. There are numerous ways that you can show your support:

1- Please sign our petition.

2-We ask citizens, business owners and restaurateurs to please draft a letter in support of food truck culture that we can use next week at City Hall. You can email your letters to letterofsupport@gorillacheese.com .

3- We urge you to attend the meeting at the City Hall Planning Committee meeting on Tuesday, May 15 at 9:30am.

4- We further urge you to SPEAK at the meeting. You can apply for delegate status here so your voice can be heard.

We apologize for the short time frame, but we didn’t count on requiring your help. We have the support of the great majority of City Councillors, BIA’s, business owners and the citizens, but ORMHA’s aggressive stance indicates that we need to rally further support quickly. Please read on for further details.

We met with members of ORHMA in good faith about 3 weeks ago, in an effort to clear up their misconceptions. During our discussion, they agreed that much of the information they dispel in their letter is incorrect, however they continue to use it and are still disseminating the false information through their website and in their discussions with the restaurateurs and businesses of Hamilton.

One thing to clarify is that ORHMA has denied us membership in their association. Are we not simply a restaurant with a different business model? The only true difference is that our restaurant is on wheels. We do not seek to compete with restaurants. In fact, many of you reading this know that we promote the food service industry on a regular basis, and encourage our followers to eat at many of the quality establishments around the city. We routinely promote local restaurants, recognizing that they are the main component of a strong food culture. We seek only to enhance that culture.

Here are some of their untruths and misconceptions, with our comments.

…food trucks typically bank a profit equivalent to about 40 per cent of sales. For a bricks-and-mortar restaurant, the average profit is closer to 4 per cent on the high end.”

Nothing could be further from the truth. This information was based on a Globe & Mail interview early last year with Zane Caplansky, of Caplansky’s food truck in Toronto, that took place months before their truck hit the road. Zane, also a restaurant owner himself, will tell you today that his figure is far from accurate, now that he has the real-world experience of having his truck in operation for a year. Food trucks have many different factors that offset our profit margins considerably, like high fuel expenses, limited capability to carry stock, limited hours of operations, high event fees, truck repairs, food storage expenses, high insurance rates and many more unforeseen expenses. We, at Gorilla Cheese, have not been in operation for a year yet, so we can not give a fully accurate assessment of our profits. However, if you want a real-world figure, our bank account balance is the most telling data. It certainly does NOT reflect anywhere near 40% profit! It is more realistically closer to the figure ORHMA claims for their restaurant membership.

The notion that the trucks attract people to a certain location is arguable, as they tend to gravitate to where the people are-they’re not stuck in a location that can’t make money.”

You can argue it all you want. We have PLENTY of real-world examples that we attract people to locations, and most of them are not where the people are. Upper Gage Garage, King St. in Stoney Creek, Frid St. – these are not exactly centres of urban sprawl. The current rules don’t quite facilitate food trucks to “gravitate where the people are”, as we have had to maintain the 100-metre distance rule, barring us from operating within 100 metres of a restaurant, park or school, unless we have prior-written consent. Take a drive through Hamilton, and try to find a busy area that does not have a restaurant within a 100 metre distance. And that’s from their PROPERTY LINE, not their entrance! This is a huge factor- the food court at Centre Mall is about 300 metres west of Kenilworth, but we have to maintain a distance of 100 metres east of Kenilworth, due to their property line, creating a distance of 400 metres from that food court. And even there, there are more restaurants!

As far as being “stuck in a location that can’t make money”, hmm… If I had a restaurant in a location that can’t make money, I would move, close up shop or make REALLY good food in order to attract people based on reputation. When location, location, location is such a key factor in the success of a business, the onus is on the business owner to choose a location that is conducive to their success. The absence of a food truck does nothing to improve a business’s location. Rather, the customers we attract through our social media and reputation are quite apt to discover that area, and patronize the businesses located within it. It sounds like an idealistic concept, but we’ve seen time and time again that it is an absolute reality, and we have a multitude of examples to prove it.

Pressures from weakening economy have not been kind to the restaurant industry.”

Hey! We live in the same economy! Every business and every individual has had to adjust to the economy. Personally, I still wait in lines every time I eat out. Whether I’m ordering a sub from Queen’s Subs, making reservations at Rapscallion’s, or going through the drive-through at McDonald’s, the places where I eat are BUSY, despite the economy. People will always need or want to eat out. If an eating establishment is empty, it is not due to the economy, and certainly not because a food truck shows up for 3 hours every once in a while. Again there is a misconception that food trucks take business away from brick & mortars. Food trucks rely on their websites and social media networks like Twitter and Facebook to attract their clientele. Restaurants have the same tools at their disposal to market themselves as we do.

Unpredictability of when and where a food truck may show up, creates an unfair disadvantage for brick and mortar restaurants”

Does a restaurant need to tell the other restaurants in their area when they are putting a food item on sale? No, of course not. Is that also an unfair advantage? Again, food trucks bring their own clientele via social media and their websites. We stand an equal chance that our customers may opt rather for a restaurant in the area when they are intent on coming to our food truck, but we certainly can not blame that restaurant for existing.

Unfair playing field of start up and operational costs and permit burdens.”

The costs associated with opening a restaurant also give way to a massive advantages. They have the ability to stay open 24 hours a day if they desire, the ability to obtain liquor licenses and a far greater space to store their foods allowing them to serve as much food or drink as they wish.

Restaurants have contributed to cities economies for many years with fixed expenses and have been paying taxes.”

Food trucks have only been around for a year in Canada. In a few years, we’ll say the exact same thing. Because we are such a new industry, Hamilton does not yet have a structure in place to appropriately tax food trucks. We are not adverse to contributing to taxes and fees that are proportionate to our operations- we use a reservoir for our onboard water that is taxed at the source, and we dispose of our own waste at our homebase that we rent.

Brick and mortar eateries concerned the trucks costing less to operate than traditional restaurants have an unfair advantage over the restaurants that:

o Pay high property taxes and premium rents;

So do we! We have to store our truck when not in operation, you know.

o Employ locals, including many youth and students;

So do we! We currently have 8 employees, and are hiring 2 more for the summer.

o Start up operational costs are much higher, including licensing, permitting and inspection compliance requirements;

You get what you pay for. Restaurants are able to generate far more daily income with the ability to stay open longer hours and the ability to sell liquor. Our inspection compliance requirements are the SAME. We apologize for having a different business model.

o A typical restaurant has the expense of marketing their location and drawing customers to the location;

So does a typical food-truck. We highly advise the use of the internet.

o Long term leasing/capital expenses;

Same here!

o Requirements for availability of serviceable washrooms, garbage disposal, parking, safety and traffic.

Same here, except for the washroom part. But we’ve never seen a washroom at a drive-through window, nor has any customer ever expected us to provide them with one.

We can’t stress enough that we are not in competition with restaurants. We patronize them often, and so do our customers. The stance of ORHMA is not shared by the restaurants that we frequent. The majority of ORHMA’s claims are based on petty jealousies of a new business model. Restaurants that are confident in the quality of their product have a genuine interest in food culture as a whole, and support the excitement that food truck culture can bring to a city.

The other thing to keep in mind, is that ORHMA is speaking for a very small percentage of Hamilton’s businesses, being those restaurant-owners who feel threatened by the presence of food-trucks. There are a great many other businesses in the city who can benefit from our presence. Due to the current 100-metre rule, we routinely have to turn down businesses that request our presence to generate their own sales by leveraging our marketing network, bringing people to their property and creating an atmosphere of excitement.

We are seeking your support in helping Hamilton progress towards a strong, exciting and vibrant food culture. Please,

1- Sign the petition.

2- Email your letters to letterofsupport@gorillacheese.com .

3- Attend the meeting at the City Hall Planning Committee meeting on Tuesday, May 15 at 9:30am.

4- Apply for delegate status and speak at City Hall.

Thanks so much for your help!

The Gorilla Cheese Team

What’s Up!!

Hi, Dudes and Dudettes!!

To start on a personal note, I’m back from my retreat to Cuba. If bad food, rotten customer service and jocks throwing footballs, girls and drinks in the pool are your thing, I highly recommend the resort I went to! Otherwise, Cuba is an awesome place! Now that I’m back, US Steel has cut me loose with a lay-off, and I can concentrate on Gorilla Cheese FULL-TIME!! It’s the best news I’ve ever heard!

In my absence last week, our wonderful Tanisha looked after our Facebook and Twitter postings and did a fantastic job. Thanks, Tanisha!! Be sure to give her a hug when you see her on the truck, because this is a girl who loves (to hate, and hates to love) HUGS!

Lots of developments occurred last week. Daniel Rodrigues appeared on the Bill Kelly Show* on CHML to discuss ORMHA’s (Ontario Restaurant Motel & Hotel Association) stance on the proposed by-law changes regarding food trucks. Strangely, they are against it. The new law proposes reducing the distance that we are allowed to be in respect to a restaurant, which is currently at 100 metres, and proposes to change it to a far-more-fair 20 metres. ORMHA is still under the impression that food trucks threaten to steal business from restaurants, which is far from the truth. His arguments were far from compelling and they are certainly grasping. One of his main points was the use of parking metres for foodtrucks, which he claims are intended to drive business into an area. Last time we checked, parking metres were meant for parking vehicles. By his definition, if you park at a metre and go to a friend’s house without going into a nearby business, you are in contravention of the intended use of a parking metre. Kinda silly. There is nothing in the rules stating the reasons that one must adhere to when parking a vehicle. We pay the metre, and that seems to be all that the Bylaw officers seem to care about. As it should be, yes? Imagine having a keypad attached to a parking metre, into which one would have to state their reasons for parking? Yikes. He also brought up that foodtrucks don’t provide washrooms. Well, neither do drive-through windows. At this point, we have served thousands of customers, and have never once been asked if we had a washroom. I’m sure we will now that I’ve written this! Point being, they are grasping.

Daniel, and Joe from the Westown Bar & Grill, went to City Council last week with the intentions of speaking against the changes, and our supportive City Council turned them away, noting that the item was not on the agenda for the day. They left befuddled, to say the least. It’s strange that Daniel has found an ally in Joe, seeing as Joe has never even seen our truck in action, and we have talked to him in the past about renting space from him. Perhaps he’s angry that his space didn’t suit our needs. Anyway, it’s too bad he feels this way, as we rather liked his bar and respected him as a successful restaurateur.

Bill Kelly, on the other hand, is a man we admire very much, and we appreciate his great support for what we do. He understands the excitement that a vibrant foodtruck culture can bring to Hamilton. He was good enough to have our Blonde Girl, Susan, on the show the day after, and she did an amazing job promoting the awesomeness of foodtrucks. Way to go, Susan!!

Well, the call to arms is out. There are a great many restaurants and businesses that support foodtrucks. They are confident in their service and recognize the value of a strong and diverse food culture. They recognize that foodtrucks can drive business into an area, and see us not as competition, but rather as allies who promote the food service industry. We’ve found that most of these great local and independent restaurants in Hamilton are not even familiar with ORMHA, and do not feel that they represent their views. We are asking all restaurants and businesses to lend us a hand. If you are represent a restaurant or any business that supports foodtrucks and their value in contributing to a vibrant food culture, PLEASE send us a letter of support, via email, that we can use at City Council. You can send it to info@gorillacheese.com. Thank you, because your support will go a great distance in putting Hamilton on the map as a progressive city with an awesome food culture!!

Speaking of which, we are happy to announce two amazing partnerships! On Friday (at the MEGA-AWESOME Sew Hungry Streetfood Rally), we will debut our new bread supplier, local People’s Choice Tourism Award Winners Cake & Loaf!! They make the best baked goods in the city and we are uber-proud to make our awesome sandwiches with their awesome bread!! Also, on Saturday, Cinqo de Mayo, we will be at the Toronto Underground Market debuting our new sandwich, that partners us with Hamilton’s best Mexican food restaurant, MEX-I-CAN!!! Located at James & Cannon, Mex-I-Can is a fantastic business run by wonderful people that has built a tremendous following through word-of-mouth. Their reputation is outstanding, due to their passion for making incredible Mexican food from scratch and dare I say it, the BEST Mojito in the entire world. Believe me, their Mojito is better than anything I tried in Cuba, where it is their national drink! Anyway, we have collaborated in creating our new Mexican grilled cheese that combines their ground chorizo sausage and an incredible creamy verde sauce with red onions and mozzarella. Trust me, this will blow minds! We’ll debut it in Toronto for Cinqo de Mayo, and will bring it home to Hamilton following it’s imminent success in the next couple of weeks!!

The summer is shaping up to be INSANE. This weekend alone, we are at the greatest streetfood festival in Canada, Sew Hungry, on Friday from 11-3pm on Ottawa St, then at the Food Truck Eats festival in the Toronto Underground Market on Saturday, and at the Food Truck Eats Festival in Stratford on Sunday!! Concerts, festivals, street events, park services and lots of great curbside services are just around the corner! We’ll keep you posted!!

Thanks for being so awesome, peeps, and see you on the streets!!

* See April 26 Hour 2 for Daniel Rodrigues, and April 27 Hour 2 for Susan

WOAH!!

Happy Easter, peeps!! Speaking of which, we’ve been as busy as bunnies mapping out a summer of CHEESY madness, and it’s looking pretty crazy! There’s lots to tell, so let’s get at it!

But before we get to that, be sure to check out this month’s Chill Magazine (that cool free mag from the Beer Store) to see your favourite cheesers grace two beautiful pages! It’s a great article written by our own talented little monkey, Tanisha White. Thanks, Tanisha!! Keep an eye out for an upcoming article in Chatelaine Magazine, too!

And on the topic of shameless self-promotion, we’re also being courted by a company that wants to do a television series on Gorilla Cheese! How cool is THAT? We’re still working out details, but don’t be surprised if you see a TV crew when you come and get your cheese-on at the truck this summer! Also, we’re finally in the month (April, that is) that we will find out when our Eat St. spot will be filming. We expect it will be in June or July, and we’ll be calling on all you sensational peeps to come out and turn it into MADNESS!

And speaking of shameless self-promotion again, check out this awesome clip of Gorilla Cheese and friends at the 2012 Food & Drink Show in Hamilton, featuring Food Network chef David Adjey! We got to speak at some length with David, who is a great proponent for food trucks. We were pleasantly surprised at how much he knows about Canada’s food truck scene! He is very excited about the scene and wants to help it take off Canada-wide, so we’re very happy to know we have a hardball player in our corner! Ok, there’s not much sense in having a baseball player in a boxing ring, but you get the picture.

Thanks to our loyal monkey Peter J. Bridges for the great vid!!

We’re also very proud to say that City Hall is definitely working with us to promote Food Truck culture. They have approved a pilot project for us, and some very positive amendments to the regulations will be voted on in June. There has been some resistance by the Ontario Restaurant Hotel & Motel Association in the form of a letter to the Mayor and our Councillors, so we will be meeting with them to try and clear up some misconceptions. As you know, we are trying to promote a strong food culture in Hamilton, so we hope to work with the restaurants and make a fair playing field for everyone. Let’s hope a fair compromise can come about and everybody, most especially the PEOPLE of Hamilton, can WIN!!!

So, summer! Wow, we have stacked this summer with a lot of cool things and there’s still so much more to come!! Check this!!

  • We’re HONOURED to be a part of Hamilton’s historical re-opening of the Lister Block! On Friday, April 13th, we’ll be outside the Lister block all day, and then we go straight to our new gig at…
  • Hamilton Central Library for James St. North Art Crawl! As part of the City’s Pilot Project for food trucks, we will be operating outside of the library on Art Crawl nights through their initiative to stay open late on those nights! We’ll be there until around 9, and then continue the fun afterwards! Every 2nd Friday every month!
  • We’ll be doing a lot of cool concerts through Live Nation! From Kiss & Motley Crue to the World Electronic Music Festival in Algonquin to the Black Keys, we’ll be hitting the concert scene! Please be aware that there may be some BIG ones added to the list soon, as we receive confirmation.
  • Hamilton Tiger Cats!! We’ll be doing pre-game services, and some full services for almost ALL the home games!!
  • Also part of the City’s Pilot Project, we will soon be serving at Hamilton’s awesome parks!
  • We are operating at Wild Waterworks on select dates, and on regular Tuesdays in the month of June!! Swimming and cheese!!
  • Wednesdays in Gore Park starting June 13!!
  • We will be doing some select dates at Mohawk College!! We’re very excited about this one, and our first service last week was a HUGE hit!! Hello, McMaster? Wake up and smell the cheese!!
  • Sew Hungry!! Hamilton’s impressive Foodtruck Festival is back on May 4th! Last year was a smashing success with more than 8,000 people hitting Ottawa St. for Foodtruck madness, and this year will be even BIGGER!!
  • Meltdown!! Gallagher’s Bar on Augusta St. makes a pretty killer grilled cheese, and we are gonna have a meltdown! We’ll be bringin’ the cheese and competing to see who makes the best grilled cheese, as judged by some Hamilton celebs!
  • Some more great Food Truck Eats events, from Toronto to Stratford to Niagara-on-the-Lake!!
  • The Gorilla Cheese First Anniversary!!

So, here are SOME dates we have confirmed:

April 10 – Mohawk College Stoney Creek Campus

April 11 -Upper Gage Garage (lunch)

April 12 – Tweetstock 2012, Brantford

April 13 – Lister Block Re-Opening!! + Art Crawl at the Library!!

April 21 – Earth Day Fest at Princess Point

April 24 – Maple Leaf Foods

April 26 – Upper Gage Garage (dinner)

May 4 – Sew Hungry!!

May 5- Food Truck Eats, Toronto Underground Market

May 6 – Food Truck Eats, Stratford

May 11 – Art Crawl at the Library & beyond

May 12 – Ball Hockey Tournament at 50-Point

May 18 – Grilled Cheese Meltdown at Gallagher’s

June 8 – Art Crawl at the Library & beyond

June 13 – Gore Park for lunch, Hamilton TiCats for dinner!

June 22 – Sarah McLachlan Concert

June 23 – Ottawa St Farmers Market

June 26 – Wild Waterworks

June 29 – Hamilton TiCats

July 2 – Scorpions Concert

July 4 – LMFAO Concert

July 10 – Wild Waterworks

July 11 – Nickelback Concert

July 13 – Art Crawl & beyond

July 14 – Hamilton TiCats (vs. Argos, grrr!!)

July 15 – Warped Tour

July 17 – Wild Waterworks

July 26 – Sam Roberts Concert

July 27/28 – Gorilla Cheese Anniversary

July 31 – Childish Gambino Concert

August 2 – Florence & The Machine Concert

August 4 – Black Keys Concert

August 9 – Hamilton TiCats

August 15 – My Morning Jacket Concert

August 17-19 – World Electronic Music Fest in Algonquin

August 22 – Marianna’s Trench Concert

September 13 – Kiss/ Motley Crue Concert

September 14-15 – SUPERCRAWL!!

September 28 – Hamilton TiCats

October 12 – Hamilton TiCats

October 27 – Hamilton TiCats

WOW!! So please note, there are a lot of dates for which we are working out scheduling, or awaiting confirmation, that ARE NOT YET POSTED!! Some of them are MASSIVE events, so we’ll keep you in the loop as they book up.

Thanks, peeps, you all ooze AWESOMENESS!!!

Our speech to the City Council Planning Committee

What a day for foodtrucks in Hamilton!!

We gave a speech today at the Hamilton City Council Planning Committee meeting. We applied for delegate status months ago, and were awarded the chance to speak weeks ago. When we got to City Hall, it was explained to us that our topic was not on the agenda, but we pushed to give our speech anyway. After the speech (which is contained below), it became a whirlwind conversation topic with all councillors on the committee, all of them favouring the expediting of the new laws. In the interim, they voted unanimously to move ahead with a pilot project, of which we will find more details in the coming weeks. We do know that operating in public parks will be a part of the pilot! We’ll know more soon, and will keep all y’all up to date!

In the meantime, here’s what we said to council:

 

Good Morning, Councillors and Committee Members,

My name is Graeme Smith, and I am one of the owners of Gorilla Cheese, Canada’s first grilled cheese food truck. We operate proudly out of Hamilton, serving grilled cheese sandwiches to the masses out of a big, black truck. We are one of the first businesses in Hamilton derived from the growing phenomenon of food trucks that is thriving in the United States and other cities in Canada. Today’s food trucks bring an exciting, innovative and high-quality choice of food to the public, and the public has indeed responded very favourably.

While I don’t wish to boast of our accomplishments, it is important to demonstrate the impact that our new industry is having. We’ve been featured in numerous national media outlets, from newspapers and internet blogs to television and radio. We have more than 4,000 followers on Facebook and almost as many on Twitter, both of which grow everyday. We have huge support from some of Hamilton’s greatest business successes through our participation in last year’s Lion’s Lair Entrepreurial Challenge. We have recently been nominated for three Hamilton Tourism Awards, and we recently won a competition on the Food Network that will bring a filming of the popular show Eat St. to Hamilton. This will put Hamilton in the spotlight internationally, as the episode will be aired in both Canada and the United States.

But it’s not all about us. Last year’s Sew Hungry Food Truck event attracted more than 8,000 visitors to the Ottawa St. B.I.A. on a Friday afternoon to eat from 9 Ontario food trucks, and this year’s event on May 4th looks to be even bigger, with more than 13 trucks. It is demonstrating the demand, and the serious potential for this new culture. It’s our goal to help build a strong food culture in Hamilton, and the possibilities for commerce, tourism and Hamilton’s overall reputation is amazing.

However, there are limitations in Hamilton’s current governance of foodtrucks that make it increasingly difficult to satisfy that demand. The rules, as they stand, are that food trucks can not operate within 100 metres from the nearest point of the property line of a food establishment, park or school without written consent of that property owner or manager. Despite our best attempts to adhere to the law, we have unwittingly incurred 2 fines in contravention of that law, operating within 100 metres of a restaurant.

It must be stressed that our presence does not have any negative impact on area food establishments. On the contrary, we bring potential customers to the areas in which we operate and often benefit those establishments by attracting attention to them. Today’s food-trucks rely heavily on social media, such as websites, Facebook and Twitter to attract a following. We tell our followers where we will be, and they actively seek us out, intent to purchase our food. We bring those people to the communities, and they are impelled to come, on foot, to an area that they may not normally visit. They may not have come otherwise, and while they are there, they stand a good chance of taking notice of the many businesses in that area. In the spirit of free enterprise, we stand just as much chance of one of our customers opting instead for another restaurant in that area.

We are mobile, so we only operate for about 3 hours at a time, every few weeks in any given area. It wouldn’t be advantageous to set up in one place in competition with a restaurant, as it basically defies the very concept of owning a foodtruck. It seems illogical that we could, by rights, open a brick-and-mortar pizza shop right next door to another pizza shop, but to park a pizza truck for a few hours to serve our own customers within 100 metres of that place is forbidden. It’s like we’re relegated to the outskirts because our restaurant has wheels.

An unwitting victim to the current rules are the countless businesses that are NOT restaurants. We are asked many times on a daily basis for our truck to operate at retail stores, auto mechanics, head offices, you name it. More often than not, we have had to turn them down as there are food establishments within 100 metres of them. Is it not unfair that those businesses don’t get the opportunity to bolster their sales or attract attention because there is a restaurant near them?

We must see the benefits that a foodtruck culture can bring to Hamilton. We’re asking for an amendment of the rules regarding the 100 metre distance. The majority of cities in the United States have a similar rule, but the distances average 30 to 100 FEET, less than a third of what Hamilton dictates, and we hope to see the rules modified to reflect this example. We hope to have this distance measured from the entrance to a food establishment, as opposed to the property lines, as it is unfair- if a food establishment is in a mall, for example, the distance we require can easily be 5 or 600 metres or more. We also hope to do away with the rule of operating near a park, as we fail to see the negative aspect to somebody using the park having access to food and drinks. We live in a free enterprise society, and while we don’t believe that we are competing with traditional brick-and-mortar food establishments, we feel that we should be given the same rights to operate despite the unique method by which we sell our wares.

Western Canada has embraced Foodtruck culture, with Vancouver implementing a successful Food-truck program and most recently, Calgary, whose mayor fast-tracked their food-truck guidelines in a four-week period. The eyes of Ontario are looking to Hamilton to lead the charge. We would hate to see the city suffer a black eye by imposing restrictive rules upon an evolving industry. We will soon have the continent-wide exposure of the Food Network, and we hope to boast that our city is a progressive leader, one that is open for business, and one with a vibrant food culture that benefits its citizens, businesses, tourists and potential Hamiltonians alike.

Thank you all very much for your time and your interest.

Want to see Gorilla Cheese on the Food Network?

We’re off and runnin’, peeps!!

Our Eat St. Video Contest submission is live and ready to be voted for!!! Check out our video and vote everyday until January 31st to bring the Food Network to Hamilton, and see us in a segment on the AWESOME show Eat St!!!

You can see it, and VOTE for it HERE!

Happy New Year!!

 

Happy New Year, peeps!!

 

We know we’ve been quiet for a bit, but there is SO much going on behind-the-scenes. Here’s what we’re up to, and where we’re at:

 

FOOD NETWORK

 

Gorilla Cheese has submitted a video to the Food Network for the Eat St. Video Contest in hopes of a feature on the AWESOME Eat St. Show!! Voting starts on January 5th at 4pm, and we hope that YOU will help us put Hamilton on the Food Truck map! We will post the link to our video just before voting starts, and we ask that you PLEASE vote everyday until January 31st to bring the Food Network to the Hammer!!!

 

CURBSIDE SERVICES

 

We’ve been a little gun-shy regarding services lately, as we are in a regulations limbo. Current rules dictate that we must be at least 100 metres (a bit more than one full city block) from any restaurant, park or school to operate. If you walk in any key area of Hamilton, you’ll see the challenge we are up against. We have, unwittingly, been in violation of this rule twice, due to complaints from certain area restaurants/food services, and we will be appearing in court on Friday January 6th to face charges. We have been to City Hall countless times to speak with BIA’s, Councillors and the heads of City Departments to advise and gain support for relaxed rules for Food Truck operations in Hamilton. There has been a draft proposal issued for new rules regarding Food Trucks that makes it even more restrictive for us to operate than it already is, but there are MANY people in City Hall and at the Chamber of Commerce who do not favour the proposal, and are working with us to amend the draft before it goes to City Council in February. Depending on how the draft is amended to make a fair proposal, we may be calling out the BIG GUNS (that means YOU!!) to make it easier for us to get Grilled Cheese to the masses, and to allow a food truck culture to flourish for all to enjoy. But for now, we continue to fight the good fight in the background, and our services to the public must remain limited to the few areas that the laws permit. We’ll keep you posted.

 

 

GORILLA CHEESE HEADQUARTERS

 

You may not know this, but up to this point, Gorilla Cheese has been VERY spread out. Graeme’s house is the Gorilla Cheese mailing address, Scott and Susan’s house is where we have meetings, Gord (the truck) stays at yet another person’s house, we get stock delivered to a sub shop, we have had to keep our stock up the mountain, and we have to travel the city to get everything else. BUT NO MORE!! We have acquired a head office in which we can store the truck, accept and stock deliveries, hold meetings, and generally have a headquarters that we can work out of. This helps us streamline our operations and allows us to concentrate on what’s most important: getting the cheese to the peeps!!

 

We are finishing up our renovations, getting office furniture, acquiring freezer/fridge space and will be moving in full-time within the next week or two!

 

ANOTHER GORD!

 

We are in the beginning stages of acquiring another truck to help serve you better! A second truck will allow us to be in MORE places at one time, and to support when we operate at the bigger festivals in the warm season. We hope to have our new truck in the spring, but nothing’s official yet. We’re working on it!

 

TORONTO LICENSE

 

And we thought Hamilton was a challenge! We are in the midst of procuring our Mobile License to operate in Toronto, as we get more and more invitations. Unfortunately, Toronto is currently not very Food Truck friendly, and now requires any truck operating in Toronto to be licensed there, even if under the umbrella of a festival or private event. Think about it… if a business or event wants to hire a catering company, they can choose ANYBODY from ANYWHERE. But if the food provided is from a Food Truck, it must have a Toronto license. Regardless, attaining this license is quite intensive, requiring all new inspections within 30 days of submitting an application (criminal background checks, propane inspections, health inspections, vehicle safety inspections, and more). Anyway, it’s another thing taking up a lot of time, but should have positive results in helping Gorilla Cheese grow. And by the way, we passed our criminal background checks with flying colours. When you get a Grilled Cheese from Gorilla Cheese, you can rest assured it’s been made by an upstanding and law-abiding citizen!

 

And don’t worry, Hamilton, our focus and our hearts are here in our beloved city. We won’t deny you the cheese.

 

OUTDOOR SKATING INITIATIVE

 

We are also in talks with the City to to spearhead a movement to get people to use Hamilton’s many outdoor skating rinks. We’d love to set up Gorilla Cheese Skating Parties, where on weekends, we can host different rinks around the city, providing music, hot chocolate, hot soup and, of course, grilled cheeses while you skate! We think this is a great initiative to have some fun in the winter and take advantage of the awesome outdoor skating Hamilton has to offer. Again, we’ll keep you posted, but look towards the end of January.

 

There’s tons of other stuff going on, too. Improvements to Gord, a new website (plus a Gorilla Cheese mobile app!!), new sandwiches, new menu boards, new new NEW!!! TONS OF STUFF!! Anyway, that’s what we’re up to, in addition to getting our cheese to the peeps!!! Thanks for your patience in this slower season, and know we will soon be rewarding you with some AWESOME CHEEZUS in a freer society with a streamlined process!!

 

So, you want the Gorilla Cheese truck in your ‘hood?

We’d love your help in finding some new spots to serve you some AWESOME grilled cheeses!!

The hard part is that we are bound by rules. We must be 100 meters away (approximately an average, full city block)  from a restaurant/food service establishment, municipal parks and/or schools. It also has to be in an area we can park, and metred spots work perfect. We’re in talks with the City of Hamilton to try and loosen some of the regulations, but it will take time.

Private businesses in core areas work very well, but we are still bound by the aforementioned rules.

So, in the meantime,  if you know of a great spot for us to serve our cheeses to the masses, keeping these rules in mind, please send us your suggestions in the comments below!!

Thanks so much!!

We’d appreciate your help!!

Halloween!

Gorilla Cheese loves Halloween!!

When we were kids, we hated Halloween dinner. Sitting there in our costumes being forced to eat before we could go and do the fun stuff, well, it sucked! Who wants to eat stupid dinner when there are all those houses out there that want to give us TREATS!?! Doesn’t make it too easy for the parents either, when the little ghouls, pirates and tinkerbells are pouting and anxious to haunt the ‘hood!

We have the answer!! The Gorilla Cheese truck will be parked at Dell Pharmacy at the corner of Dundurn and Aberdeen from 4-8-ish PM on October 31st, so it will be easy to come and get a fun, quick bite before the trick-or-treating!! The kids will love it, and the parental units will get a break!!

Even better, the Cupcake Diner will be joining us to provide a bit of dessert after the cheezus!!

This will be a fun community event, so come give yourselves, and the kids, a delicious break!! Even Gord will be dressed up!

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 61 other followers