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!!
