Eats on the Streets

Downtown burrito vendor Carlos Guardado serves one up in November. (By Nikki Kahn -- The Washington Post)

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Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Stroll New York or Philadelphia streets and you'll discover vendors selling Greek, Chinese, Lebanese and Mexican foods and much more. Compare that with Washington's business district, where fewer than half of the 642 street vendors sell food, and 95 percent of those sell primarily hot dogs. But after last week's lottery, which awarded 21 new vendor sites to prospective entrepreneurs, city officials are hoping to encourage more -- and more diverse -- food vending. If a recent city-sponsored seminar called "You Don't Have to Sell Hot Dogs" is any indication, pastrami on rye and even seviche may end up being peddled on downtown sidewalks.

The lottery ends a nine-year moratorium on new licenses, instituted after repeated reports of vendors fighting over coveted spaces. New regulations aim to make the vendor program enforceable and safe.

Most of the 21 new vending sites, the first round of locations to be released in periodic phases, are clustered in the areas of 14th and G streets NW and 15th Street and New York Avenue NW.

As of press time, officials knew the names of the lottery winners but not when the carts might be up and running. And even though the city wants to encourage food variety, nothing in the process guarantees that all 21 won't want to sell hot dogs -- or even T-shirts.

-- Walter Nicholls