Comment by ramon t on April 28, 2011 at 9:50am

On the food pods.  Anyone know if they have a social media outlet listing where they are located for that day?  In other cities they usually have a twitter account announcing their location.

Comment by ramon t on April 28, 2011 at 9:52am

Ok...Just watched the video.  Near the end the video they show a white board with a twitter account but cannot make out the writing.

Comment by contrastlife on April 28, 2011 at 10:03am

10 in the morning to 6 at night is perfect timing for me to miss the food pods no matter where they are - unless they move downtown - and they should!

Comment by Phil_0 on April 28, 2011 at 10:18am

I am pretty sure the Wednesday 10-6 stretch at Talin is the only "official" pod currently going, Ramon...

 

contrastlife, my vote is for a new pod downtown in addition to the Talin one...pods all over town!

Comment by Grumpy on April 28, 2011 at 10:27am

I saw the notice of the food pods location here on DCF.  There is a group that posted the information, but I just searched through the list of DCF groups and didn't see it.  As I understand it, so far they are only in the one place on the one day.  Contrastlife, I hope they pick a different day to come downtown also.  I drove up to TaLin parking lot twice to get some of these goods and what I got was delicious.

Comment by BurqueBinder on April 28, 2011 at 1:38pm

They should really set these up outside of weekday, normal business hours.  Setting one up and Talin and one downtown on the weekends - especially Fri and Sat nights - would be a great idea.

 

Comment by Hunter on April 28, 2011 at 1:38pm

Good luck getting the Downtown Junta (the BID) to support a downtown pod.  The restaurant owners are already fighting the sprinkler requirement and I would fully expect them to object to the pods on the basis of unfair competition.  On the other hand, seems like Civic Plaza would be an ideal location to circle the lunch wagons.

Comment by BurqueBinder on April 28, 2011 at 1:43pm

^ I don't want to be crass, but too damned bad.  The downtown BID is meant to keep existing businesses spruced up (which they do a poor job of - walk around downtown a bit and notice the amount of window etches, litter, and increasingly - graffitti), not advocate for one form of business over another.  Many downtowns around the country have active BIDs as well as a healthy food cart business (Austin, Portland, etc).  Not to mention, the hours of business likely wouldn't overlap - food carts tend to popular during late-night bar hours, ie after most area restaurants would have closed.

 

Comment by Benny the Icepick on April 28, 2011 at 3:32pm

I want to kinda-sorta agree with BurqueBinder on the last point:  while additional food options may bring competition, they also bring vibrancy.  More food options mean more people walking to them, which means more eyeballs on your storefront.  If everyone's raging about the new roach coach and I walk down the street to try it, I might see someone eating a sandwich at another restaurant and think "gee, I'd better try that."

 

For a dining establishment, foot traffic is vitally important.  And if I were looking to open a non-food-related business, I'd want it to be in a part of town that has plenty of restaurants for my employees, and also plenty of foot traffic of potential customers who are walking by on their way to an eatery.

 

Overall, it's a net gain for business owners to encourage these establishments.

Comment by slamwagon on April 28, 2011 at 9:42pm

I'm a huge fan of the food pod, had a great time there last week. They could use more seating and shade. Maybe some RV-style power stations so they don't have to run the generators? Otherwise, looks like the experiment is doing well.

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