By Adam J. Haen
FEED Kitchens
Spring has sprung in Madison and that means the food carts have hit the streets. Here at FEED we have an ever-growing number of carts working out of the kitchens. Two of our newest highlight what is great about our facility and what we offer the community: the chance for new businesses to get started and for existing ones to expand or change their current model.
Delights is an Asian comfort food cart run by Mimi Phan-Dinh and Socheat Chau. They are brand new to the food cart scene, but saw an area that wasn’t covered, especially with the high number of Asian students and Asian food enthusiasts on and near campus. They have Steamed Bao, Summer Rolls, Bahn Mi (Vietnamese sandwiches), Curry Chicken and Rice, and Shaved Snow in a variety of flavors. Their cart is bright and colorful, with lots of flowers drawn on it. You also get a bright smiling face greeting you when you walk up.
Our other new user is no stranger to the Madison cart scene and an old hat at cooking fantastic food. Thony Clarke of Café Costa Rica closed his restaurant on Willy Street last fall and is concentrating on his already popular food cart and sauce line. FEED offers him the chance to go out in the cart, do catering, and work on his sauces without the overhead (and headache) of maintaining his own space. It also gives him the chance to spend time with his family and friends.
Within days after Thony’s cart was parked in front of FEED, we were getting calls and he was getting Facebook messages from excited fans asking when he was going to be out again and when they could expect to see his sauces around town. We couldn’t be happier to have him here.
Most of the food carts currently working out of the kitchens are new businesses, but we have had several existing carts come here, either because they had to move from their former location or because we are a more convenient location for them. We will have a few more carts starting up this spring and summer, along with bakeries, caterers, sauce makers and some we don’t even know about yet. They come from all walks of life and experiences. We welcome them all. We help those that need it and stay out of the way of experts like Thony.
As the year goes on, we will keep highlighting new users and showcasing all of our users at our Open House Bazaars. The next one is Saturday, April 11, and we hope to have a few of our food carts here, weather permitting. Our summer Open House Bazaar is Saturday, July 11, and we should definitely have a number of carts here then.
If you want to see who is working at FEED and what is going on, check out our website, www.feedkitchens.org. For more information about FEED Kitchens, how to use the facility, or to set up a tour, contact our manager, Adam Haen, at feedmanager@northsidemadison.org or call 204-7015.