A medley of food carts is coming to Ann Arbor

Wednesday, February 2, 2011 | Source: Concentrate

Come spring, Ann Arbor's downtown streetscape will (finally!) get its first open-air food forum. A pod of 10 prepared food carts will be sprouting on a narrow parcel of land behind the Downtown Home and Garden store at 210 S. Ashley St. The brainchild behind this 21st century update of the tired old food court is Mark Hodesh, owner of Downtown Home and Garden and founder of Mark's Carts.

"We're not talking about elephant ears and corn dogs here, we're talking about really interesting cutting-edge food coming out of carts," Hodesh explains.

He was struck with the inspiration while visiting his daughter in New York City, where he saw the array of ethnic food carts at the Brooklyn Flea Market. He researched set-ups in cities such as San Francisco, Los Angeles, Austin, and Portland (which has over 250). While some are independent motorized affairs scattered around town, Hodesh adopted the pod concept, with clusters of carts in a central location. "They develop critical mass and they become a destination in and of themselves."

Twenty-six applications for the 10 spaces, which will be open from April through the second Saturday in November, have been received. Final decisions and offers to vendors will be made by February 10, he says. Some of the proposals include: paella, grilled cheese and tomato soup, soup only, wood-fired pizza, Asian street food, handmade tacos, Korean BBQ, and spit chicken with roasted vegetables.

Mark's Carts will be open from 8AM-10PM daily, with each cart running its own schedule. Limited seating will be available. Business will continue as usual at Downtown Home and Garden, which will not be affected, Hodesh says. "There's not much going on in the 200 block of W. Washington. It's a dead zone. This will be a lively transition from the residential areas on the west side into the downtown area."

Food carts are a first for Ann Arbor, Hodesh believes. So is this concept a forerunner of new culinary design in southeast Michigan?

"I expect there'll be some competition someday," he says.

Source: Mark Hodesh, owner of Downtown Home and Garden and founder of Mark's Carts
Writer: Tanya Muzumdar