Town Hall | Roswell: Dining Out.. a RoswellNEXT Event

I wanted to make my readers aware of one of my other efforts that is going on here in Roswell next week.  RoswellNEXT holds periodic events around town that focus on issues and topics that matter to Roswell.  This month, on 8/22, we are hosting Town Hall | Roswell: Dining Out.  It will be a panel of five restauranteurs from Roswell and they will discuss the dining scene in Roswell and North Fulton.  It should be an excellent event.

Here's the info...

We have an exciting evening planned for our August installment of Town Hall | Roswell and if you are interested in the food scene in Roswell, and who isn't, you won't want to miss it.  RSVP Now

Town Hall | Roswell is a unique event that brings our city together to learn about and discuss issues and ideas that are important to the future of our city. This month, we are fortunate to have a top notch panel of local restauranteurs to discuss what's it's like to run a restaurant in what has become one of the best cities to dine out in the metro area.  

Our panel will include Ryan Pernice of Table & Main and the soon to be open Osteria Mattone, Marc Wegman of Adele's Authentic Cajun Cuisine, Jack Gerbilick of the Food Movement and Rich Clark of Hugo's Oyster Bar & C&S Seafood. Our moderator will be Steve Stroud of the Roswell Business Alliance.

You can expect to learn about what it's like starting a restaurant in Roswell, how Canton Street has redefined OTP dining, how food trucks are impacting business and what the best dishes in Roswell are.  Additionally, we will have some special treats on hand from some local restaurants to satisfy your appetite while you listen to all the talk about great food.

We will also be helping out a local charity with food donations.  Bring 10 canned goods and receive free admission.  Donations will go to the North Fulton Community Charities.

We are also cross promoting a fundraiser for another local non-profit, The Kula Project, that night where several local restaurants are donating 20% of their sales that day to the Kula Project's #ForTheFarmer campaign. Learn More

Event Details

• Date & Time: August 22nd | 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
• Location: Roswell Historic Cottage, 972 Alpharetta St,Roswell, GA 30075
• Parking: Free Valet @ the Roswell Historic Cottage
• Admission: Members $5, Non-Members $15 - RSVP on our Facebook page - Pay at the door (credit accepted) 
• Drinks: $5 suggested donation

We look forward to seeing you there! 

The RoswellNEXT Team

Mike Hadden | Aaron Gravett | Adam & Anna Braund | Chris Foster | Brendan Walsh | Beckie Hawkins | Thomas Shelton | BeAnne Creeger | Dan Shaughnessy

Roswell's First Food Truck Rodeo (technically)

Roswell passed its first Food Truck ordinance earlier this week opening the city up for business to Food Trucks. So, this seems like as good of a way to introduce Food Trucks to Roswell as any to introduce them to Roswell but it's at Harry's Farmer's Market Alpharetta with a Roswell address.  So, technically it's in Roswell but by address only?  Anyway, we can ponder that another time.

This weekend's Food Truck Rodeo (much tastier than a goat rodeo) will be held in their parking lot this Saturday, March 17th to celebrate Thompson Farms receiving the first ever 5+ rating on the Global Animal Partnership Animal Welfare Rating System.  Each truck will be featuring a menu item cooked with food from Thompson Farms.   This should be tasty.

ht: Lee @ RootsInAlpharetta

Food Trucks in Roswell... Soon (hopefully)

You may know that the city recently approved a food truck ordinance.  We decided to take a look at the ordinance to see where we might see some food trucks. 

At first glance, it seems pretty restrictive.  It's fine to protect existing businesses and I don't want any of our eating establishments to go out of business but I think that the new ordinance may put too much power in the hands of the restaurant owners without taking into account consumer demand.  Here are some of the requrements from the ordinance (link to full ordinance): 

• The mobile food vendor shall not conduct business or operate under this article on the public right-of-way.
• The mobile food vendor shall not operate on any private property without the prior consent of the owners.
• Mobile food vendors shall be located a minimum of 200 feet from the main entrance to any eating establishment or similar food service business unless just eating establishment grants written permission for the mobile food vender to be located closer than 200 feet.
• Mobile food vendors shall not be located within 15 feet of any street intersection or pedestrian crosswalk or 10 feet of any driveway.

Now...Our thoughts on Food Trucks...  For the most part, they are a fad.  But, when done properly, they can be excellent incubators of successful food concepts.  I think there will be some in the Atlanta area that stick around for years to come.  Check out the Atlanta Street Food Coalition's list of area vendors here.  Most of them will probably die out.  That being said, There are some killer concepts out there and it would be nice to see some in the historic district especially when we have festivals going on.  Taking into account the 200 foot barrier, here's where we think you may see some set up shop in the coming months (we didn't factor in the 15 foot radius from intersections/crosswalks).  The red spots are the most prime areas where trucks might be able to set up shop.