Nonstaurants

WSJ Hits SF, Sounds Off on Bustaurants

Photo: Lauri Eanes

Crediting SF not with inventing, but evolving the movement LA started (in the US at least), the Journal talked to both Kai Schoenhals and Blake Tally of Diamond Lil and Le Truc, respectively. Tally asserts that street food still somehow suffers from a greasy, dirty connotation that his venture is poised to debunk: “people stigmatize the ‘roach coach…we are a ‘broach’ coach. People are easily going to be sitting there eating and forgetting that they are in a bus.”

The piece goes on to outline the rather significant challenges one inevitably faces when trying to get the wheels of a bustaurant turning: exorbitant permitting fees, motion sickness, even sliding dishware - a problem Schoenhals has apparently looked to nautical and aeronautical models to solve.

Then, before wrapping things up, author Geoffrey Fowler slides in some anti-bus sentiment from Palio d’Asti chef/owner Daniel Scherotter, one of whose worries is that “bustaurants might hog precious parking spaces.” After letting the chefs play point-counterpoint a bit more, Fowler seems reluctant to join either camp, and in the end we only know one thing for sure: The Wall Street Journal knows about bustaurants.

Busing Tables, and Diners, Too
[WSJ]
Earlier: A Second Bustaurant Is Coming to SF [Grub]
Free Range Dining Launches Mobile Nonstaurant Aboard Their Bus [Grub]

WSJ Hits SF, Sounds Off on Bustaurants