Councilors want to make it easier for people to launch small food carts (Boston: 2014, living in)

[msRB311]

but why do people think that any city they go to should be representative of all cuisine in the world? That is what I'm getting from this thread now. Boston was once known for clam chowder, fried seafood, baked beans...i think we've come a long way from that but it's just funny to hear people complain that there isn't any good indonesian or persian food. Um ok...you might be in the wrong place then...but why not be happy that there is indonesian and persian food available at all in the Boston area (there is)? I guess all US cities need to represent the globe now as far as food goes?

[lrfox]

Originally Posted by BostonBornMassMade

Bro what? 15 minutes-Seriously? How many times are you going out to eat in a day.

That also makes no sense to me. You can get a huge array of food in a very very short span in Boston. Like just along Dorchester Avenue as a prime example.

What is the diversity of food that actually lacking in Boston that a city not named New York has? Name me a cuisine and I will locate it from Downtown Boston.

The idea of having to get in my car to drive anywhere from the center of Boston for a meal basically puts it in either the no-go or special occasion camp. I'm clearly not alone. Boston's greatest strength is the dense, walkable, compact core. Having to get in a car and drive (or uber) to an outer neighborhood for food variety is counter to what anyone living in or visiting a central Boston neighborhood is looking for. This isn't LA or Atlanta where people drive everywhere so it's expected. It's also not NYC where the expectation is that time on transit or in a car will be longer than elsewhere. San Francisco is a better comparison given its small physical size and compact nature. There's drastically more variety in/around the core in SF than there is in Boston. I'd also probably give the edge to DC or Philly in a head to head comparison. Canadian cities like Toronto or Montreal blow it out of the water. It's not that Boston is bad, it's just not as good as its peers.

The issue is that it's not feasible for most independent restauranteurs to open up shop downtown. Rents are nuts, liquor licenses are not realistic without corporate backing, and there are miles of red tape and hurdles to go through to make it happen. We're objectively worse than most places on that front. I don't care if you can drive 15 minutes out of the center and get a good pupusa, there should be some options downtown. It's the city's hub, and should be its showcase. And central Boston is void of options compared to a number of other peer cities.

I'd agree that Boston has better representation than people give it credit for, but much of that variety isn't downtown or immediately adjacent to it which is pretty sad for the center of a city that bills itself as "global". And it's not just ethnic stuff either, it's also cheap diner breakfast food, street meat carts, cheap pizza by the slice, cheap deli sandwich, food truck variety and quantity, etc. And if we do have some of it, we certainly don't have the density of it that you'll find in other places. We have a lot of one or two-offs of certain things rather than an actual concentration of them. Find me a $1 (or $1.50) slice in central Boston. We have a handful of places to get cheap breakfast plates whereas they're on seemingly every corner in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, etc. A $6 gyro? I don't know where I can get one of those in Boston. Boston's established ethnic groups should have some good representation downtown and for the most part (with the exception of Chinese and Vietnamese), they really don't. We should also have a much higher quantity of independent cheap eats too. But we don't have that either.

[msRB311]

I think also chains have taken over and taken some business away from diners and what could be a cheap eats place. People choose to get breakfast at starbucks or DD over waiting for a breakfast order from a slower moving diner. I'm not ok with that but not sure what the solution is. People are busy and dont always have time to wait for things to be prepared.

In the seaport there are quite a few chain lunch spots these days that are always packed -sweet green, flour...and no they're not cheap.

But the mom and pop places arent necessarily cheap by any stretch either.

Expecting to find a slice of pizza for $1? I think those days are gone.

[lrfox]

Originally Posted by msRB311

Expecting to find a slice of pizza for $1? I think those days are gone.

And yet, $1.50 slices are all over Manhattan - a city which is quite a bit more expensive than Boston. You might still be able to find $1 slices, but I know many locations recently went up to $1.50 which is still near impossible to find here. No reason it should be possible there and not here.

[msRB311]

sounds like that's on the way out:

https://www.foodandwine.com/no-more-...za-nyc-7371050

[redplum33]

Originally Posted by msRB311

sounds like that's on the way out:

https://www.foodandwine.com/no-more-...za-nyc-7371050

Average price for a slice is $3.14

[msRB311]

I mean that is good that you can still get a slice of pizza for 1.50 in NYC. No one in NYC should ever be starving that's for sure then.

[bostongymjunkie]

I'm curious as to what foods people can't find in Boston that they actually want? I mean other than the loss of many Polynesian restaurants (which is American food), the ethnic diversity of the food has only increased over the last 25 years. I am actually challenged now to find good Euro-American type options in this town. Most of the decent places have been displaced. They were once plentiful. This town was always known for really good food throughout. Now, it's foo-foo places with average food, small portions, and a big bill. But they do have shiny interiors so I guess that's important. Small business owners can't pay the rent here. NYC has more real estate and much of it is owned by small business owners so they can survive. You will also get better and sometimes cheaper food options in certain neighborhoods there in some cases because there is more competition.

[msRB311]

Maybe this is an instant gratification thing.

You can't expect to find the exact foods in Boston that you once ate in Africa or Belgium. But you can find that type of cuisine somewhere in the city.

[bostongymjunkie]

Most of the faster food take-out options are garbage. Fried, overly sweet, heavy saucy, bread-laden, subs, pizza and other junk. Stuff I will have now and then, but not a lot. If you want a good salad you have to go to a chain like Sweet Green where some of the employees can look a little unkempt. Really good healthy options are few and far between. There are a few really good Mediterranean and Asian places, but not enough.