Cohen grew up in West Hollywood, got a bachelor's degree in history from Atlanta's Emory University, and ended up ― after scoring a master's in education ― as a teacher. He spent three years in Japan, schooling students in English. Japan is where Cohen had the epiphany that drives him these days, as he works to expand the original Friday night Off the Grid at Fort Mason Center, and is poised to launch three more weekly Off the Grid happenings in city parks.
Odd, since Cohen strikes you more as an accountant, a quietly brainy-looking guy who'd be more comfortable in an office cube, scrolling through spreadsheets, than serving as ringmaster for the forces swirling around San Francisco's mobile-food zeitgeist. And though he rents a room here and typically spends three days a week in S.F., Cohen consider home Davis, where he shares a place with his girlfriend of a few years.
Cohen's relationship with street food began, like many obsessions in San Francisco, with a bowl of ramen. Before he managed to break through the net of local bureaucratic barriers to make Off the Grid a reality, Cohen himself was an aspiring street-food vendor. In early 2008, Cohen and a business partner rolled out a short-lived late-night ramen truck called Tabe (at the time, one Chowhounder called it the city's best, and Yelpers went star crazy). We recently asked Cohen about his experiences as a failed vendor, his work as a consultant for other mobile vendors (through Cohen's San Francisco Cart Project, a site that boasts S.F.'s best daily street-food finer), and the current state of San Francisco street food.
SFoodie: What ever gave you the idea to start a ramen truck?
Cohen: When I lived in Japan for three years ― from 2002 to 2005 ― I fell in love with ramen. It was so great, especially the area that I lived in, which was near Fukuoka. Fukuoka is famous for its ramen, especially tonkotsu ramen. Living in Asia, you realize there's great street food everywhere.
So when I returned to the States I was a hotel manager for 3 ½ or 4 years, at the W. That's when I had an epiphany for street food. This was in 2008. The kernel of the idea was remembering that great ramen, but putting it in a cool truck and driving it around to the clubs and bars where people would want great food ― the idea behind a mobile truck is that you can just drive it to where people want it. It makes perfect sense. I started Tabe in January of 2008. We were planning to open a handful of high-end ramen trucks."We"?
My business partner at the time, John Branderhorst, and myself. We were going to roll out a website, with elements of what the Cart Project is now ― in a lot of ways we were trying to do what I'm working toward right now. The concept was to sell late at night in San Francisco. We thought for a while we could get late-night mobile catering approved, but it was clear that was not going to happen. At the same time the banks were crashing around us ― it was the summer of 2008, right in the middle of when the credit crisis happened ― so we decided to put the concept on hold and wait to see what happened.
At that time none of the mobile catering information was available online. A lot of the details I've worked hard to spread ― what the rules are, where to go ― were very unclear. So after having spent 6 or 7 months looking into it, I hung out my shingle, with the idea that I could help aspiring vendors get their business started.
But after Tabe didn't work out, what was it about street food that didn't make you want to wash your hands of it?
I really have a strong belief in the core concept of street food, period. I felt it was just a matter of time before other people caught on. [Seoul on Wheels vendor] Julia Yoon caught on to it before me. There were the Kogi guys in L.A., but [Yoon] was really far ahead of the curve. Since then the city has really caught up with her and her business. She had this idea to do pure, upscale Korean food out of a truck ― but the market had to get used to the idea, plus she couldn't execute the way she wanted to for a long time. She was easily a year or more ahead of the curve.
Why do you think San Francisco wasn't ready for street food in 2008?There's two aspects at play that have not been working in street food's favor here. A city like Los Angeles had a huge amount of dark catering trucks, primarily because the movie industry had been moving production out of L.A. So there were all these commissary trucks that were no longer in use. In that way L.A. was perfectly set up to lease mobile catering trucks to entrepreneurs.
The other thing is that it's really difficult to open a mobile catering business. The combination of infrastructure that's poorly developed and the codes ― that kept San Francisco from realizing the potential that everybody thinks of us as really being on the cutting edge. We've had this very segmented, lopsided permit structure, which has existed here a long time. It took the last year and a half of carts to move the issue forward.
Are you frustrated by how hard it still is to sell on the street legally?
You could call me frustrated. There was this clear opportunity that I saw existed. And then in the spring of 2009 something starts to happen. That's when you begin seeing Magic Curry Kart, the Sexy Soup Lady, Curtis Crème Brûlée. I suddenly started getting a ton of calls from people who were interested in doing street food ― all of them, I would say were time rich and cash poor. I was getting questions all the time from people, and really wanted to offer a resource.
Last summer is when I started doing the Cart Project stuff, as a way of easing the burden of all the people who were doing general inquiry calls to me. It was basically, honestly, Here's the top 30 questions all new mobile vendors ask when they want to know how. The idea was to do this thing for free, to help people understand what they can do to sell legally.
But you had paying clients, too, right?Really, from the beginning I had one or two clients.
And you're still getting clients?
Yeah and no. I'm more doing consulting for existing clients still. I've worked with Kung Fu Tacos, Liba [Falafel], Hapa SF. I'm helping Curtis [Kimball, aka Crème Brûlée Man] get his cart legal.
How does the consulting work?
If a client was, "I want to open this truck" ― what I used to do, and still do, is offer a turnkey solution to mobile vending operations. That means business planning, I do a feasibility study, everything from truck design, food and menu costing, pricing out different quotes for different trucks. Once the truck is built, I help with permitting, and then after that I do ongoing consulting.
Do you support yourself from it?
I do accounting also.
You mean for non-food-vendor clients?
Yes. But basically starting ― I don't know, right about spring of last year, Tabe was my main source of income. Am I getting rich doing this? No. Off the Grid is a new business, and right now, it's more about trying to break even and spread the word about street food. And trying to make the other markets a success. It takes a huge amount of time. I wake up about 6 every morning, and go to bed late every night, and spend most of my day working on this.
When did you start to map the vendors on SF Cart Project?
I basically started keeping track for myself, becuase I needed to track down my clients. I started keeping track of where they were and then retweeting it. And then I thought other people might have an interest in the information. People find value in it. I like the interaction, encouraging people to go out and try street food.
Where are things at with the expansion of Off the Grid into city parks?
Honestly I have no idea. I'm waiting on the Parks Department to get back to me with final operations information. I'd like to roll them out as fast as possible, in a way that's respectful of the neighborhood.
Will you roll out all three at once?
I'm not going to roll them out all at once, just for the sake of getting them out there. I want each to have an identity of their own.
Have you gotten any negative feedback since the news hit that Rec and Park said yes to the idea?
Nothing negative, and lots of positive comments. Everybody seems to be really, really happy with the quality of the experience at Fort Mason, and they're happy to see it spreading to other areas. It's been amazing how positive the reaction is.
How about tension with brick-and-mortar restaurants in those neighborhoods?
How much competition is street food with brick-and-mortar vendors? It's easy for a brick and mortar to look outside and say, "Those are my customers!" In reality the type of customer is going to be very different. At a restaurant, the amenities, the experience, is not something street vendors can offer. It's a different experience. I think there's more than enough room for all of us.
How do you thing street food changed in San Francisco since last summer?
I think there's definitely been a progression, partly a progression that Off the Grid will help to facilitate, a transition to a more professional culinary experience.
Follow us on Twitter: @sfoodie. Contact me at John.Birdsall@SFWeekly.com
