Comments on: Beyond Food Carts: Perhaps Decatur Needs a “Hawker Center”

By: karass

karass — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 14:52:29 +0000

How are the New Orleans Snoball Cafe and the bubble tea place in the North Decatur (Bike South) shopping plaza doing? Both seem to offer tastes not usually seen around Decatur.

By: AlN

AlN — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 14:26:22 +0000

This would be an awesome thing for Decatur. One thing that this city needs more of is ethnic diversity–especially in our restaurant offerings. There is not one Asian restaurant in the city that serves anything close to authentic food. I’ve spoken with the Indonesian staff at Sushi Avenue and the Korean staff at Chinese places, and they tell me that restaurants serving their native fare would not succeed in our city. As an Asian American, it continually disgusts me both that too many Americans–even in as liberal a city as Decatur–think that General Tso’s chicken is real Chinese food and are not willing to expand their palates.

Food stalls, with their lower overhead, might allow owners of authentic restaurants to expand outside of Buford Highway, and maybe even let a few enterprising chefs of more challenging cuisines find an audience.

I would hope that a great idea like this would garner support from citizens, but I fear that local businesses would fight it. I would love to see how existing restaurants would face the challenge–Iberian pig adding balut to its menu? Yogurt Tap featuring durian flavored frozen yogurt? Brick store grilling up some tasty goose uterus yakitori?

By: sfmaster

sfmaster — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 21:11:10 +0000

Ferry Plaza market in San Francisco on a Saturday morning has some of the best food in the world. And it isn’t super bargain compared to say Fast Food, but it is compared to restaurant food.

Sign me up. I say you could go “pop up” on any given day and draw a following…. tables are a key thing….

By: AT

AT — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 17:36:26 +0000

Oops. I mis-typed Tsinghua.

By: AT

AT — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 17:35:10 +0000

When I was studying at Tsinguha Univ. (suburban Beijing) there was this type of market. Cheap food and beer. You could eat and have a beer for about $3. Would be nice to have this in Decatur and I would gladly pay $7. Would be a great idea for lunch too. What about one of the churches? Don’t they have parking lots they don’t use during the week?

By: SAHM

SAHM — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 13:18:51 +0000

Love this idea. It will not impact local restaurants because it will bring more people in. We (family that eats out 3 times a week) will continue to frequent our local restaurants. (Stay at home mom not stay at home cook!)
Yummy gourmet food trucks like in Portland.
Decatur would rock even more.
The vacant lot comment was funny.

By: TeeRuss

TeeRuss — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 12:12:41 +0000

I wouldn’t say Decatur “needs” any such thing. We’ve got 40+ restaurants around the Square as is. Around 100 or so throughout our 4 square miles. It’s a cool idea, but at our saturation level it would probably impact existing businesses.

By: ancylostoma

ancylostoma — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 11:59:52 +0000

behind the old wachovia. wont work if it is not where people walk by.