Our snack prayers have been answered. After studying vending operations in New York, Chicago and other cities, D.C.’s Department of Consumer & Regulatory Affairs is ready to give our street carts another go. Intimidation tactics–mob-style, we imagine–led to the 1998 moratorium on licenses, which finally ended Oct. 15.

Under the city’s phase-in program, currently licensed vendors get first dibs so they can keep their current locations. New applicants can apply for spots within the Downtown BID starting in January, and for locations in a wider zone stretching from Union Station to Georgetown in July. Citywide permits are up for grabs at the start of 2008.

Best of all, we, the eaters, get to have a say in what gets hawked around town.
DCist received this survey asking what we think of our current street vending options, how we think our vendors rank with those in other cities, and most importantly, what we think D.C.’s new vendors should sell. Do we want ethnic, healthy (seriously?), pre-packaged (as if we can’t just go to CVS for our Doritos and PowerBars) or seasonal (i.e., roasted chestnuts in winter, ice cream in summer)?

Would breakfast carts provide a much-needed service to the working masses? What would a tapas cart look like? And more importantly, would said tapas cart serve sangria? Can we request a dessert cart be strategically placed outside Washington Sports Club?

Street carts 2.0 will no doubt make for even more dawdling at Decision Corner, the downtown intersection in the middle of the lunch action, where we hem and haw with our co-workers about where to eat. But the carts’ speedy service should get us back to our cubicles on time.

Photo by andertho.