Sparks Street food battle brews as market, restaurants collide

Sparks Street might be biting off more than its customers can chew.

A battle has formed over feeding customers along the pedestrian mall, leaving food vendors reeling asrestaurants lobby for business.

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Three vendors at the newSparks Street farmers' market told CBC News they were directed by the Sparks Street Business Improvement Area to stop selling ready-made food products.

Thats because it provides direct competition for restaurants along Sparks Street who are gearing up for patio season as the customer base grows.

This comes after vendors signed an agreement with theSparks Street Mallto sell their products at the market, which runs on Thursday and Friday between O'Connor andMetcalfestreets. It featuresprepackaged food items, fresh produce, pastries and Vietnamese cuisine, such as the food stand owned by Nikki Nguyen and her sisters.

The customers we are talking to are so sad because we will not be around maybe next week, said the 23-year-oldNguyen.

Restaurants are Sparks Street's priority

Nguyen, who only immigrated to Ottawa from Vietnam one year ago with her two younger sisters, said they spent $5,000 to open their food stand. Now it looks like they will have to shut down after Sparks Street told them to stop selling ready-made food.

"What we have to do to stay is to change everything and it's not easy to do that, said Nguyen, And we had to do the math, too, to calculate the revenue and see if it's viable to stay."

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Restaurants have complained about the farmers marketdue to the competition for customers, sothe BIA has stepped up saying permanent businesses are its first responsibility.

Its not fair, you know. Its not fair if these people waited all year to get the benefit out of the nice weather or out of the traffic to have someone compete against them, said Sam Elsaadi, chairman of the BIA.

Elsaadi said the BIA is reviewing the markets vendors and their products to avoid direct competition.If some products are rejected, some vendors tell CBC News they might shut down their Sparks Street stands.

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