Vendor Fight Over 6th Ave. Spot Caught on Video
A lot of news pouring in over the past few days about the third El Rey Del Sabor cart. Just to recap, their original cart is parked on 60th and 3rd, and their second cart is parked on 49th and 3rd. A month ago, they parked a third cart on 28th and 6th, but last week we heard rumors that it had disappeared. Cut to yesterday, when the cart was spotted on 43rd & 6th. This could be great news for Midtown West, if the cart ends up staying…
Apparently the owners of the El Rey del Sabor Cart got into a fight with another vendor on that corner yesterday while they were setting up. And Lunch’er “Jer” caught it all on video.
Check it out, after the jump…
“Not sure if you’ll find this interesting but figured I’d send it along, its from [yesterday] morning at about 10am’ish. Background: There is a greek street cart on 43&6th (to the left of the cameras view). At about 10am a Mexican street cart tries to move next to the Greek cart. Greek woman gets real angry… insanity ensues. If you are wondering what all the honking is about, the greek woman was standing on the Mexican guys cart (which was blocking the street) so no cars could get by. Traffic was blocked all the way across to the east side of 6th ave.
Around 1:15-1:20 into the video, the greek woman slaps the Mexican guy in the red hat, and right after that one of the Greek guys got tossed. Unfortunately, my camera stopped recording at 3:00. About a minute after the recording stopped, more punches were thrown, and then the police showed up.”
Yikes. We are well aware of El Rey del Sabor’s toughness (they managed to hold off Rafiqi’s in order to stay in their 49th Street spot) but 43rd & 6th is some pretty sought after real estate. I guess we’ll see if they show up again today. If you spot them, put it in the comments.
(Side Note: The Schnitzel Truck was hoping to park on 6th Ave. and 43rd or 44th today. Curious to see how that works out…)
Related:
Rule #1 of Vendor Fight Club is You Don’t Talk About Vendor Fight Club
Rafiqi’s Tries To Intimidate New Mexican Cart From 49th Street
Posted: 10:30 am, August 25th, 2009 under El Rey Del Sabor, Street Vendor Issues, Videos.
42 Comments | RSS comments feed for this post
ADVERTISEMENT
42 Comments
-
-
These people are so f’in stupid.
More carts in one place will bring more people to the location. The entire pie gets bigger.
Would anyone have even noticed if there were one red hook food vendor?
Would anyone crowd Boston’s Faneiul Hall Marketplace if there were ONE food stall?
In any event, I don’t like these mexican carts, at least the couple I’ve tried (Talking to you Big Sombrero!) but I know where I’m going for lunch. It’s a little outside my zone, but 6th and 43rd for some mexican is where I’ll be today. And I’m bringing my camera – oh yeah!
Can anyone report on if these guys are there today?
-
First rule of fight club…
-
If it means getting Sabor closer to my westside work, then I’ll be right behind them backing them up (definitely right behind their big dude.. or hiding behind their cart.. or maybe in their cart munching on some tamales.. whatever! you get my point). That said, what’s the greek lady selling… anything tasty? Props to Lunch’er Jer for making my morning rivetting!!
-
That was f’ing awesome. I kind of want to punch that lady in her mouth b/c she is annoying, but as I’ve been advocating a free market, I would have to support her and her cart reluctantly.
-
Hate to see what happens when the world cup comes around
-
I am too soft for the food cart business.
-
HAHAHAHAHAHA.
I’m serious, this is about the most hilarious thing I’ve ever seen.
When it comes to food carts, I’m for a free market because you’re going to want people who care about what they do and love the product they put out. This is how we’re going to get good, delicious, and safe food. But since we don’t have a free market, I say they should all go all out. Take it to the next level, until we get to the point where the city has to step in because it’s getting outta control.
-
Does this bat-sh*t crazy woman really think someone is going to head for her Greek cart, see the Rey cart, and say “hmm…since it’s SO SIMILAR, I’m going for the Mexican Cart, even though I want Greek food”
If she had any confidence in her own food, she would welcome the opportunity to steal Rey’s customers. I can’t think of any other word to describe her (and her food, likely) besides WEAKSAUCE.
Zach, this may require a Rafiqi-esque ban (or negative feature) for this Greek Cart on ML.com
-
God I hate to be so biased in what I’m sure is such a complicated situation, but those guys at El Rey de Sabor III have been so awfully nice to me in the past I’m inclined to be unquestioningly sympathetic towards their side. Come back to Herald Sq!
-
@MikeNYC – You can’t even compare the food at the sombrero cart to El Rey del Sabor. These guys are the real deal!
-
Oh, and I don’t think that “greek” cart serves greek food. I think it’s one of those $1 hot dog carts…
-
I actually tried to go to the 60th and 3rd location yesterday. The cart was missing. I thought it was strange.
One thing to keep in mind. Don’t f**k with the greeks.
-
Beware Greeks Bearing Fists.
……good eh?
-
I would just pay $5-$8 to see vendors fight for an hour, ha ha. Ridiculous
-
I love the Sombrero cart, but yah, it doesn’t compare to the sabor carts.
-
Are they back at 43rd and 6th today?
-
CNN….breaking news….President Obama has ordered all vendors will have their tickets renewed by AL Sharpton.
I hope you all like rice and peas.
……and as Sgt.Phil used to say….”Hey!! let’s be careful out there”
-
Mike – I’m going to give it a shot. If they arent, there’s a ton of fallback options. The schitzel truck, kosher oasis, moishes, biryani cart, kwik meal, etc etc etc.
-
Brave man, that adamprato… let us know what you find. hey get the guy in the red hat’s autograph.. he’s gonna be the next Mucha Lucha star!!
-
Anyone interested, they are back today, and to quote, “will be there today, tomorrow and everyday” I’m happy since they are downstairs from my office, no more hiking up to Bloomingdales.
-
Crazy!!! El Rey del Sabor should common over to 38th-40th we need options other than Chipotle.
-
I saw them this morning on 43rd and 6th. this was at about 8:30am. no crazy greeks there at the time.
-
Don’t hate on the Sombrero cart, man. They’re aiming at (better) American Mexican food, while Sabor is going for authentic Mexican. Apples and oranges.
I mean, geez, they have a Big. Sombrero. On the cart. Nothing screams authentic Mexican like a big sombrero!
-
Okay, El Ray’s cart on 43rd and 6th is there. They don’t seem to have as big a menu (the only “menu” are the pictures of the food), and they’re a bit new there (he said he couldn’t mix enchiladas).
I told him that I saw the fight on the internet, and he was shocked/happy. He asked how I saw it and told him about this website. I told him to stick his ground (how many halal carts do we need on a single city block).
Hopefully he’ll stick around and start doing enchilada combos (I could do a single chorizo enchilada with other chicken ones, but 3 chorizo enchiladas is too much).
-
Just spoke to the El Rey dudes and apparently they’re there to stay! Woohoo!
-
I’m really surprised carts aren’t aware of this site.
Had I a cart, I’d stick to this site like white (sauce) on (jasmine) rice, and use it as much as I could.
-
I walked to the corner today and looked around but didn’t see anything that I thought would have been it. Just the Trini Pak on one corner and then what I thought was a standard halal cart and a hot dog cart on the other. Which corner were they on?
-
Don’t fuck with a Mexican.
-
Moons – right past the hotdog cart.
The hotdog cart woman is who was yelling loudly in the video. It turns out that’s her normal tone of voice. I was waiting for my order and she was talking loudly to someone, and I realized she was the one in the video.
-
The Sabor cart is on 43rd st, between 6th & 7th (closer to 6th) on the north side of the street.
-
@adamprato, thanks for the info and for smiling it up with that new “reality star”
Hey Zach, that red hatted mexican warrior deserves an interview… what was the (greek?) guy saying that really set him off to toss him (with one arm.. whoa!!)
-
Before watching this video, every morning when I passed by the woman by the hot dog cart, I used to think, “what a sweet old lady.” Turns out, she’s a tough old bird. I’ll be buying a hot dog from her this week. And maybe a taco next door too.
-
Finally got a chance to try this place as the others were too far from my office. Wanted to try the tacos but they were out of tortillas (I went at about 1:40) but they were getting more. I opted with the chorizo torta and man was it good. Will be back often as I talked to the guys and they said they would be there for good!
I also told them that I watched the video online and they had a nice laugh about it.
-
Jeff – You can find the “red hatted mexican warrior” at the 60th and 3rd cart….though he has a camo hat on today.
-
they never left the spot. el rey del sabor cart is there to say. =D
-
[...] captured a fight between two street vendors in an apparent turf war. Can’t we all get along? [Midtown Lunch] Tags: The Feed [...]
-
Holy crap! Take one day off from work and I miss out on the ML story of the year “Lunch Cart Ladies Gone Wild!!”"
Awesome job with the video Luncher “Jer”!!!!
-
@1:00, blatantly flirting with the cameraman.
-
i see that people keep tossing the ‘different target market’ concept around but you forget to consider one important business factor: substitute/indirect competition
although she wasn’t completely levelheaded, she was right to be upset because they DO pose as a threat.
instead of seeing this as mexican vs hot dog, think of this as food vs food or Lunch Option A vs Lunch Option B. the more choices a consumer has, the less likely they’ll default to her cart.
every customer lost is a %age loss in her revenue. carts are scraping by and can’t spare any change to upgrade or allow a competitor to set up shop beside them.
-
Deanlo, I see a flaw in this logic. Every kind of store with the possible exception of supermarkets exists in a cluster. How many restaurant rows do we have in nyc? We have blocks with bodegas on all 4 corners. 9th avenue has a thai restaurant, on nearly every block! If I am in the mood for ice cream, I am not suddenly going to change my mind and buy a burrito.
-
@vdub, with a few exceptions to this statement, most people don’t consider ice cream to be a proper lunch. :P
And I get your point of view but it’s not exactly addressing what I was talking about. Yes, the Thai restaurants are in direct competition. if you’re in the mood for thai, you’re going to have to choose one of those blocks to eat at based on your constraints (price, distance, service, time). This is only possible because you have all of those choices. If there were only one Thai restaurant and you were bent on having Thai (regardless of price, distance, service, time), then that would most likely be your go-to for Thai.
Now, let’s not consider just thai restaurants but all food establishments. If you’re hungry, did not pack lunch, did not want delivery, had a strict 1 hour break, and there were only one food cart within miles of where you work, would you not default to that cart? In this case, it wouldn’t matter what you were craving because at the most basic level, you’re just hungry
Jesus…we should start a non-profit organization, M.L.A.V.O.V.V. (Midtown Lunchers Against Vendor on Vendor Violence)…just rolls off the tongue doesn’t it?!
This is getting ridiculous, at least the Sabor crew has some big dudes. He dropped that old Greek guy with one finger…