After the announcement a month ago that Cucpake Stop was closing, it was dead air silence- but over the weekend, their Twitter account came back to life with a flurry of activity. The trucks (and their bakery in New Jersey) will be re-opening tomorrow minus founder Lev Ekster, who “negotiated the transfer of his ownership interest in the company to his partner Richard Kallman”.  Whatever that means.

Be sure to check the daily announcement of Robicelli’s flavors and as always you can keep track of the Cupcake Stop Truck’s whereabouts on their twitter account, or check out the ML Twitter Tracker.

It’s been three weeks since the Cupcake Stop Truck and its two brick and mortar locations mysteriously shut down without any warning. We had heard that the owner Lev was leaving to pursue other opportunities and yesterday it was confirmed by their PR machine:

I just wanted to check in with an official statement from CupcakeStop founder Lev Ekster on the status of the company since you’ve covered the company since its launch. He’s unable to comment further during this negotiation period but I will be sure to keep you posted when the next announcement is made. “Within the last two months, I was offered another opportunity that I felt was extremely promising and decided to pursue it. Therefore, we are currently negotiating the sale of my portion of CupcakeStop with several parties.”

Well, that sounds very serious! Cupcakes shouldn’t be about secrecy and negotiations… they should be about sunshine and smiles.

Cupcake Stop Truck, the 2 year old food truck turned brick and mortar success story famously started by a law school grad who couldn’t get a law firm job during the recession, sent out this message via Facebook and Twitter late last night.  No other explanation has been given, and there has been radio silence from Lev (the owner).  Their website has diappeared, and the phone number at their new Greenwich Street location has been disconnected, but according to Grub Street their location in The Limelight is still open (although their phone # is disconnected as well.)

With no explanation, the theories are flowing… a bunch of Facebook commenters think it could be a hack job, but if that were true you’d think that at this point they would have issued a statement letting people know.  Another tipster thought maybe they got their money pulled out from under them?  Maybe Lev finally got that lawyer job?  Regardless of what the reason is, if it turns out to be a money issue we can only hope that will end the seemingly nonstop parade of puff pieces encouraging people to spend their life savings on opening a food truck.  (We’re looking at you Fox & Friends.)

As soon as we hear anything, we’ll let you know.

While Phillies fans and Yankees haters are choking on their free cheesesteaks this afternoon, fans of the Bronx bombers can celebrate the start of the World Series with… wait for it… cupcakes!  Both Crumbs and the Cupcake Stop Truck are offering Yankees cupcakes starting today.  Crumbs has a single limited edition cupcake for sale, while the Cupcake Stop Truck will be selling cupcakes featuring the entire Yankees lineup, both as singles and as a complete set dozen (alright, that actually sounds pretty cool.)

Need to find one of the 354 Crumbs locations in Midtown? You can do that here, and the Cupcake Stop Truck will be parked today on 47th and 3rd Ave. until 6pm (although they only have 10 dozen and I’m guessing they will go fast.)

I guess Eisenberg’s Sandwich Shop (on 5th Ave. btw. 22+23rd) is less than happy about the Cupcake Stop Truck’s Tuesday, Thursday & Friday spot right across the street from their 80 year old storefront.  It’s 10 blocks outside the Midtown Lunch boundaries, but kind of appropriate to the events of the past week. Eisenberg’s can always retaliate by opening a truck in front of the Cupcake Stop’s new East Village storefront.

Thanks to Lunch’er Rob for sending along the photo.

They were parked near my apartment on Sunday, so I decided to “sample” a box of mini cupcakes.  Check ‘em out after the jump…

From L to R: Fluffernutter, Red Velvet, Cookie Dough, Chocolate Cheesecake

I have to admit I was originally pretty skeptical about this truck.  First, I’m not really on the cupcake bandwagon.  Sure, I enjoy frosted cake just as much as the next guy… but I find cupcakes, on the whole, to be pretty dry and not that appealing.  I much prefer cookies, or pie, or pudding, or custard, or ice cream, or pretty much just about every imaginable sweet over a cupcake. I was also skeptical because the truck got a ton of big press (cable TV, major publications) before they even sold a single cupcake.  Yes the economy is terrible, and it’s interesting that a law school graduate opened a cupcake truck.  But what about the freakin’ cupcakes!  Are they even good? (What I’m trying to say is the Street Vendor Project busts their ass to get the smallest bit of mainstream media coverage.  Law school grad goes into the mobile cupcake business, and every major TV news organization is banging down his door. WTF?)

Well, depsite all that, I can tell you the box of minis kind of won me over.  At $1 a piece ($10 for a box of 12), they’re a lot of fun and I liked the unique flavors.  None of them were dry, and I especially liked the fluffernutter (peanut butter and marshmallows made from scratch) and the cookie dough cupcake, which had a cookie dough base (nice.)  Can’t speak for the large cupcakes though (they could be dry and crappy.)

Today’s flavors: “Lemon raspberry, red velvet, oreo crumb, hummingbird, peanut butter chocolate swirl.
And we’ll have cups of dark chocolate pudding.” Since this is a brand new spot for them, I’d check their twitter account (or the Midtown Lunch Twitter Tracker) before heading out.