Midtown Lunch » Dessert Truck

Dessert Truck is Back

The ML Team — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 17:30:56 +0000

True to their word, the Dessert Truck is back in Midtown today. According to the ML Twitter Tracker they’ll be on Lexington and 55th until 3pm. Here we come chocolate bread pudding!

Dessert Truck Returning to Midtown Today

The ML Team — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 12:30:22 +0000

We were pretty excited back in July when the Dessert Truck announced they would be returning to the streets, only to be disappointed to find out that they would only be parking at Astor Place. Well, today that frustration comes to an end! We’re hearing that the Dessert Truck will be returning to Midtown for lunch every Friday of September, from Noon to 3pm, starting today! They’re gonna try to park in their old spot (55th & Lexington), but will twitter the exact location once they’re settled. Welcome back old friend!

Dessert Truck is Back Until October!

The ML Team — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 19:00:06 +0000

It was a sad day for bread pudding fans when the Dessert Truck lost their permit last year, and was forced to stop parking on the streets of Midtown. Sure, they went on to open DT Works- a brick and mortar dessert shop downtown, but going all the way to the LES for dessert during lunch isn’t realistic for most Midtown Lunchers. Well, now you don’t have to! Feast NY reported this morning that the Dessert Truck is returning to the streets this afternoon. According to twitter they got a seasonal permit, allowing them to vend on the streets until October. Today, they’ll be parked on Astor Place- but here’s hoping they’ll be back in Midtown soon! We’ve re-added them to the ML Twitter Tracker if you want to keep dibs on their location.

Dessert Truck is Back… But Not For Us

Zach Brooks — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 13:30:54 +0000

It’s been 5 months since the Dessert Truck lost their permit, and left the Midtown Lunch scene. But last week they made their triumphant return with DT Works- a brick and mortar shop on the Lower East Side- and Serious Eats and High Low Food Drink have your first look. That’s kind of close to the F train for those of you who miss their bread pudding enough to subway lunch it to the LES.

Dessert Truck Officially Belongs to the LES

Zach Brooks — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 17:15:30 +0000

It’s official… the Dessert Truck, which was closed by the city a few months ago over permit issues, is opening a brick and mortar store at 6 Clinton St. on the Lower East Side. I was going to take solace in that fact that we can still get their Chocolate Bread pudding at the RS Hotel, but they’ve now stopped doing that as well. Bummer.

Dessert Truck Returns to Midtown!!! (Sort of…)

Zach Brooks — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 16:45:56 +0000

Photo courtesy of Serious Eats: New York

Got a message today from the Dessert Truck, who lost the right to vend from their truck last month when their permit accidentally expired…

“Wanted to give you the heads up… we are starting to sell our chocolate bread pudding today at Lily’s Bar in the Roger Smith Hotel (on 46th 47th and Lex). It will be available starting today around 1pm, and will be served exactly the same way as it was served from the truck, with the same “to go” option as before. It will sell for $6. This is the only dessert we will be offering for the time being.

Regarding our return, we are optimistic we will be back soon. We are currently negotiating the terms for a space.”

Nice… their “space” is most likely not going to be in Midtown, so it’s pretty awesome that they decided to do this. The chocolate bread pudding was actually my favorite…

Dessert Truck Looks for Storefront Outside Midtown

Zach Brooks — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 17:30:34 +0000

We should probably give up hope of the Dessert Truck returning to Midtown. Chef Jerome confirms to Fork in the Road that he probably won’t try to renew their revoked permit, and instead is looking for a storefront in the LES or Village. Not a surprise. Midtown is expensive, and only seems to attract the touristy crap.

BREAKING: Dessert Truck Loses Their Permit; Chef Jerome Claims to be “Relieved”

Zach Brooks — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 20:45:39 +0000

New York City’s prohibitive rules and red tape surrounding the issuing of licenses and permits to street vendors has claimed its first “hipster” victim. The Dessert Truck announced in a letter posted to their website that the city has refused to renew the vendor’s permit they use on their truck.

August 7th, 2009

WTF?

We can’t open. Yesterday the city notified us that the mobile food vendor’s permit used by the DessertTruck is no longer valid. For reasons too confusing and vague for us to understand, the city denied the permit holder the right to renew his permit.

What does this mean?

We can’t sell on the street to passerby. It does NOT mean we are out of business – we will continue to cater private events and find a way to open to the public again. As for all the knotty red tape that binds all mobile food vendors, we’re devloping a special ray gun for that.

Thank you in advance to all our awesome customers who patiently await our return in one form or another. And a big thank you to our crew, present and past for supporting us — Bill, Colin, Craig, Grace, Jenica, Kevin, Lawpo, Luis, Mallory, Susana, Travis& Vincent!

We’ll post updates on our website and Twitter feed as they become available.

A bientÃ´t!

JerÃ´me Chang
DessertTruck

I just spoke with Jerome over the phone and he had this to say:

To tell you the truth, I actually feel a little bit relieved. Doing this kind of work is hard, and it takes a toll on you. People have no idea how much work is involved in this, the red tape, and the long hours- and to take a break from that will be refreshing.

Knowing that the city has been cracking down on the black market for permits, I asked if this was a case of the city refusing to renew an illegally obtained permit, or a case of their business partner screwing up the renewal process. He answered that it was the latter, but it doesn’t change the fact that the city is clearly getting more strict with their policies.

This is the first high profile non-renewal of a street vendor’s license, but my hunch is it won’t be the last. As a huge fan of the Dessert Truck, I can honestly say this is incredibly sad news. But other potential vendors looking to get into this business should learn a big lesson from this. Selling food on the streets of New York is not as easy as you would think. You can get all the publicity in the world and have lines down the street-lord knows the Dessert Truck has had both-but in the end it is a tough tough business. Long hours, and tons of obstacles, all to barely squeak out a living. Sure, with this new breed of vendors it can lead to appearances on the Food Network, and high paying catering jobs and corporate gigs. But the day to day work of operating a food truck on the streets of New York City is tough.

Seeing as how the Dessert Truck was one of the first, I asked Jerome if he has any advice for chefs and entrepreneurs looking to follow in his footsteps.

“Think about it carefully. Knowing what I know now, it definitely would not be my first choice.”

Dessert Truck Goes Savory

Zach Brooks — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 13:25:20 +0000

Starting today the Dessert Truck will be serving their very first non-dessert items: A smoked salmon sandwich (w/ cream cheese and chives on light puff dough) and a bacon & cheddar bread pudding. Both new items will sell for $5. The truck parks daily on 55th btw. Lex+3rd.

At Lunch Now: Live Coverage of the Kogi BBQ/Dessert Truck Midtown Mash-Up

Zach Brooks — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 15:49:26 +0000

In what should be no surprise to anybody, the line at 11:40am is already stretching down the block for the Kogi BBQ truck’s first forray into NYC. For $4 you get a kimchi quesadilla from Kogi, along with the Dessert Truck’s famous chocolate mousse with peanut butter center. All proceeds benefit Citymeals-on-wheels, and there are only 200 servings. Line count right now… 65 and growing- and the truck doesn’t open until noon!

Keep checking back right here for live updates from the scene!

11:47 AM BLOCKBUSTER: Lee Anne Wong from season one of Top Chef is on hand to help dish out the food. Why you might ask? Because she is now the executive chef of east coast operations of Kogi BBQ and will be in charge of the first Kogi BBQ truck in New York.

Live updates after the jump!

12:01 And there it is… According to one of the first lunchers: “Awesome”

12:10 View from the back of the line. It’s not moving very fast…

12:35 “About 100 left,” according to Chef Lee Anne. “But we’re blowing through them.”

12:47 Only 32 portions left. Kudos to the Serious Eats: New York team for waiting in line and paying for their food. The other “media” on hand… not so much (and by media I mean the interns the other websites sent to cover this epic event!)

12:58 And that’s it. These were the last two people to get served.