Midtown Lunch

If there was ever proof that we are a bunch of fatsos, here it is.  The Frites N Meats free french fry tour never made it Downtown yesterday, because after a stop in Midtown and a stop in the Flatiron they ran out of frites! But fear not our fat friends to the south… they’ll be hitting up the spots they missed with more free fries over the next few days.  As for their return to Midtown?  The brothers told DNAinfo that because of all the trouble trucks have been having in Midtown these days, they will not be returning.  (So it’s a good thing you scored those free fries yesterday.)

As promised last week, the Frites N Meats truck will make its triumphant return today by traveling all around NYC giving out free french fries. And the best part is, they plan on starting off their run in Midtown! According to this schedule on their blog, the truck will be on 52nd and 6th from 11 to 11:30am with free frites, before making their way down to the Flatiron and Financial Districts. Of course the schedule is just tentative, so make sure you check their twitter or the ML Twitter Tracker before heading out.

Related:
Frites N Meats Set to Return on Monday

If you checked the Twitter Tracker this morning you might have seen that Frites N Meats is gearing up to return four months after the horrible accident on the West Side Hwy that put one of the guys in the hospital and ended up with the owner being arrested and charged with reckless endangerment.  According to their blog they are going to be back on the streets Monday.  Can’t wait that long for some street food action?  Papa Perrone is on 55th w/ panelle sandwiches, Coolhaus is on 40th and 6th w/ Blue Bottle ice coffee, Crisp on Wheels is on 51st and Park, Kimchi Truck is on 47th & Lex, Wafels & Dinges has one of their carts on 60th & 5th, Eddie’s Pizza is on 46th btw. 5+6th, and Luke’s Lobster is on 55th & B’way.  As always check the ML Twitter Tracker before heading out.

Add community boards to the growing list of things that food trucks now have to worry about! In light of the Frites N Meats explosion on Monday, a member of the Tribeca community board expressed concern about about food trucks being “roving firebombs”. Even though DNAinfo has discovered that the Frites N Meats may have had more than the legal number of propane tanks on their truck at the time of the explosion, it seems a bit hyperbolic to punish all food trucks because of one rule breaker… especially considering this is the first incident like this that I can remember, and food trucks have been a part of the NYC landscape for years and years. Sadly, the anti-food truck movement will look for any reason to get rid of street vendors and this is now going to be added to the list of reasons.

Speaking of the Frites N Meats Truck… members of the NYC Food Truck Association will be donating a portion of their proceeds today to help the Frites N Meats Truck get back on their feet.

http://newyork.grubstreet.com/2011/04/is_propane_safe_for_food_truck.html

Did you see the crazy late afternoon food truck news yesterday (seemingly ripped from Friday night’s episode of CSI: New York!?)  After serving up lunch yesterday on 46th btw. 6+7th, the Frites N Meats Truck exploded on the West Side Highway en route to serving dinner in Tribeca. It’s not entirely clear what caused the explosion (DNAinfo mentions something about the truck getting into an accident with a car, while the New York Daily News makes it sound like propane tanks on the truck spontaneously caught fire and exploded) but the two employees on the truck were taken to the hospital with “serious but not life threatening” injuries. The owner Hiassam checked in late last night with this update:

We can’t believe this happened, we are shocked…  My brother, Mohamed got banged up pretty good, he will be in the hospital for a short while, everyone else is ok.  But thank God it was not worse. If you publish anything, please Thank everyone for us, the fans, the twitter followers and especially the FDNY, NYPD and EMS. Please Thank them for us. Yes…the truck is destroyed but in the long run, everyone will be fine (it could have been worse.)

Obviously the truck will be off the streets indefinitely, and we wish Mohamed a speedy recovery.

One thing we didn’t realize when we posted our write-up of Frites N Meats earlier this month was that they were under new ownership as of October ‘10. Ali, who previously worked in the truck, and his two brothers have purchased full ownership from the famously cantankerous previous owner, Vadim Ponorovsky, and are now working on damage control – trying to repair the truck’s relationship with other vendors, and earn back goodwill from lunchers around the city. Apparently they’ve also taken the constructive feedback from the comments and forums to heart and are working to make the burgers juicier without compromising on the “natural taste and quality of the meat.” Everyone deserves a second chance, so if you pay them a visit let us know if they’re making good on their promises of improvement.

Over a year has come and gone since we’ve written about the food that Frites n Meats offers to lunchers all over the city. Since then, they’ve shown quite the penchant for generating non-food headlines, whether it be the frequent tussles with other food trucks, their indirect involvement with an increased crackdown on food trucks in Midtown, or even DeBragga-gate of 2009. As interesting as it may be to read and report on restaurant and food truck drama, it’s always been about the food here at ML, and I decided to fight this week’s cold weather with their spicy jazz burger and a cup of chicken noodle soup.

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Last Tuesday the cops permanently banned food trucks from in front of the Fox News Building after the Rickshaw Dumpling Truck parked alongside the Frites N Meats Truck on 48th btw. 6+7th. And it looks like 52nd Street might be next… yesterday the Frites N Meats truck were kicked out of their spot on 52nd and 6th by the very same cops- and told that if they came back their truck would be seized. Wafels and Dinges usually spend Fridays on 52nd so I guess we’ll find out today if it was an isolated incident or a permanent ban… UPDATE: Frites N Meats got kicked off of 52nd for parking just East of 6th Ave. (an area nobody has ever successfully parked in.) Most trucks park West of 6th Ave.

Related:
Frites N Meats Calls For Rickshaw Boycott
Prediction: New Carts & Trucks Are About to See Some Serious Backlash