Midtown Lunch

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

Like sand through the hourglass… another day, another fight between food trucks. Apparently the Rickshaw Dumpling Truck decided they wanted to test out 48th & 6th today, a spot that Frites N Meats has been cultivating on Tuesdays and Fridays for awhile now. The result? Security from the Fox News Building called the peddler unit of the NYPD, and everybody got kicked out (and according to FnM owner Vadim, the word permanently was used.) This spot on 48th has seen its fair share of trouble in the past, but clearly the trucks worked things out with the building who doesn’t seem to mind the trucks (Cravings is there on Mondays, Frites N Meats is there Tuesdays and Fridays. Eddie’s Pizza is there on Wednesdays, and Schnitzel is there on Thursdays) as long as it’s only one per day. I guess we’ll see what happens tomorrow when Eddie’s Pizza shows up to the spot. As for the trucks today? Rickshaw has settled on 52nd and Lex, and Frites N Meats has settled on 52nd and 6th, although you’ll probably want to check the ML Twitter Tracker just to be safe.

More after the jump…

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This morning we posted about an argument between the Frites N Meats Truck and Schnitzel & Things over a spot downtown… S&T has been taking a bit of heat in the comments so Oleg, the owner of the truck, felt the need to tell his complete side of the story.

As you know from this morning’s post on Midtown Lunch- on Wednesday May 5th, the owner of Frites N Meats, Vadim Ponorovsky blogged about a “situation” that happened between his truck and another vendor. He declined to mention the vendor’s name, but when he gave the example, he mentioned it was a truck that parked on Broad & Water streets on Tuesday’s. The truck’s name he wouldn’t mention was indeed “Schnitzel & Things”. Well, we feel that we must address some of the things Mr. Ponorovsky said, and address the absurd claims of threats of violence. What’s missing from his blog post is the personal relationship that we developed over time, throughout which he would consistently ask to park at locations that we scouted ourselves, which was fine with us. We want to be accommodating and reasonable with all the vendors including “old school” and “new school”.

We never wanted to make this a public issue because there is no need for it. Unfortunately, Mr. Ponorovsky didn’t have the same sentiment.

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As more and more “new school” trucks started hitting the streets over the past few years there was a lot of talk about Old School vs. New School vendor clashes. Well, more recently is seems like we’ve been hearing about a lot more fights between Old-New-School trucks and New-New-School trucks. The latest battle took place on Monday between two well known Midtown trucks, over a shared Downtown spot… and yesterday Frites N Meats (one of the trucks involved) took to their blog to vent about it:

We, at Frites’N’Meats, are pretty much live and let live people. We have no interest in interfering with others, disrespecting others or foisting our beliefs or ways of doing things on others. We believe that it’s not cool to go to a spot that a person has occupied every day for years and essentially force them out for your benefit, but we do not think that just because you occupy a certain spot one day a week that you somehow “own” that spot the other days that you’re not there…I know that sounds a little confusing, so let me provide an example without using names.

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Photo courtesy of Ambitious Delish

Unsurprisingly, the Frites N Meats Truck’s first day in Midtown (on 52nd btw. 6+7th) has been an eventful one! According to Lunch’er MattZ, the line was 30 people long by 12:30 and they stopped taking orders at 1:30pm. But the real kick in the balls came at the end of service… according to Esther from Ambitious Delicious the cops hassled the truck for parking in a metered spot and forced them to leave. Thankfully they let them serve out the rest of the customers who had already ordered, but other sources say the cop told the truck if they parked on that street again they’d be towed.

Between that and the mixed reviews in the comments we’re not sure what this will mean for future visits to Midtown (after all the La Cense burger truck started off strong before petering out and disappearing.)

Forgetting about the comparisons with the Carnegie John’s burger for now, Lunch’er Adam Prato seemed to like it. His report is after the jump…

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According to their blog, the Frites N Meats truck might be coming to Midtown on Wednesday. The burger truck (which features grass fed beef, and crazy toppings) was originally only permitted to park Downtown (on Greenwich and Chambers) but they recently scored a citywide permit and are looking to spread their wings. None of us have tried it, but Chris had good things to say about it on the Downtown section of ML. (And it clearly will be better than La Cense!) They haven’t decided on an exact spot yet (and it might end up being in the Flatiron) but they’re open to suggestions. You can see where they end up by following them on Twitter.

Related:
Your First Look at the Frites N Meats Burger