Midtown Lunch

The Schnitzel & Things Truck has always been open to ideas from its customers (hello Schnitzel Down!) but yesterday they kind of took things to another level when they asked via Twitter what their fans would like to Schnitzified (i.e. battered and deep fried.) Naturally the answer they got ranged from normal (tilapia, eggplant, hot dogs) to slightly abnormal (ice cream, gyro meat), to “how the f would that work” (blueberry pie!?) So, what would you like to see schnitzified? Put it in the comments.

Oh, and if you were wondering what happened with their whole fight with the Frites N Meats truck? It looks like they’ve made up. Nothing like a little public shaming to bring two old friends back together again!

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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Ask and ye shall receive. Ever since we asked the Schnitzel & Things truck to create their own version of the KFC double down the Schnitzel Lab has been hard at work at a sandwich creation that uses veal chicken schnitzel instead of a bun.  Well, the testing has come to and end and today the truck will debut the Schnitzel Down! For those of you who are unfamiliar with the crime against nature that is the KFC double down, the schnitzel down is two piece of wiener chicken schnitzel sandwiched around cheese and bacon (no bun.)  They’ll only have limited quantities, and it’s definitely not going to be a regular item (and for good reason)… so if you’re excited by this, you might want head to the truck early today.  They’ll be parked on 46th btw. 5+6th.

Related:
When Can We Expect the “Schnitzel Down”?

Photo uploaded to the ML Flickr Pool by Phude-NYC

You know what would make these two deliciously fried cutlets even better? Bacon! And Cheese! Maybe the Schnitzel & Things Truck will take a cue from KFC and introduce a Schnitzel Down: Two crispy slabs of veal with cheese and salty bacon in between. I say if they are going to be accused of being a terrorist threat, they might as well go all the way!

Photo courtesy of @Remy

Is there any truck in Midtown that gets into more trouble than the Schnitzel & Things truck? There was the fight with Mister Softee, the catching on fire, having their tires slashed, and having the cops called on them by Fox News.  But this could be the craziest.  According to Business Insider (via Grub Street), they were forced to leave their spot on 54th and Lex after somebody from the Citigroup building called the cops and claimed they were a terrorist threat.  Sure, the aftermath of a schnitzel burger could be considered a dirty bomb of sorts- but terrorist threat?  That’s a little extreme, don’t you think?

Even though they packed up and left on Friday (it was the end of lunch service anyway), the truck doesn’t seem too deterred.  According to this weeks schedule they’ll be back on 54th and Lex again this Friday.

Photo courtesy of Lunch’er “Shavon”

Reports are pouring in from 48th and 6th, where apparently the Schnitzel & Things Truck is being asked to leave by the cops. From Lunch’er “Joseph”:

Cops told the Schnitzels people that once they were done serving people in line, they had to close up. Apparently (according to the owner), it was because Fox was complaining about the truck being in their space.

I see. So trucks are an exciting new trend, and a commendable small business… until the cameras are turned off. 48th and 6th… isn’t that the same spot Fox News does all their “street trucks are great!” interview pieces?

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Have you ever been kind of jealous of the winners of Zach’s various cart tours?  Even though I work in midtown and can hit the great midtown carts anytime I want, there’s something to be said about the fun of taking on a bunch of them at once.  To really do it right you need strength in numbers, so when I learned that a couple of my friends from Seattle, would be in town and free for lunch during the week, I started plotting potential food adventures.  Both of them regularly read Blondie & Brownie and they were jealous of the midtown cart/food truck scene.  The more I thought about it, the more convinced I became that we should try to hit as many carts for as many different types of foods as possible and with that in mind, may a present Brownie’s Cart Canyon Tour: 10 carts/10 cuisines/$10 a person…

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