Midtown Lunch

Since the first new school trucks started appearing in New York 3 years ago we’ve worked hard to shine a light on all the tough barriers to entry they face.  From cops to brick and mortar stores to other vendors, starting a food truck in this city is not easy. In addition to the finite number of permits (which are impossible to get without turning to the black market), current laws make it incredibly difficult to find a truly legal spot on the street, and inconsistent (and oftentimes incorrect) enforcement makes it hard for the vendors to know what is permissible and what isn’t. And yet, despite all of these issues, food trucks continue to operate and expand… and thankfully food trucks lovers (like us) haven’t seen the Government (or the police) take a hard line stance against these new trucks- that is, until now.

Tomorrow afternoon City Council members Jessica Lappin (from the UES) and Karen Koslowitz (from Queens) will introduce a new local law that will give the Department of Health authority to suspend any vending permit issued to a truck with two parking tickets (i.e. feeding the meter or idling) in a 12 month period, and revoke the permit of a truck that receives three parking tickets in a 12 month period.   The goal is to get trucks to not idle in parking spaces all day long- but the result will essentially be to put all food trucks out of business.

I spoke with Council Member Lappin earlier today to find out exactly what she hopes to accomplish by doing this…

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Yesterday the New York Post reported that the Street Vendor Project was rolling out a program that would enable its vendors to accept credit cards. The pilot program, which launches today, is in the very beginning stages- so you probably won’t be able to charge that chicken and rice platter anytime soon but if it is successful it will be offered to all the Street Vendor Project members down the line (right now, a Soho hot dog vendor is the only food vendor in Manhattan accepting plastic.)  In Los Angeles practically all the new generation trucks accept credit cards, and it’s pretty awesome for the customers and the vendors. On the other hand, the lines at some carts are long enough- and the last thing the Biriyani Cart or Famous Halal Guys need is to be slowed down by a credit card machine!

It sounds like they see it that way too.  PIX filed a report, and ended up interviewing the Famous Halal Guys cart on 52nd and 6th.  Check it out after the jump…

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Listen, we would be pretty excited if a truck parked outside our office selling gravy and cheese curd topped french fries, but there’s something about this story that’s a little laughable.  Fork in the Road reported this morning that T Poutine, in the Village, has closed up shop because they couldn’t get a liquor license. But they plan on reopening the restaurant somewhere else- and in the meantime, “we’ll probably get some food trucks around to keep spreading the Canadian poutines!”

Sure! Why not?  “Get some food trucks”. You know… because getting a food truck license is soooo easy.  We so want to get our hopes up for this, but our prediction: never going to happen.  (And if it does it will be short lived.)

Related:
News Flash: New Street Vendors Are Finding It Difficult to Make Money

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 Ultraclay

The Diner’s Journal blog reported yesterday that the Times Square Alliance is now accepting applications for concessions in the pedestrian plaza in Times Square. The 15 page invitation/application [PDF] that was sent out to various local businesses yesterday is pretty broad about what they will and will not accept (it doesn’t necessarily have to be food), but the important part for us was these words in section III: “Mobile carts or other light structures that can change position will be considered.”  How great would it be if some of our favorite food vendors had real spots, in Times Square, free from the cops or other brick and mortar businesses in the area?  And, quite frankly, what’s better than street food?  The tourists already have plenty of big box, big name, food options in Times Square… hopefully the folks at the Times Square Alliance will use this as an opportunity to give the hard working natives of Midtown something to get super excited about!

Applications are due by the end of May.  What would you guys like to see on the streets of Times Square?

Got a number of reports about the little “clash” this morning on 55th btw. Park+Mad that was briefly mentioned in the ML twitter tracker post this morning.   From Lunch’er “K”:

“FYI, went to get a waffles at the wafels and dinges truck on 55th street (madison and park) and they look like they are closed down.  Papa Perrones is on the phone yelling at someone and the wafels guy is with him.  Papa Perrones seems to be really upset that they are on his turf.  Hopefully they can work it out and the wafels and dinges truck won’t have to move.”

Thomas from Wafels and Dinges jumped in to explain what happened in the comments…

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A few weeks ago the city announced that restaurants would be forced to hang Department of Health issued letter grades in their window (California style).  Now, a city council member is trying to get that rule extended to food carts as well. (link via Eater) Naturally the Street Vendor Project is completely against it, and the complaint is practically identical to those leveled by  the brick and mortar restaurants: “The problem is that the tickets the health department gives have almost nothing to do with actual health and safety,” says Sean Basinski.  In other words, does a cart deserve a “B” because the vendor wasn’t displaying their license properly? Or had their drink cooler on the sidewalk? And how does that really relate to the “cleanliness” of the food.

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It’s no secret that Midtown brick and mortar businesses don’t like street trucks, and we’ve seen them go to great lengths to chase vendors away.  Obviously we are completely against calling the cops or moving street planters, but how can we be mad about free food!  Yesterday via @aschwartz:

Free dumplings from Oxford Cafe on 52nd and Lex, doing battle with the Rickshaw Truck

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