Midtown Lunch

I wanted to play down the Portland carts vs. New York City carts part of this morning’s post about Mayor Bloomberg, but in typical underdog fashion dieselboi from Food Carts Portland is looking to turn it into a fight “discussion”. The truth is, some arguments aren’t even worth having- and I think this might be one of them, right? Don’t get me wrong… Portland is an amazing food city, which has experienced a cart explosion over the past few years. And in that time PFC, which is one of my all time favorite blogs, has been there to cover the action. The city boasts some pretty spectacular looking street carts, with pretty much every kind of food you could possibly imagine being offered (we would kill for some Thai food from a cart in Midtown!)

But in the end it’s not really a fair fight…

Read more »

The Mayor & Contessa Brewer Eating Street Meat. Photo Courtesy of Eater.

Who would have guessed it but the mayor likes spicy street food! Eater reported on Friday that Mayor Bloomberg visited the Calexico Cart down in SoHo and enjoyed a steak burrito extra spicy while being interviewed by NBC.  According to this article in the New York Post he was being asked to respond to comments made by the Mayor of Portland claiming that their street food is better than New York’s.  I’ve got no comment on that (!?!) but was really surprised to see Bloomberg enjoying some street food.  I always assumed he was in the Guiliani camp when it came to vendors (good old Rudy would have been happy to have seen them all disappear), but it’s good to hear he was defending our vendors against Portland.

As for what he really thinks?  I emailed Sean Basinski from the Street Vendor Project (the non profit organization that runs the Vendy Awards and advocates for vendors here in NYC) to get the lowdown…

Read more »

Following in the Post’s footsteps (who published a story yesterday about “Plantergate”), local news stations WPIX and CBS2 become the latest “real” media outlet to use Midtown Lunch as a source for their stories.  WPIX interviewed a “gee-roh” vendor on 52nd & 7th, while CBS2 hit up the Kosher Oasis cart, and both talked to Edgar from the El “Rydell” Sabor cart. Neither station seems to realize these fights have been going on for decades, but their enthusiasm is infectious. And, just like the reporter from PIX said… I can’t wait to see “what happens over the next couple of weeks!”

Check out the two videos after the jump…

Read more »

So it looks like the saga dubbed “Plantergate” by various Midtown Lunchers is not quite over.  Just to bring everyone up to speed… Mexican cart El Rey del Sabor parked their third cart on 43rd and 6th Ave., and was immediately confronted by a hot dog cart owner from the same block (caught on video here.)  That proved unsuccessful, but when El Rey del Sabor showed up to their spot last Monday, they found that it had been blocked by shoddily installed planters, and the next day they were removed.  An article about Vendor Wars in this morning’s NYPost has confirmation from the landlord of the building that it was in fact vandalism (in addition to similar stories from newcomers Kosher Oasis, and the Downtown Cart Little Ochi’s Hot Spot.)  On Wednesday El Rey del Sabor returned, and ran out of food by 1:30pm (there just ain’t a lot of good Mexican food in Midtown.)

The latest happened on Friday… according to the guys at the El Rey del Sabor cart, the building has now decided to reinstall the planters on that block.  They had marked the sidewalk with spray paint, and were planning on putting the planters in over the weekend.  Depending on the size of the planters, and there exact location on the sidewalk, it could mean the end for all vending on that block.  We’ll see today when the carts show up to park.  If anybody passes by today, feel free to post updates in the comments or forward along a photo.

If there was any doubt the building had nothing to do with the shoddily installed planters that blocked the El Rey Del Sabor cart from parking on 43rd and 6th the other day, they were erased yesterday. Lunch’er Jeff sends in this update:

Walked real fast near where the El Sabor/Greek Hotdog Lady battle went down… bad news, didn’t see the El Sabor cart but good news some maintenance men were out there working hard to move the planters. Can’t be 100% what the situation was but they definitely were chopping off and cracking the cement that glued them down… and they were definitely lifting the planter boxes to move them around a bit.

Another comment confirmed that they were completely gone by 3pm. So… one would think that would clear the way for the return of the El Rey Del Sabor cart today! If you’re on the scene, let us know if they’re there serving up tacos and enchiladas.

UPDATE: From the comments… “They’re back again today!” The cart, not the planters…

Related:
The Latest Weapon in the Vendor Wars is… Sidewalk Planters!?

If you haven’t been following the battle going on between the new El Rey del Sabor Cart and the Greek hot dog vendor on 44th 43rd btw. 6+7th, here’s a quick recap.  El Rey del Sabor moves their third cart to 44th 43rd and 6th.  Hot dog vendor gets very angry.  The fight is caught on video. A few days later the cops show up and get involved. Numerous reports come in from Lunchers observing a noticeably angry looking hot dog vendor every single time anybody buys anything from the new Mexican cart.  And now, there’s the latest…  two planters have been placed on the part of the sidewalk that El Rey del Sabor was using.

But here’s the crazy thing, the building denies doing it…

Read more »

It seems that every time I advise the new crop of trucks to find… how should I put it… less threatening corners of Midtown to park in, a common theme pops up among those who disagree: Natural Selection.  Survival of the fittest baby!  Let the carts all park where they want, and fight it out for ultimate supremacy.  The good ones will thrive, the bad ones will die. It’s the capitalist way.  Hell, it’s the American way.  And quite frankly, we all would gladly trade 20 dirty water dog carts for 1 schnitzel truck.

There’s only one problem.  Allowing that argument to play itself out in the streets of Midtown might actually undermine the survival of all carts (the good and the bad.)

Read more »

When it rains it pours. Got this email from Lunch’er Brian late yesterday afternoon: “El Rey Del Sabor on 43rd and 6th got a summons today, as did the old lady. Appears it was one of the buildings across the street. I was talking to the guys in the cart. They are really nice but they are concerned that the police are going to chase them from the spot. It’s possible this is fallout from the confrontation on Monday.“

Apparently the Schnitzel & Things Truck didn’t like what I had to say this morning about the issues they had yesterday on 43rd & 6th Ave:

“Just saw your little piece on ML. To be quite honest I don’t really care who you side with. It doesn’t matter to us one bit. But one thing you should know is that our business DOES in fact rely on heavy foot traffic! And because I am on Twitter, it doesn’t give me the right to park where we feel we will get the most customers?

You side with the “old school” but your solution for us, to go find a quiet street isn’t actually a solution that works at all. Instead of siding maybe you should realize that it’s not our fault! There is a conflict situation at hand and I understand the other point of view just as much as you, but I have a business to run and I need to hit my targets on a daily basis to stay profitable. And if it means that I have to stand my ground and get threats from an ice cream guy, so be it.”

Read more »