Midtown Lunch

By the time I walked up to the Schnitzel & Things Truck around 1:30pm yesterday, most of the action had already ended.  But  I was just in time to catch a Mister Softee truck driver berating the owners of the Schnitzel truck.  Explaining to them that his truck had been parked on this corner for years, and that they couldn’t park here, and that they were ruining it for everybody.  “”There are a million corners to park in New York City! This one is mine.” Both trucks had been kicked out of their spots by the cops, who claimed that they had been receiving “complaints.”   And even though the Schnitzel Truck had twittered earlier about trouble from a halal guy, it’s more likely the complaints came from the businesses in the area (possibly the Verizon store on that corner.)

Once the news broke, Schnitzel fans everywhere lashed out at the cops, the halal guy, and the Mister Softee truck vendor- who I watched threaten the owners of the Schnitzel Truck.  And while I don’t believe in vendors threatening other vendors, and I really want schnitzel to be available in Midtown as often as possible, I have to side with the Mister Softee truck on this one.  And it’s not too difficult to understand why.

Read more »

A lot of news pouring in over the past few days about the third El Rey Del Sabor cart. Just to recap, their original cart is parked on 60th and 3rd, and their second cart is parked on 49th and 3rd. A month ago, they parked a third cart on 28th and 6th, but last week we heard rumors that it had disappeared. Cut to yesterday, when the cart was spotted on 43rd & 6th. This could be great news for Midtown West, if the cart ends up staying…

Apparently the owners of the El Rey del Sabor Cart got into a fight with another vendor on that corner yesterday while they were setting up. And Lunch’er “Jer” caught it all on video.

Check it out, after the jump…

Read more »

A little piece in the Wall Street Journal’s “Small Business” section today recommends three ways to make opening a food truck more profitable, including using twitter, finding a good location, and buying your truck secondhand. As examples it mentions the Treats Truck, and Spencer on the Go, a cart in San Francisco that makes a 50% profit margin selling takeway frog’s legs, escargot, and sweet breads a few blocks away from their restaurant, where the margins are only 10%. (Uh… can we get one of these carts please!?!?)  Of course if you’re thinking of jumping into the food truck business here in NYC, don’t expect your margins to be that high.  Spencer to Go owns the parking lot in SF where they set up shop, bypassing a huge expense to owning a food truck here in NYC: paying for parking at night, and finding a legal spot to vend during the day (where you won’t be ticketed or hassled by other vendors.)

Related:
So You’re Still Thinking of Opening a Food Truck!?!
How Twitter Actually Hurts Street Vendors
Rule #1 of Vendor Fight Club is You Don’t Talk About Vendor Fight Club

Well, considering all the negative comments the Rickshaw Dumpling Truck has gotten from Midtown Lunchers since opening last year I can’t say I’m completely surprised by the reaction to their Vendy Award nomination.  While some might be upset because Rickshaw is an offshoot of a restaurant, or not really the type of vendor that represents the true spirit of the awards- most are focusing on the fact that they just don’t like the dumplings. There have been cries of foul play, and just general disbelief in the comments, and one guy even asked on Twitter if he could return his ticket for a full refund. Serious Eats grand poo-bah Ed Levine, a former Vendy judge himself, posted a comment to SENY displaying a similar disbelief.

What do I think?

Read more »

Hi,

I’ve been visiting NYC for several years now and have always wanted to try some of the food carts. Big reason why I never tried is I’m scared if the food is clean or not. I go to NYC for vacation and don’t want to end up in the hospital for food poisoning or something worse. So my question is how safe is it to eat cart food?

Thanks,
Daphnie

My dear sweet Daphnie. Daphnie Daphnie Daphnie. Have you read a single word on this website? Are you seriously asking me this question, as if the answer would be anything other than “of course it’s safe!”  We do an annual event called “Street Meat Palooza” for god’s sake.  It’s like asking Joey Chestnut if it’s safe to eat hot dogs, or Amy Winehouse if it’s safe to shoot up heroin.  Of course it’s safe… well, for most people.

Read more »

Grub Street has a great look at all the things that go into opening a food truck in New York City, including start-up costs, obtaining permits, and finding a location. It’s spot on about permits and the difficulty finding a spot to vend in, though I would caution that it’s a little too optimistic about profit margins:

“According to one business plan we’ve seen (but never came to fruition), a pizza truck seeking $300,000 in start-up capital expected to make money right away. High volume and excellent margins can be a reality for trucks. For this pizza concept the profit margin was estimated to be over 50 percent, as compared to a good restaurant, where the margins aren’t greater than 10 percent, if you’re lucky.”

Is that true?

Read more »

New York City’s prohibitive rules and red tape surrounding the issuing of licenses and permits to street vendors has claimed its first “hipster” victim. The Dessert Truck announced in a letter posted to their website that the city has refused to renew the vendor’s permit they use on their truck.

August 7th, 2009

WTF?

We can’t open.  Yesterday the city notified us that the mobile food vendor’s permit used by the DessertTruck is no longer valid.  For reasons too confusing and vague for us to understand, the city denied the permit holder the right to renew his permit.

What does this mean?

Read more »

It sounds like the cops were pretty busy with vendor complaints on Monday.  There was the ice cream fist fight on 50th & 6th, the Schnitzel Truck twittered that cops were called to a vendor fight downtown, and there was this thing on 45th & 5th…

I got word a few weeks ago that the owner of Kwik Meal, Muhammed Rahman, has a brother who opened a new cart on 45th & 5th, and was selling biriyani (in addition to chicken and lamb over rice.) Even though this new venture is not associated with Kwik Meal (this year’s Street Meat Palooza winner) in any way, I was still excited to try the food- after all, cooking skills could be genetic, right?  Sadly though, by the time I made it over to the corner, the brother’s cart had disappeared.

You may remember that Kwik Meal, which currently has four carts in their empire, used to park another cart on the corner of 45th & 5th called Kwik Meal 2, before it was stolen from the garage it was parked in.  They still operate Kwik Gourmet on 47th and Park, Quick Delight on 45th & 3rd, and Kwick Meal IV on 37th and 6th. But 45th and 5th has remained Kwik Meal-less… until Monday.

Read more »