Midtown Lunch

After the NYTimes article on Wednesday officially named Midtown off limits for food trucks, you’d think we’d have been left high and dry yesterday. But fortunately for us, there is a strong bond between these mobile food vendors and our hungry bellies, and they don’t want to go down without a fight (the food trucks or our bellies). The scene in Midtown was definitely quieter than usual yesterday, but a few trucks decided to give it another go. Crisp on Wheels, Gorilla Cheese, and Wafels & Dinges all seemed to make it through the lunch shift without too much trouble. Korilla BBQ took to the hinterlands and set up out of bounds on Ninth and 39th Street, and it sounds like the only problem they had was running out of meat. Hell’s Kitchen and Flatiron may get all the love in the coming weeks.

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It seems as if the ramp up in police pressure on the food trucks of Midtown has claimed its first permanent victim. The Treats Truck sent out this unbelievably sad email to their followers this morning:

To my dear customers,

We will not be midtown for the time being. The police have let us know that they no longer want food trucks in the midtown area. Two of our spots dear to our hearts (and our first two regular spots since the early days) have been 45th & 6th Ave and 38th & 5th Ave. We have so many wonderful regulars, and you all have made serving you such a pleasure. We are so sad to have to take our truck elsewhere. We hope to be able to return someday. For now, we cannot. We wish we could. You have all made the past four years very special. You can always order for delivery for your offices or come by our new spots. You can call to find out where we are each day.

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In the last few weeks, our beloved food trucks have suffered through lots of ticketing and harassment in Midtown. We previously reported that many of the streets in the 50’s on the west side of Midtown are potentially off limits and Downtown trucks have had their problems too. It seems that this week the trouble has begun to move further down Midtown. The ML favorite Comme Ci, Comme Ca tweeted that they had been forced to move from their usual spot on 38th Street and Broadway on Friday. When I went by yesterday around 1:00, they had not been bothered yet, but the guys were anticipating more drama. And if problems arose, they have another nearby spot in mind as back-up that should be more legit since the street is not metered parking.

But wait, there’s more…

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We here at Midtown Lunch have long recognized the precarious position that gourmet food trucks are. Stuck in a grey area between legal and illegal, most veteran food trucks have chosen to lay low and fly under the radar, rather than stand tall and fight the all powerful rent paying brick and mortar businesses who would love to see them disappear.  Well, now that the fight between cops and food trucks has escalated Lunch’er Meghan has said enough is enough:

I work in midtown (52/51st and 7th), and suddenly all of my favorite trucks are being driven off by the NYPD.  This used to be one of the best spots for food trucks, and now it is becoming a ghost town.  Apparently it just takes one business owner to complain and the cops will force the trucks to leave their spot.  Could you maybe do a post on effective ways to fight this?

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It seems the truck crackdown is becoming an epidemic in Midtown West. Brownie warned us a few weeks ago that 50th Street between 6th and 7th Avenue was becoming another hot spot for food trucks. And sure enough, on Tuesday, Desi Truck was forced to move from that location halfway through the day. They arrived at Hanover Square in the Financial District around 3:00, which is later than almost anybody eats lunch. The owner told me they plan on making this their new permanent weekday location as the parking in Midtown is getting too insane. He also told me in the coming weeks, they will launch a second truck at the corner of Spring and Sixth Avenue. Is this going to be a trend that all of our beloved Midtown food trucks will be forced to re-locate well below 14th Street?

In other 50th Street news, Big D’s Grub was also forced to close by police yesterday and strangely enough, the Sombrero Cart has returned.

Yesterday we noted that several trucks have had trouble parking off 6th ave on both 51st and 52nd streets, but as Lunch’r “locondcoco” pointed out in the comments:

Well, clearly 50th btw 6th & 7th isnt a problem. 4 trucks lined back to back there today! (Desi, Big D’s, Sweetery and CrepeTruck).  As sad as I am that these trucks wont be right outside the office anymore, a rather short walk to 50th I can deal with.

But how long can this last? Read more »

Crisp on Wheels issued this warning yesterday to other food trucks, and sadly it doesn’t sound like an isolated incident. Eddie’s Pizza- who has been spending Tuesdays on 52nd & 6th- was on 40th and 6th yesterday, and today the Kimchi Truck has decided to go elsewhere (citing “parking restrictions“). And we heard that Wafels & Dinges was kicked out of their 52nd & 6th spot last week.   Of course this shouldn’t be a surprise to anybody, the same thing happened in the same area last year and all the new food trucks hitting the streets have probably not helped. One thing is for sure, we’ve heard the buildings in the area don’t seem to mind when one truck parks on the street, it’s when there are multiple trucks.

Related:
Street Vendors Talk “Unwritten Rules” on Video
Papa Perrone Saves Eddie’s Pizza From the Cops… Today
Uncle Gussy Reminds Everyone That Truck Legality is Still a Gray Area

Add community boards to the growing list of things that food trucks now have to worry about! In light of the Frites N Meats explosion on Monday, a member of the Tribeca community board expressed concern about about food trucks being “roving firebombs”. Even though DNAinfo has discovered that the Frites N Meats may have had more than the legal number of propane tanks on their truck at the time of the explosion, it seems a bit hyperbolic to punish all food trucks because of one rule breaker… especially considering this is the first incident like this that I can remember, and food trucks have been a part of the NYC landscape for years and years. Sadly, the anti-food truck movement will look for any reason to get rid of street vendors and this is now going to be added to the list of reasons.

Speaking of the Frites N Meats Truck… members of the NYC Food Truck Association will be donating a portion of their proceeds today to help the Frites N Meats Truck get back on their feet.

http://newyork.grubstreet.com/2011/04/is_propane_safe_for_food_truck.html