Midtown Lunch

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

With this season’s Softee trucks already rolling out and more trucks regularly coming into Midtown, it was only a matter of time before the altercations started up again. If you were reading Miss Softee’s Twitter on Friday, you’d have watched the drama play out on the corner of 44th & 6th live. Miss Softee maintains that she was parked in the spot on the NE corner, and willing to talk to the hot dog/pretzel vendor regarding turf. He wasn’t so friendly. For some reason, he pushed his cart off the curb and into Oreo, breaking two of Oreo’s windows! Luckily, there were witnesses around to verify her account, and she said vendor was taken away in cuffs. It takes more than a few broken windows to stop Oreo!

And apparently this wasn’t the only street vendor fight in Midtown on Friday…

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With all the feuding that has been documented over the years between food trucks, it was only a matter of time before a TV show got in on the action. Eater has a preview of tonight’s CSI:NY, which features an exploding food truck, fighting chefs and lord knows what else. Oh, and if you didn’t know before this episode is a dead giveaway that CSI:NY is filmed in L.A.  One of the food trucks that gets mentioned is a well known L.A. truck, and the way they’re are all set up in the parking lot is a pretty typical scene for the West coast.

For the past two years we’ve been hearing grumblings about the formation of a lobbying group headed up by the owners of the Rickshaw Dumpling Truck, and this morning the Wall Street Journal has confirmed that it’s official!  According to the article, the association has 32 food truck members (22 of which are listed on their website) and their initial goal is to push for a speedier licensing process “and the right to park and vend at metered spots”.  Sounds good to us!  Anything that makes it easier for food trucks to park in Midtown is alright in our book, provided it doesn’t end up unfairly hurting old school food truck vendors (who are conspicuously absent from the association) or make it easier for the food truck business to be overrun by large fast food companies.

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Becoming a mobile vendor is not quite as easy as ehow would have you believe. So in anticipation of Softee Season 2011 we’ve asked Chrissy (aka Miss Softee) to show us the process of what it takes to become an ice cream vendor in Midtown. We’ll meet the potential new vendors, and track their progress through the selection and training process as all of the candidates make their way towards being a full fledged Mr. Softee vendor. So far you’ve met the first few hires here and here. Now see what it takes to get your paperwork in order to become a licensed mobile vendor. Take it away Miss Softee!

Becoming a mobile food vendor isn’t just about coming up with a cool persona, finding awesome outfits to wear to work, or letting culinary creativity loose with awesome toppings… it’s a long process with many confusing steps along the way! Such a long process that even though we started with 20 total hires at the beginning of February, we’re already down to 16. It’s inevitable that people will drop off along the way, so most smart employers will tend to hire more people than they ultimately need. I can’t speak for every business, obviously, but here’s what a potential Mister Softee driver has to do to work in Midtown for the RollingCones.  (Yup, I’ve given us a new name!) Read more »

Becoming a mobile vendor is not quite as easy as ehow would have you believe. So in anticipation of Softee Season 2011 we’ve asked Chrissy (aka Miss Softee) to show us the process of what it takes to become an ice cream vendor in Midtown. We’ll meet the potential new vendors, and track their progress through the selection and training process as all of the candidates make their way towards being a full fledged Mr. Softee vendor. Last week you met the first few hires, this week Team Softee 2011 adds more drivers to the crew. Take it away Miss Softee!

This week all of the new midtown Softee crew headed down to the Department of Health to register to take their Mobile Food Vending classes. Most of the group will go through the actual class in early March, but in the meantime, they’re getting more and more excited to meet you all and are imagining all the ways to bring something unique to their trucks!! I’m pleased to introduce you to a few more drivers that were hired last week. Read more »

Thanks to Lunch’er Copyboy for sending along this great old photo of Herald Square:

Photo courtesy of Shorpy

A photo of Herald Square back when the New York Herald was still there. I didn’t know about this ornate building, complete with green-glowing-eyed owls on the pediment. More to the point, if you look next to the curb in the center-right, you’ll see “Lunch Wagon No. 9” – 1908’s version of a food cart. (close up attached) I wonder what they served? Some things never change: attached also here is a letter from 1907 complaining about a lunch cart at 6th Ave and 35th st. – apparently the very one in the photo.

Check out the letter after the jump…

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