Downtown Lunch: 5 Star Dining Truck
Midtown workers shouldn’t have all the fun, so to even the score, I’ve brought on Daniel Krieger as an official Downtown Lunch Correspondent to write up some of the tasty stuff you can get in the lower half of Manhattan. He’s a great photographer (insuring good food porn), but more importantly he is a lover of cheap, unique and delicious eats (or as I like to call it- Midtown Lunch’ish food). This week Daniel unveils his dirty little secret… he’s scared of eating at “dirty” food carts. But for the sake of Downtown Lunch’ers he check one out, and reports back…
What’s my problem that I won’t eat street meat like Zach does? Is there something wrong with me….Or is it the fact that I don’t enjoy eating food made by men standing next to hot stoves who look like they’ve been hit over the head with a giant water balloon? Does the tinny taste of the “meat” turn me off, or the fact that if you’re on the far west side of midtown Manhattan at day break you can walk by the cart guys garages and see giant bags of marinating meat just laying on the filthy city payment (in bags but still). No it’s none of these things, it’s mostly the feeling I get after eating street meat that makes me opposed to it. That is really the #1 reason I try to never touch the stuff.
Zach on the other hand is a man of the street-meat and so I felt it was my duty to find one of the best carts downtown and do some investigating. I got a hot tip about a relatively new lunch cart called, “5 star dining” located on the corner of Greenwich and Warren.
First of all the cart is pretty big, it’s not your rinky dink tin can bungalow that gets towed by a car at the end of the day. This is a fully functioning kitchen within a van.
The menu is not limited to gyros and hot dogs either. They have the classic reuben, fresh made falafel, and a Philly Cheese steak. They’re all hot and fresh, but the price is the real reason to keep people coming back. For $3.50 my falafel was plentiful (but not particularly crunchy) overall a nice heavy sandwich which filled me up for the day.
On a side note not related to the food, I’ve always been fascinated with the fact that companies offer their services to restaurants and food industry people without really having a grasp of the English language. When a restaurant or in this case a sidewalk vendor opens up, is it really that hard to hire someone so they don’t make colossal mistakes on their menus and signage?
“Backed potato” is a spud we can get behind. A classic Ruben contains what else but “Sort Crout.” So downtown lunchers, are there some good carts out there we should check out?
5 Star Dining Truck, Corner of Greenwich & Warren
Photos and post by Daniel Krieger
Posted by Daniel Krieger at 10:00 am, June 13th, 2008 under Uncategorized.
17 Comments | RSS comments feed for this post
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17 Comments
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@dyno – i was wondering the same thing! if that’s real, it’s pretty impressive…
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The gryo spit is a photo, not the real thing.
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I think they did a pretty good job on their menu… I’ve seen signs, menus, etc. made by native English-speakers that are much, much worse.
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Well that photo gives me a great idea – The “Carve Your Own Gyro Truck” ! With free toppings every time the Mets blow a lead (i.e. every day)
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@wayne
Ugh.. that’d be a goldmine.
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@wayne – or just billy wagner, that arse %*#(&%*(#&$.
um. anyway. i think there’s another cart, same owners cuz it has the same look to it. green menus, the stars, i never really looked at it but have wandered by many times. (i’m a lil wary of street meat too.)
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WUCK FILLY BAGNER!
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Jeesh, Daniel. That was pretty underwhelming.
Just sayin’, your heart wasn’t in it.I feel like we just had bad sex and I can’t look you in the eye anymore….
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That little kid really messed up your photo with that middle finger!
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…….is that why you’ve stopped talking to wayne?
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I think Mamacita is still mad at me for the name I suggested for her food blog
“Write After I Swallow”
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LOL! misteronionz I hadn’t noticed the middle finger. I was too mesmerized by that midget sized gyro spit.
Wayne, no hurt feelings, let’s grab a drink after work sometime.
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omg, the middle finger is hysterical!!!
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Why doesn’t anyone want to drink with me?
I went to John’s of Bleeker for lunch today and picked up some “glasswear” from down the street to enhance the weekend :) -
Mamacita – Food carts are usually pretty underwhelming to me. I needed to change it up though as most all my posts have been in Chinatown.
btw that kid was sucking his thumb, not flipping me the bird.
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I love how that guy is putting on the glove so emphatically. You can almost hear him…”Take THAT DOH…”
IS that a Gyro Spit or just an illusion of a Midget pretending to be a Gyro Spit!?!?