Midtown Lunch

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 (ensuring 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 discovers the Vinny Vincenz pizza truck parked down near the South Street Seaport. The cool thing is, this could double as a Midtown Lunch because rumor has it there is also a new VV truck parked on 40th btw. Broadway+6th.

For the next month, the Vinny Vincenz pizza truck will be testing out the waters across the street from the South Street Seaport. I swung by to try a slice and ended up chatting with the man himself and trying a slice to see if it was worth the price tag.

He’s going to give it a try for 7 days a week, while keeping another truck at the Union Square location. I’ve seen that one before in USQ but was deterred by the somewhat high price tag for mobile pizza. $2.50 for a slice of cheese is steep, but by South Street Seaport your options for a good cheap lunch are somewhat limited. (Who wants to spend 13 bucks on a Heartland Brewery cheeseburger? Not me, that’s who.)

The pizza is made right there in the truck and while I was waiting he pulled out a piping hot plain cheese pie. As great as it looked I had to go with my slice though: pepperoni (that’s my stuff right there). After heating it up the crust was incredibly crispy and the sauce was very nice. At $3 a slice it’s getting up there but it was one of the better slices I’ve had downtown so it was definitely worth it.

Some old dude driving a bus walked up and ordered two slices thinking it was $2.50 for 2. When he realized the actual cost he mumbled and griped a bit, and changed his order to just one. After taking a few bites, he came back and ordered that second slice saying under his breath “Well it’s pretty good.” I figured if its good enough for an old crabby bus driver it’s good enough for a young crabby photographer.

In addition to pizza, you can get also get a chicken or meatball parm made on their fresh baked bread for $6. Vinny is a mad man, who somehow manages to handle a brick and mortar version of his restaurant in the East Village plus three trucks- including one that parks at night by the clubs on the west side. You know the ones where doofus clubbies spend $5 a slice or $8 for pepperoni (actually that was me 8 years ago before I retired my silk shirt.)

My only suggestion for the truck is to get someone with decent penmanship to write your sign man. I had to ask what the chicken PORIT was? That might be the sloppiest sign I’ve ever seen. If he had a piece of chalk I would have fixed it myself (I’m a bit ocd at times). Oh, and to top it off the owner’s name isn’t actually Vinny Vincenz! It’s Salvatore Olivella.

Vinny Vincenz Pizza Truck, South Street (btw. Fulton & John)

There are also rumors of a Midtown Truck parked on 40th btw. B’way+6th.

Photos and post by Daniel Krieger