At Lunch Now: Live Coverage of the Kogi BBQ/Dessert Truck Midtown Mash-Up

In what should be no surprise to anybody, the line at 11:40am is already stretching down the block for the Kogi BBQ truck’s first forray into NYC. For $4 you get a kimchi quesadilla from Kogi, along with the Dessert Truck’s famous chocolate mousse with peanut butter center. All proceeds benefit Citymeals-on-wheels, and there are only 200 servings. Line count right now… 65 and growing- and the truck doesn’t open until noon!

Keep checking back right here for live updates from the scene!

11:47 AM BLOCKBUSTER: Lee Anne Wong from season one of Top Chef is on hand to help dish out the food. Why you might ask? Because she is now the executive chef of east coast operations of Kogi BBQ and will be in charge of the first Kogi BBQ truck in New York.

Live updates after the jump!

12:01 And there it is… According to one of the first lunchers: “Awesome”

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12:10 View from the back of the line. It’s not moving very fast…

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12:35 “About 100 left,” according to Chef Lee Anne. “But we’re blowing through them.”

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12:47 Only 32 portions left.  Kudos to the Serious Eats: New York team for waiting in line and paying for their food.  The other “media” on hand… not so much (and by media I mean the interns the other websites sent to cover this epic event!)

12:58 And that’s it. These were the last two people to get served.

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33 Comments

  • Richest City on Earth.

    I wanna smack them all.

  • kimchi quesadilla?…BARFFFFFFFFFFFF

  • “According to one of the first lunchers: “Awesome””

    After waiting in line for so long, and with all the hype, I can’t imagine them saying anything else, regardless of how it tastes.

    Kimchi quesadilla sounds, well, ‘interesting.’

  • Looks small, but i guess $4 is cheap enough.

  • the best is when you walk up from 54th and lex. then you get to 55th and there’s this huge delivery truck waiting at the stop light. when the truck drives off to reveal the dessert/kogi truck and the 200 deep line… it’s just like watching extreme makeover home edition – you’re face drops and you’re incredulous at the scene… except you’re hungry and you still live in a tiny apartment in new york…

    mmm… chasing food in midtown. awesome. :)

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    Don’t forget to introduce yourself to Zach and child right after you pay for your food, turn around and bump into him.

  • WTF don’t these people have JOBS??? On line at 11:40 am?!

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    Damn amazing. The kimchi isn’t too hot, but goes well with the cheese. Worth the 45 minute wait, no doubt.

  • Oh right, sorry, my friends keep telling me not to rub salt in the wounds of the fired/laid off. My bad.

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    i was planning on leaving at 11:50 and i thought i’d be early (i work on 55th btwn park and lex)… but when i saw the line.. just turned right back and came into my office..

    now i’m just hungry.. and trying to decide what to eat..

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    i was the first in line and I got there a little after 11. it’s a monday, so it’s slow at work. i was actually surprised not to see a line when i arrived. roy introduced himself and put me in the #1 spot in line. quesadilla was tiny but tasty and for $4 (including chocolate mousse), what do you expect? 100% worth it.

  • I work on 57th and 3rd, stopped by, looked at line, said Hi to Zach and Harry, then went and ate the London Broil on Miami Onion roll I had brought from home.

  • How many of those people went just to say hi to Zach?

    (Personally, I was tempted to do so as well…)

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    I really liked the contrast in tastes of both dishes. I had the quesadillas first and mousse second. The kick of the quesadillas were quickly thwarted by the smooth creaminess of the mousse.

    Kudos.

    Pictures: http://twitter.com/Ming_Tzu

  • 45 minute wait on line for some kimchi quessadilla?…i would get mad waiting 45 minutes for food at a nice sit down restaurant…no thanks!

  • I walked 4 avenues and then left as well.

  • I saw the line at 1230pm, walked all the way over to the back, and knew it was definitely over. I didn’t have a chance with over 100s on ppl waiting so amscrayed.
    Oh man, I missed Zach and his kid. I was just avoiding the tourists snapping pics left and right. :P

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    Unfortunately, I wasn’t too crazy about the kimchi quesadilla. The combination of the cheese and the fermented cabbage was way too salty. But I don’t regret standing in line, because at least I got to try it and it was cheaper than taking a trip to LA. And the proceeds went to a good cause.

    One thing to note – they should have enforced the “1 order per person” rule the entire time…because they were people in the front of the line that had like 3-4 orders each. I say you gotta be willing to wait in line to eat! Assuming they were buying it for other people and not planning on eating 4 orders themselves. Which would be doable for the quesadilla, I suppose but seems a bit much for the dessert.

  • i got in line 20 or 30 minutes before 12 and… well… it was alright. I’ve had it in LA before and if you haven’t had the tacos, then you haven’t had the Kogi experience, IMHO. blogged about it over at smoovebert.net including pictures.

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    Hi Adam … ok, finally got in. I made it to the line shortly after noon and was at the cart by 12:45. I really enjoyed the quesadilla and would definitely go back to try everything on the menu. Personally, I wish they had their signature taco instead — but as long as a cart is coming to NYC, I’ll wait. I just hope the cart is in the same place (or close) :-) http://www.spy.org/tmp/kogi/!_ALLNAILS_!.html

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