Midtown Lunch

I can only imagine the crowds will be insane. Today is the first officialy day of The Pennsy, the new food court just above Penn Station. Gothamist has a look with photos of the offerings, including a sandwich stall from Pat LaFrieda, an Italian spot by Mario Batali and Mary Giuliani, a place for lobster rolls and other shellfish by Marc Forgione, a new location of The Little Beet, and perhaps most notably, the return of The Cinnamon Snail in their first brick-and-mortat venture. Bring on the crowds and the vegan donuts.

We’ll have a closer look at the food in the coming week or so, but early adopters, leave your comments below.

The Pennsy, 2 Penn Plaza (at Seventh Ave and 33rd St)

Food truck lovers mourned last week when we discovered Cinnamon Snail would be calling it quits for good. The big reason for this sad news is because it is next to impossible to obtain a permit to legally vend in New York City.

As we’ve mentioned on this blog before, the permitting system for mobile food vendors is broken. Since the 1980’s there has been a strict limit on the number of permits available for vendors. And unless you were lucky enough to purchase one back then, you basically have to rent one from somebody that was. While the DOH only charges $200 every two years to renew the permit, the actual permit holders are charging food vendors well over 100 times that amount. It makes for a next to impossible task that both criminalizes vendors and limits the opportunities for new immigrants.

The good news is the Street Vendor Project is working on a new campaign to lift the caps. You can sign the petition online, but tomorrow the SVP will be at Cinnamon Snail talking to people about the situation and signing a petition to gain support for the campaign. The truck will be parked a little outside of Midtown on 21st and Fifth Avenue, but it’s worth the walk to support the situation and to get one last vegan doughnut before the truck closes for good on Saturday.

We got some very sad news over the weekend. Adam Sobel, the owner of four-time Vendy Award winning Cinnamon Snail, announced on Facebook that after five years on the road, the truck will be closing for good.

Their Mobile Food Vendor permit expires at the end of February and they have not been able to secure another permit. This is one of the biggest hurdles food trucks and carts must deal with. Since there are no more permits available through the Department of Health, you must find another way to obtain one which is next to impossible. It is very expensive and often times not completely legal.

We will sincerely miss this very special truck. Their mission was to bring tasty vegan food to an audience that might otherwise never try it. And considering the carnivorous writers here at Midtown Lunch have donated so much bandwidth and coverage to a completely meat-less truck, I think we can safely say that they have accomplished their mission.

This will not be the last we see of Adam and his terrific food. He has a cookbook coming out in May and is actively searching for another food project, either under the Cinnamon Snail brand or a new vegan concept. Either way, we just ask that he considers Midtown and we can’t wait to see what he does next!

In the meantime, you have two weeks left to enjoy those vegan donuts and spicy seitan sandwiches!

The annual Vendy Awards commenced this past weekend with typical fanfare – the live bands played with gusto, the crowd happily munched on food and sipped beer & wine, a mob of volunteers ushered in order and cleanliness, and an eclectic gathering of vendors busted their ass and served some seriously amazing food. This could have been any Vendy award, other than the fact that this festival marked its 10 year anniversary, and that for the first time in this writer’s memory, Mother Nature paid a visit.
Read more »

Last week, our favorite vegan truck Cinnamon Snail was shut down by the Department of Health. Not because there were any sanitary or safety concerns, but because they had not renewed their vehicle registration. Now they’re stuck waiting a long time to receive another permit from the DOH. So, in the interim, they decided to try and buy a new truck that is already permitted so that we can have our sandwiches and doughnuts. But it’s not cheap, so they started a Kickstarter campaign to help raise the funds. And there’s only 12 days left, so here’s a link to the Kickstarter page if you’re interested in contributing.

The Cinnamon Snail has been on hiatus for several months while they built out their new prep kitchen. They passed their inspection with flying colors and today they’re hitting the road with some new menu items. Read more »

If you’ve ever waited in the long line for the Cinnamon Snail’s shockingly delicious vegan food, you know the truck is full of bizarre and unexplainable curiosities. The most amazing being how they are able to enliven things like tofu and seitan with bright and bold flavors. Could it be the work of the devil? Clay and I bravely decided to visit the truck and do some investigating. What we uncovered is both delicious and horrifying. And I don’t think I will ever be the same again. Watch the video, if you dare, after the jump…

Read more »

There’s no denying that we’re big fans of doughnuts here at Midtown Lunch, including the vegan delights served up at Cinnamon Snail. Last month, the Snail rolled out a bunch of new flavors and I stopped by to try some out. Warning: I have repeatedly missed picking up a Coffee Ice Cream Sunday Donut because people keep causing them to sell out!

Read more »

This week Grub Street did a run down of thirteen “Spectacular Sandwiches That Happen to Be Vegetarian.” Alas, Midtown didn’t get any direct love, but amongst the brick and mortar spots The Cinnamon Snail Truck was the only mobile vendor to make the list and as it so happens they’re parked in midtown today with the special sandwich that Grub Street called out: Thai BBQ seitan ribs.

Read more »

The Cinnamon Snail Truck is celebrating hitting 15k likes on Facebook with 15 cent classic donuts today. Flavors include: maple glazed with toasted coconut, brown sugar beer glazed, traditional apple cider, fresh strawberry glazed, plain glazed, passion fruit glazed, raspberry blackout, chocolate glazed, chocolate cookie glazed, and coconut thai basil (note: this is a photo I had of their donuts, so not all the donuts pictured are the classic donuts–but you can see the coconut thai basil, raspberry blackout and the apple cider). Limit of 6 per customer at that price. They’ll also have the rest of their donuts and pastries available at their normal prices. They are parked in their typical Wednesday spot at 55th and Broadway, but as always, check the Twitter Tracker or follow them @VeganLunchTruck to make sure they haven’t been forced to move.