Midtown Lunch

The Street Vendor Project, which organizes the annual Vendy Awards, has created a new pamphlet for street vendors and is looking for your help handing them out. This Saturday (March 28th) from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. they are organizing a city wide distribution extravaganza and are looking for volunteers to help hand out the newly illustrated, multi-language (Spanish, Arabic, Bengali, Chinese and English) pamphlet which explains the rights that every street vendor is entitled to, in an easy to understand way.  If you’re interested in participating, just come to the Street Vendor Project HQ (123 William St.) on Saturday morning, where they will be distributing the guides to volunteers before fanning out to the rest of the city to hand them out to working vendors.

If you can’t make it to lower Manhattan on Saturday morning, you can also pick up guides ahead of time and then distribute them in your neighborhood.  To RSVP, email svp@urbanjusitce.org. And for more information on The Street Vendor Project, the Urban Justice League, or the Vendy Awards go to www.streetvendor.org

Check out a sample of the pamphlet, and fold out poster, after the jump

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A very astute Lunch’er Wade noticed this bit of fraud the other day on the Mexican cart with the sombrero parked on 50th btw. 6+7th: “This cart has a sign up that it was a 2005 Vendy Award ‘nominee’. It certainly wasn’t a finalist that year (or any other year). Does this simply mean someone (a relative with a different last name, perhaps) nominated the cart? It’s tolerable, but not Vendy-worthy.”  Very curious indeed.  A look at the list of nominees from 2005 shows that there is no way anybody associated with this cart (which serves sub-par your-mom’s-taco-night style Mexican food) was nominated for a Vendy Award.  Does this mean there is a black market for Vendy Award nominee signs? Or maybe it fell off the Hallo Berlin Cart and this guy picked it up?  Either way, I think I’ll be sticking with the Mexican cart on 60th and 3rd (who may actually one day be nominated for a Vendy Award.)

I know it’s been almost two weeks since the Vendy Awards, but I totally forgot about this little nugget that I wanted to post.  You remember the “Food Cart Song” video posted in August that gave us a bunch of tongue and cheek tidbits about some of the street food vendors in Midtown (i.e. Amyn from King Tut ebays cabbage patch dolls).  I’m guessing none of those factoids were true, but at the Vendy Awards I read a little bit of info about one of our favorite Midtown street food vendors, Meru from the Biryani Cart.  From the Vendy Award Program:

“When I’m not working, I spend time with our daughter Tasnuva, who is five. I love to listen to country music by Alabama, Willie Nelson, Randy Travis and Kenny Rogers. Lots of people in Bangladesh love Kenny Rogers.”

There is something super awesome about that (and I don’t know why)…

2008 Vendy Award winners The Calexico Cart were featured in the New York Daily News today, and when asked to name their favorite food carts in the city, gave a list made up almost entirely of former Vendy Award nominees.  That list included the Kwik Meal Cart (on 45th & 6th) and the Biryani Cart (on 46th and 6th), who both lost to the Calexico cart at this year’s competition, and the Hallo Berlin Cart (on 54th and 5th), who won the very first Vendy Awards (the event that served as inspiration for the Vendley brothers to start the Calexico Cart.)  Also mentioned was the news that they are working on “a potential alliance with the Treat Truck dessert cart for a best-of-the-street catering service.”  Very interesting…

In other Vendy related news, one of the Vendy Award board members defended Daisy Martinez against the lighthearted “accusation” that as a Judge at this year’s Vendy Awards she didn’t try the food from the Biryani Cart.

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Chef Daisy… does any of this look familiar?

Chef Daisy Martinez gives New York Magazine’s Grub Street a list of all the food she’s eaten this week, and her list of Vendy Awards grub from last Saturday (where she was one of the judges who awarded the cup to the Calexico boys) has one glaring omission:

“I walked over to the Vendys and I had what everybody there had: those delicious little fresh tacos that those boys from Calexico were making, pupusas from Soler, and braised chicken, falafel, and I had a lamb wrap that was incredible. And I had some delicious organic vanilla ice cream and a chocolate bread pudding”

No mention of the biryani, chicken tikka masala, or the chicken kati rolls served by the Biryani Cart!  I’m going to give her the benefit of the doubt and say she must have just forgotten to include it in the list she submitted to Grub Street.  But truthfully, it would make much more sense that she didn’t even try it… because if she had, the Biryani Cart (which won the Peoples Choice Vote) would have definitely won the cup!

Related: Biryani Cart & Treats Truck Are People’s Choice At 2008 Vendy Awards

5 vendors battled it out at the Fourth Annual Vendy Awards on Saturday night, and for the second year in a row, a Midtown cart was the crowd favorite, but failed to take home the Vendy Cup. Last year it was Kwik Meal… this year the Biryani Cart. Despite putting forward an amazing effort, and getting the most votes from the largest Vendy Award crowd ever, the Biryani Cart lost to the Soho based Calexico Cart- who were awarded the Vendy Cup by the tastebud-less distinguished judges. Kwik Meal was the judges’ pick for runner up.

I don’t want to say Meru and the Biryani Cart were robbed… but I kind of think the people’s choice award says it all. Don’t get me wrong, I love the Calexico Cart- and if they ever decide to move their burrito cart from 25th & Park into Midtown proper, I will be the first one in line for one of their awesome carne asada burritos. But man did I want the Biryani Cart to take the whole thing… and based on the plate of food they served- they really should have.

Food porn, dessert award and more, after the jump…  Read more »

My favorite event of the year has finally arrived!  http://streetvendor.org/vendys/“>The 2008 Vendy Awards are tomorrow from 3-7 p.m. in Dumbo, and it’s no secret who I want to take home the coveted Vendy Cup: Meru and the Biryani Cart on 46th and 6th Ave. I’d be happy with a keep-it-in-midtown Kwik Meal victory as well (they’re on 45th and 6th), but that cart has already gotten their fair share of accolades.  I’d like to see the Biryani Cart get their day in the sun.

Over at Serious Eats: New York we set odds for the event, and put the Biryani Cart’s chances at about the middle of the pack.  If the cart is putting their best food forward, I’d pick his Kati Rolls, biryani, and chicken tikka masala over anything the other four carts are serving.  But as we all know, the cart can be inconsistent- and the event will be packed, so the potential for being overwhelmed is there.

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This years Vendy Awards is shaping up to be the best ever.  For the first time ever, a second category has been added: dessert!  This morning, the four nominees were announced for best dessert truck, and 3 of the 4 finalists are Midtown Lunch favorites.  The Treats Truck, The Dessert Truck, and Wafels and Dinges all made the cut, with the Van Leeuwen Ice Cream Truck being the only choice that doesn’t spend at least one day parked in Midtown (what gives man?!?  Can’t we get a hipster ice cream day up in this piece?)  The award for best dessert will be voted on by the people rather than the judges, and the new additions mean that now an $80 ticket will get you food from 9 different vendors.  Like I said… best… vendys… ever.  If you haven’t gotten your tickets yet, you may want to get on this now since the event has sold out every year.  Plus, all the money goes to benefit the Street Vendor Project, so you can feel good about yourself while chowing down food from nine (that’s right, nine) different carts!

Related:
2008 Vendy Nominees Announced and Midtown Gets 2

Congrats to Meru and the Whole Team!

The finalists for the 2008 Vendy Awards were announced this afternoon, and Midtown is represented with two nominees!  Kwik Meal (on 45th and 6th) gets nominated for a second year in a row, but even more exciting is the nomination of one of my personal favorites… the Biriyani Cart!!! (On 46th and 6th)

Also nominated are Fauzia’s Delights in the Bronx, Soler Dominican in Brooklyn, and the Calexico Cart in Soho.  All 5 carts carts will converge in Dumbo on October 18th to determine the 2008 Vendy Champion!  Tickets are $80, and all proceeds go to benefit the Street Vendor Project.

Just like last year, there is a video introducing all the nominees. Check it out, after the jump…  

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