Midtown Lunch

Late last week there was a Twitter post from the Sweetery people that was a little alarming. It concerned the stretch of Hudson St. in SoHo between King and Charlton that you can see above, and was a sign that the increasing number of food trucks parking on these blocks in the past year hasn’t gone unnoticed.

I got in touch with Grant from Sweetery to see what this was all about. The truck has been parking there for about a year and a half and along with Rickshaw Dumplings is one of the trucks most often parked on Hudson. See what he had to say, after the jump.

According to Grant, last Friday morning the trucks that were parked on Hudson (Sweetery, Eddie’s Pizza and Rickshaw) were visited by a plainclothes NYPD detective who politely told them that nearby businesses and the community board were not happy about the number of trucks parking on the two-block stretch of the street between W. Houston and Charlton. The brick and mortars, including a deli or two and a pharmacy, said they were losing business. On that stretch there is a Starbucks, coffee/baked goods shop, Jacques Torres and Hudson Exchange bar/restaurant.

The detective advised the trucks to park somewhere else, Grant said, but other than Varick and Vandam, the blocks of Hudson have become the bread and butter  at least one day a week of newer trucks like Joyride, Big D’s Grub, Taim Mobile, Gorilla Cheese and Schnitzel & Things as well as Sweetery and Rickshaw two or more days a week.

It’s unlikely the trucks are going to move even if they get ticketed, but there could be a showdown with the police like there has been in midtown lately.

As Grant said, “I’m not willing to give up the spot that I’ve been at two and a half days a week for the last year and a half. We have no choice.”