Midtown Lunch

When I woke up on Friday it looked like it would be a beautiful day for the first ever vendor-organized pushcart market downtown. People from the Street Vendor Project told me the day before that they had no idea what carts would show up or even how many.It was a pilot project, and if successful enough they hope to do it once again, Marisa Jahn from the SVP said before the event. A subcommittee made up of vendors chose the food carts that would be at the market.

By the time I headed over to Park Place (btw. Broadway & Church) shortly after noon in my stretch pants (really) and with an empty stomach the weather was cool and looked rainy. The Biriyani Cart from midtown and a Jamaican cart from the Bronx were supposed to be there, but I saw no sign of them. There were about 10 other food vendors there, including a transplant from the Red Hook Ballfield vendors in Brooklyn, a new Taiwanese cart,  and a lady selling pastelillos or what you could call Puerto Rican empanadas. Also on hand was a truck called the Cinnamon Snail selling vegan and organic food, some people selling fruit, two or three halal vendors and a guy selling a fried rice with ribs and a chicken wing for $7. That one seemed popular with construction workers.

So, what did my $10 buy me at this vendor mash up? Plenty of food porn after the jump.

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Well, I guess it’s been a while since we’ve had a good old-fashioned cart vs. restaurant battle downtown. I stumbled upon the above (apparently, great minds think alike) on the side of the C&H Halal cart at the corner of Chambers St. and W. Broadway. The cart serving standard street meat parks in front of what is now Plein Sud, a French restaurant in the Smyth Hotel. My first thought was that these places are not exactly in competition with each other for customers. A representative from the restaurant agreed, and said the problems lie mostly in trash from the cart. Read more »