Results tagged “vendor”

You knew that the heated competition between street food vendors is getting increasingly acrimonious, but did you know that it's tearing families apart? Over the weekend, a Midtown Lunch reader spotted this sign on 45th Street advertising newcomer Fahima Halal Food, which is declaring its food to be Halal-of-a-lot-better than nearby vendor Kwik Meal.

Just as Tyra Banks discovers gourmet food vendor trucks, Blackbook has joined the growing backlash against their trendy proliferation. It's yet another article that looks at the turf wars between the arriviste artisanal food trucks and the old-school hot dog and kabob guys. But at least this one comes with a clever neologism: "vendrification," which is what happens when the new upscale trucks start "shaking up the culinary terrain of the streets."

With more and more upscale food trucks crowding the scene, the turf wars keep escalating. The Department of Health doesn't assign locations, so vendors are left to work it out among themselves, are some say the gyro-cooking owners of the Halal trucks are violently threatening the competition. Clive Dennis, who operates a Jamaican cart on Park Row downtown, tells the Post, "It's like a mob thing—these halal guys think they're the only ones who should be selling food on the street." Dennis says that after he refused to cave, they called 311 to make bogus health-code-violation complaints about him. And when Olivia Cardosa tried to set up her Mexican truck El Rey del Sabor on West 43rd Street last month, a brawl erupted. (Midtown Lunch has the video.) Then last Monday Cardosa arrived to find three giant planters cemented into the sidewalk. She claims it was "the halal guys," and the landlord of the building there confirms that "somebody moved our planters and cemented them in place, so we had to chip the cement off to move them back." These guys obviously mean business—how long before that cement gets poured to make some heavy shoes?

The recent eviction of Pasang Sherpa—the hot dog vendor who was booted from outside the Metropolitan Museum of Art after refusing to pay the full $643,000 a year rent to the Parks Department—got us thinking: Why didn't we major in hot dog vending? The previous permit holder outside the museum paid $415,000 annually and didn't go under, so one imagines there's a tidy profit to be made there or other tourist magnets around town. But street vendor advocacy groups tell Slate that selling dogs isn't as glamorous as it might seem, and most food vendors make just $14,000 to $16,000 a year after they've paid for permits (and, inevitably, a few tickets). Vendors on city streets (not the ones at or near park areas) pay $200 a year for the permit, but the city caps the number of permits at 3,100, creating an extensive black market. Some unscrupulous companies buy up permits for dozens of carts and then lease them to individual vendors at highly inflated prices. And now there are these fancy new food trucks horning in! Kenny Lao, an owner of the Rickshaw Dumpling Truck, says his life was threatened by other vendors he opened flast year, telling the Times, "The old vendors are edgy."

Doug Quint is part bassoonist, part ice cream man. And not just any old ice cream man at that. Just last month he and boyfriend Bryan Petroff launched the Big Gay Ice Cream Truck, a venture that's blown up beyond what they ever imagined. With the help of Twitter (they have over a thousand followers to whom they tweet toppings of the day, truck location and solicit suggestions), the truck has become a bit of a summer hotspot to those seeking both a good cone and some good humor.

How many more hot dogs can a vendor outside the Metropolitan Museum of Art sell at the north side of the museum entrance, as opposed to the south side? First-time vendor Pasang Sherpa is betting he can unload at least $81,701 more lips and assholes, because he's coughing up that much extra for the north location, even though the southern spot is only 100 yards away. Sherpa paid $362,201 to the Parks Department for rights to vend at the north side and $280,500 for the south, but now he's fuming because the more heavily-trafficked north entrance has been blocked by construction won't be done until May. "I don't want to pay them now," he tells a Post reporter, who theorizes that this might be the most expensive retail space per square foot in all the land.

Fellow vendors and loyal customers are rallying to the defense of Antonios Dragonas, the 50-year-old pushcart food vendor who may soon be put out of business. For the past 25 years, Vendy runner-up Antonios Dragonas, has been serving his famous lamb shish kebab from the corner of Madison Avenue and East 62nd Street, but now the Department of Health is refusing to renew his license and permit.

Reader Douglas sent us this photograph of a 14th Street vendor unable to vend various 2008 and New Year's Eve tchotchkes. We've seen these vendors are on many corners, so one probably doesn't need to go too far to find one. And we have to admit that the wacky metallic top hat with LED "Happy New Year" (with a blinking and constant modes) are pretty hilarious. So hilarious that we bought one, along with 2008 sunglasses and a Happy New Year tiara.