Archive for the ‘Business, Legal & Police Issues’ Category

Top Chef Finalist Looking To Kickstart The Sweet Chili Truck

May 13th, 2013
(credit: Sweet Chili)

(credit: Sweet Chili)

Another chef is trying the Kickstarter route to opening a food truck, and this one was a Finalist on one of the Top Chef shows.

Lisa Fernandes was a Finalist on Top Chef Chicago, and has worked at several high end restaurants in NYC including Asia de Cuba, Rain, Public, Mai House, and Dos Caminos.

Now she wants to bring her own culinary creations to the public, what she dubs Thaietnamese cuisine.

(credit: Sweet Chili)

(credit: Sweet Chili)

(more…)

New York Street Food Is For Sale!

April 26th, 2013

No, it’s not April Fool’s Day. We are inviting offers for the purchase of the New York Street Food website and archives.

This was not an easy decision to make, but there are a bunch of personal and professional reasons why I am doing this now, and it has nothing to do with the website itself.

I built New York Street Food from scratch 3-1/2 years ago, just as the street food renaissance was starting to accelerate, and NYSF is the leading website solely dedicated to NYC food trucks and street food. We would love for our successor to continue this long, strange, delicious (and fattening) trip we took with all of you. There is a solid foundation on which to build and grow for the right company or person.

This is the 3,120th post, of which I estimate 900-1,000 have been reviews of food trucks and carts. The majority of these are New York vendors, but in my travels, I have also reviewed a number of street food vendors in LA, SF, Austin, Washington DC and London. In fact, I have another LA trip scheduled in 2 weeks.

The NYSF archives also include several thousand photographs of gourmet food trucks, street carts, and the wonderful foods they serve. The photographs and reviews would be an incredible asset to any company that wants to increase their coverage of the NYC street food world. I firmly believe this growth is not a fad, but a fundamental shift in the way many of us now eat. It is also a shift in the way a lot of new chefs are bringing their creations directly to the people.

Food trucks and street food are hot topics worldwide, and New York Street Food is constantly being sought out for our knowledge and opinions. I have been on two German TV shows, a Korean TV news program, a Hong Kong TV show, did a French radio interview, and have been in numerous foreign print publications. This doesn’t even count 4 appearances on Eat St, the Canadian show going into its 5th season on The Cooking Channel. If you take over New York Street Food, these opportunities will all be yours, as well as more than 11,500 Twitter followers.

New York Street Food is on most of the PR firm distribution lists, where I get press releases about food truck promotions in advance, are sent books about food to review, and have access to information before the general public.

People also approach us regularly to hire food trucks for private and corporate events, and to rent food trucks for product promotions. I have contacts at all the NYC food trucks, and have built a small side business referring food trucks for these private events. With access to my email, these will be yours too.

New York Street Food has been built with a full time job totally outside of the food world. Imagine what you could do with one full-time person or a few part-time people covering the world of New York street food.

I have not even come close to maximizing the website’s potential revenue. E-commerce is not one of my strengths, and you will notice there are few advertisements on the New York Street Food website. If you are knowledgeable about e-commerce, there is a lot of upside in this area.

As you can see, there are many opportunities to grow New York Street Food for either a company or a very enterprising person. The foundation is there. You are only limited by your imagination.

If you are serious about buying New York Street Food, please email perry@newyorkstreetfood.com with your name and contact details. We will send you our traffic statistics, from inception in Oct 2009 through April 2013. All reasonable offers will be considered.

I think we have shown there are many people, both in NYC  and around the world, who enjoy reading about New York Street Food. Let’s keep it rolling with a fresh voice for NYSF 2.0.

Food Truck Economics

April 24th, 2013

People are always approaching us saying they “have a great idea for a food truck” or “my dream is to own a food truck”.

As we’ve mentioned many times, it’s a much tougher business than people realize, with thin margins and long hours. You never know the problems you might run into. And we mean that literally.

Of course, you are your own boss, but that also means you’re on the hook for everything.

(more…)

Phil’s Steaks Truck Gets Phucked Up

April 23rd, 2013
phils

(credit: Phil’s Steaks)

Looks like you’re going to have to make alternate plans for cheesesteaks over the next few weeks.

The Phil’s Steaks truck had an accident over the weekend, but thankfully, nobody was hurt.

According to Phil’s twitter account, the accident was cause by “a dump truck who’s driver decided it was a good idea to come to a complete stop in the middle of 495.”

They don’t call the LIE (495) the “world’s biggest parking lot” for nothing…but you’re not supposed to suddenly park while going 50mph!

Too bad Phil’s 2nd truck isn’t quite ready yet.

New Food Truck Lot Coming To DUMBO

April 17th, 2013

(credit: NYSF)

The other night we received an email from Diana of Bian Dang.

She wanted to tell us they had just signed a lease for a new lot in DUMBO that will feature food trucks.

(more…)