New York Street Food

Drew Lazor of the Philadelphia City Paper filed the following report about the sudden increase in cupcake trucks there.

“Last summer, Kate Carrara debuted her Buttercream cupcake truck and was instantly embraced by sweet-teeth citywide. One year passes, and suddenly there are two brand-new four-wheeled cupcake-slangin’ operations hitting Philly. What is the logical next step here? Will each truck roll out tank-caliber fortifications and invest in armaments on some Twisted Metal-type stuff (artistic rendering above)?  Will the streets run red-velvet with senselessly spilled cream cheese frosting? Will someone develop a projectile IED slathered in chocolate ganache? WHO SHALL PREVAIL?!”

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Time Out Chicago is speaking out to help their citizens’ attain the right to eat meals that come on wheels.  There are a bunch of articles about Chicago’s first food truck, why it’s finally time for street food to be accepted in the Windy City, and they even have form letters to send to local politicians. [Time Out Chicago]

Flirty Cupcakes - Chicago

A new cupcake truck is born in Chicago.  Flirty Cupcakes has cupcakes with nicknames such as the McDreamy (chocolate cupcake with a chocolate-cream cheese filling), CBFF (”chocolate best friend forever”—chocolate with Nutella ganache) and a No Plain Jane (vanilla with vanilla buttercream).  You can follow Flirty on Twitter (@flirtycupcakes).

Gina Ojile of Cake & Shake

The latest dessert cart coming to New York is Cake & Shake.  They are paying big bucks for licenses from the city for 2 different locations: one in front of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and one in Washington Square Park.  Cake & Shake will pay the city $108,000 a year for the museum spot, going up 10% each year.  The Washington Square Park spot will net the city $27,000 in the first year with a 5% annual increase.  The carts will be powered by solar panels and bio-diesel fuel.

Cake & Shake will have 5 different cupcakes each day from a rotating cast of 20, as well as shakes made with real fruit.  Some of the cupcakes are meals in themselves, with fillings like ham, sausage, chicken and turkey, and they will all be organic.  Cake & Shake will offer $3 confections like the London Lilly (Earl Grey teacake with sarsaparilla mousse) and the Whatchamacallit (caramel mousse and nougat frosting).  Gina Ojile, who with her partner chef, Derek Hunt, is testing recipes and preparing to launch the carts from a commercial bakery in Astoria, Queens.

The Washington Square Park cart should be in operation at the end of the month, and museumgoers can expect their own cart there two months later. [Daily News]

In our Mobile Munchies post for March 18th, we told you about how you could win one of four Think Pad Edge’s by visiting Cupcake Stop that day.

Well, Lev obviously got one for himself, and all he had to do was talk about how useful the ThinkPad Edge is for his daily business, Cupcake Stop.  Check out the video for some delicious cupcake porn.

If anyone from Lenovo is reading this, I’m sure the ThinkPad Edge would be quite useful for my business, too (and I’d be happy to give a testimonial to that effect). Just email newyorkstreetfood@gmail.com.

In honor of St. Patrick’s Day, Cupcake Stop is making Irish-themed cupcakes with plenty of booze.  We don’t know if you actually need to be 21 to eat them, but just to be on the safe side, don’t drive or operate any heavy machinery after eating them.

Cupcake Stop’s baker, Heather Warren, is introducing a bunch of new flavors for the holiday, including Irish Soda Bread, Stout, Drunken Raisin, Bailey’s Cheesecake and Irish Coffee.  If you mention Gothamist while ordering a dozen before St. Patty’s day, you’ll get a baker’s dozen instead, with a free alcoholic cupcake of your choice. Cupcakes run $15 a dozen for the minis and $40 a dozen for the full sized versions. [Gothamist]