New York Street Food

We were contacted yesterday by a new truck serving iced coffee, iced tea and more called Cool Beans.

In addition to fresh-brewed iced coffee such as Dark Brazilian Santos and iced tea such as Dragonwell Green Tea, they have banana whips, which are the consistency of yogurt, gluten-free cookies, and they expect to be adding Belgian waffles this weekend.

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(credit: NYSF)

Sometimes we’re ahead of the curve, as in the case of Home By The Range.

We first ran across them at the All About Downtown Festival in Jersey City last year, where NYSF was a sponsor.  Delicious grass-fed beef sandwiches with ultra-fresh ingredients and salads.

We gave them a NYSF First Look last September, and they have been in our Mobile Munchies posts and our directory ever since.

The Newark Star-Ledger recently visited Home By The Range, and they were as impressed as we were last year.

Click here to read the full Star-Ledger article on NJ.com, and here to follow HBTR on twitter or here for our Mobile Munchies list.

Congratulations Will.  Good to see you getting some recognition from someone other than NYSF.

(credit: NYSF)

It doesn’t quite have the same ring as Say Goodbye To Hollywood, but it has the same effect.

Wednesday night, after many months of back-and-forth, Hoboken passed a draconian new food truck law.

The new law  includes significantly increased fees, stipulates that no more than three trucks can be parked on one block, and requires truck owners to install a GPS device (!)  in their vehicles.  How Big Brother of them!

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We wanted to let you know about another new food truck coming to our area, Molly’s Milk Truck.  Don’t worry Keith, it’s very different from your Milk Truck.

Molly’s Milk Truck was started by Hoda, who left the corporate world not because of the recession or being laid off, but because it was too stifling and unfulfilling.  Hoda hooked up with Jason to start Molly’s Milk Truck.

According to Hoda, the concept behind Molly’s is: New Age American – A Healthy Alternative to American Favorites.  Hoda told me that’s where the Milk part of the name comes from – something wholesome and American.  As for where Molly comes from, let’s just say they hope you’ll be ecstatic after eating their food.

Click through for when and where they expect to be on the street, as well as a draft version of their menu.

We  recently received word from The Taco Truck that the City of Hoboken drafted an ordinance that seems intended to drive food trucks out of town.  Athos from Two Pitas In A Pod told is it passed the Hoboken City Council last night on the first reading.

According the The Taco Truck, “It has become apparent to us that the City of Hoboken is doing its best to marginalize the food trucks and make it impossible for us to conduct business. We understand the need to put an ordinance in place that regulates the food trucks and mandates certain requirements that protect our customers, this is long overdue, but this ordinance goes well beyond that.”

The Taco Truck posted an even longer letter to their fans on facebook that explained the details of the ordinance that just passed.  In addition to fees in excess of $3,500 per year, food trucks would not be able to park within 75 feet of a brick and mortar restaurant, and could not park in Hoboken for more than 6 hours per day. That means food trucks could not park somewhere for lunch, then move and park somewhere else in Hoboken for dinner.

From what we have read over the past year or two, it’s not too hard to figure out a plan where restaurants and food trucks can peacefully coexist.  It happened this year in Seattle, Cleveland, and a bunch of other places.  All you need are politicians who aren’t in the pocket of local restaurateurs and landlords.

Click through for the full text of The Taco Truck’s letter.

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