Winter is the slow season for street food, although with the mild winter, business is better than last year. Remember how much snow we had last year?
While things have been fairly quiet, there are still some problems with the police chasing food trucks away, but the NYC Food Truck Association told us they are trying to work out a solution by spring. Here’s hoping!
A lesser known problem you don’t hear about as much is friction food trucks have with halal and hot dog carts on the street.
Yesterday we stopped by the Comme Ci Comme Ca truck at 36th & Broadway around lunchtime. As you can see in the photo above, a hot dog vendor parked their cart right in front of the truck’s menu, just to the right of the serving window. I guess they thought it was their corner.
Last night Domo Taco tweeted “Closing early due to some unfriendly carts…sorry! Cya tomorrow!”
To their credit, neither of these episodes turned violent. But it can (and has) gotten violent.
Last year Miss Softee had a halal cart vendor ram his cart into the side of her truck, cracking the window. Luckily the police showed up pretty quickly before anyone got hurt.
I’m not sure how you deal with these things, other than with tact and diplomacy. It’s a big city, and there’s room for everyone, but there will always be competition to vend in high traffic areas.
We always say that food trucks and restaurants can peacefully coexist. Let’s make sure food trucks peacefully coexist with existing hot dog and halal cart vendors.
