Category: Eat & Drink

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Meals on Wheels in New York

New York real estate is worth a pretty premium and restaurants have to jump through hoops just to open their doors, let alone the extras like liquor licenses and sidewalk seating permits. And so we have some meals on wheels, i.e., coffee trucks, dessert trucks, pizza trucks and the like. Some are consistently stationed in the same place, others move around the city. Regardless, they serve up some tasty food (gourmet, even!) at cheap prices (no $10,000/month leases!).

Dessert

Always start with dessert, I say. Because really, those super-sized muffins are more akin to dessert than breakfast, and that double latte is half sugar. Just admit you want dessert at 2pm and get over it. Your tummy will thank you, your teeth not so much.

Chocolate Cake from the Dessert Truck

Chocolate Cake from the Dessert Truck

Dessert Truck

8th Street and 3rd Avenue New York, NY 10003

Clever name, eh? This ain’t no elementary bake sale, however: the partners behind the truck are a Columbia Business School graduate and a pastry sous chef (Le Cirque). Chocolate bread pudding, rhubarb-lemongrass soda and coconut tapioca with cilantro pearls. Again, no stale cookies or chemical-filled cupcakes here!

Dessert Truck Site

Van Leeuwen Artisan Ice Cream Truck

Prince Street and Greene Street New York, NY 10012

Ice cream trucks are a dime a dozen in New York, as are their annoying accompanying music tracks, but Van Leeuwen debuted their Artisan goods last week to drum up some competition. (Oh yeah, one of the founders used to be a Good Humor man!) “Artisan.” Yes, be afraid, be very afraid!

Recyclable cups hold flavors like pistachio, ginger, red currant and peppermint & chip, all made from local ingredients. Help the environment! I.e., go get some ice cream.

Van Leeuwen Site

The Treats Truck

The Treats Truck

Treats Truck

38th Street and 5th Avenue New York, NY 10018

Take note, the Treats Truck moves around almost everyday and even makes the occasional trek out to Brooklyn for festivals and Park Slope kiddies. Desserts are of the cookie and bar variety: caramel creme sandwiches, raspberry brownies and oatmeal jammies.

Treats Truck Site

Coffee

Coffee trucks used to get me through a long day of teaching, and at 50 cents a cup, it fell into my budget as well. But there was rarely anything gourmet, or even digestible about that coffee. With gentrification has come upscale coffee trucks, and thank goodness, because they tend to make slightly more palatable java.

Mudtrucker Fisheye

Mudtruck

The Mudtruck

Astor Place and 3rd Avenue New York, NY 10003

Sometimes the coffee does taste like mud, or sludge, but the cappuccinos are half-decent. I wish coffee-makers could learn that strong does not equal great. Oh well. Competing with nearby Starbuck’s, they do a brisk business by my old subway stop, Astor Place.

I love the personal down-home touch of the vase of flowers.

Mudtruck

7th Avenue and West 4th Street New York, NY 10011

NYC Love Street Coffee Truck

2 West 14th Street New York, NY 10079

Supposedly the Mud coffee couple split, and NYC Love Street Coffee Truck is the endeavor of one of them. A Mudtruck was rebranded! I wonder if the “Love” part is some kind of jab at their failed partnership? Being passive-aggressive, and making a business out of it is fantastic.

 

Have many, many meals on wheels

cream cheese and jam

Breakfast

Most breakfasts-from-a-truck are associated with bad coffee and gigantic cream cheesed bagels. Not a bad breakfast, and at a low cost, but you can do better. Because you’ve heard of the unsanitary conditions of those trucks/carts’ sleeping quarters, yes? Mice and such? It’s gross…don’t buy those bagels…ever.

Wafels and Dinges-Cinnamon + Nutella

Cinnamon + Nutella + Powdered Sugar

Wafels and Dinges

Park Avenue and East 26th Street New York, NY 10010

Belgian waffles with toppings like Nutella and Dulce de Leche are all well and good, but their cover was blown earlier this summer: the waffles are not made fresh, merely heated up when you order them. Peeps were mad! They’re still pretty good.

Location changes, so check the schedule!

Wafels and Dinges

CBS Interviews the Wafels and Dinges Guy

The Wafels and Dinges guy left a $100,000-paying IBM job to bring waffles to the streets of NYC.

The Impostor Waffle Truck

Astor Place and 3rd Avenue New York, NY 10003

Well, that’s what the NYC restaurant site Eater calls it! It looks like Wafels and Dinges, tastes like it too, but it’s not! It’s a former Wafels and Dinges employer’s venture! Let the Waffle Wars begin.

Miscellaneous Eats

Jiannetto's Pizza Truck

East 51st Street and Park Avenue New York, NY 10079

Who knew a pizza truck could survive, and with such a loyal following, when pizza is one of the easier edibles to buy wherever you are in the city? Jiannetto makes a mean Sicilian slice without cheese that is worth tasting.

But watch out, Jiannetto, a new pizza struck has sprung up nearby.

101_0423

Mo Gridders

565 Hunts Point Avenue Bronx, NY 10474

BBQ out of a truck, and all the way up in the Bronx! They’ve got all the regular fare: pulled pork sandwiches, ribs and smoked sausage.

The dude owns the adjacent autobody shop, if you happen to be in need of those services as well. They have a deal that cracks me up: a ribs, oil, and filter special for $34.95. Hello multi-tasking!

Mo Gridder's

Sub on Wheels

Lee Avenue and Willamsburg Street West Brooklyn, NY 11211

Super Taco Truck

West 96th Street and Broadway New York, NY 10025

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