RISE AND DINE: The city Department of Health says food-cart vendors aren’t supposed to sleep where they serve their eats, but the rule is often flouted — as evidenced a comatose cupcake seller and a hibernating halal guy, both on West Broadway near Broome Street. (Catherine Nance)
RISE AND DINE: The city Department of Health says food-cart vendors aren’t supposed to sleep where they serve their eats, but the rule is often flouted — as evidenced a comatose cupcake seller and a hibernating halal guy, both on West Broadway near Broome Street (Catherine Nance)
They’re sleeping with the dishes.
Food vendors looking to guard their spots and avoid pricey storage fees have taken to sleeping inside their carts, with workers snoring where grilled lamb is later cooked for unsuspecting patrons.
“That’s crazy!” exclaimed Jennifer Suarez, 36, an Astoria street-food devotee. “You shouldn’t sleep where you serve food.”
The city Department of Health requires that food vendors clear the streets after closing, then go to a commissary where the carts are washed and stored. But The Post found food wagons loitering on trendy streets around SoHo and Union Square at all hours of the night:
* At least four carts were spotted empty and abandoned, blocking the sidewalks for no apparent reason.
* A worker hiding in a gray hoodie was conked out next to the hot-dog buns and napkins in a halal food cart at West Broadway and Broome Street, directly between Cipriani Downtown and a Ralph Lauren store.
* On the same block, a dozing, cherub-faced worker was on full display in the “Little Cupcake Lover” wagon at Broadway and Houston. Once sleepy time ended, the bustling cart sold trays of dainty red-velvet and Nutella-mint cupcakes.
When asked about the fleabag food hotels, vendors said some employees are paid to watch the wagons in the evening, but they couldn’t explain the sleeping.
“That can’t happen. If he’s sleeping here, he’s not watching anything,” said Nour Saif, a worker at one of the West Broadway carts.
Vendors were also spotted engaging in a host of icky “cleaning” rituals in the wee hours. A jolly vendor at Houston and Broadway washed his cart with water from a street valve, using the hose to fill up a coffee urn after it dripped into a dirty street grate. As for food storage, he kept boxes of doughnuts on a railing behind a subway entrance.
“These things need to be more regulated,” said Tom Morton, 30, who says he suffered food poisoning after eating lamb from a cart recently.
The city inspects the carts at least once a year and follows up on any complaints, DOH said. Reports of wagons left on the street are also pursued, the department said.
DOH licenses more than 5,000 food vendors around the city, who pay thousands of dollars for the custom-made wagons. The city has received more than 800 complaints about the cleanliness of food carts so far this year, slightly up from 2009 numbers.