Heartless thieves stole a Downtown lunchtime legend’s brand new food truck on Dec. 27, but the crime reverberated much further than its victim — workers throughout the area are going to lose their Mexican food haven.
The co-owner of the Loading Dock on Tillary Street made the bombshell announcement on Tuesday, the same day that NYPD paperwork revealed that his new $25,000 taco truck was stolen out of a Gold Street lot during the Great Blizzard of 2010.
“It was the worst time for that to happen,” said co-owner Forrest Cole, who is also the concession stand’s chef. “I had already been weighing what to do with some of the company’s issues, but I knew that I was going to use the new truck to expand.”
There had already been talk of using the new truck to move the Dock’s location — but keep selling Cole’s gourmet Mexican fare in the neighborhood — because the current spot near Flatbush Avenue Extension doesn’t draw the walk-in crowd.
That is, until somebody hatched a plan and successfully jacked the new digs.
Luckily, the end of The Loading Dock — and, no less important, our staff’s favorite lunchtime getaway — doesn’t mean the end of Cole’s excellent tacos and burritos. He said that he’d continue to sell them at the Brooklyn Flea in Fort Greene.
Plus, the stolen truck is insured, and Cole said that he may use the cash money toward a storefront someday.
But someday is too far out for customers.
“[The closing] is the worst thing to happen to Downtown since Gage & Tollner served its last chop on Fulton Street,” said rugged neighborhood worker Vince DiMiceli on Tuesday. “It’s the worst thing to happen to lunch itself since, well, brunch.”
But there’s still time to pay homage to a good year for a great taco stand. The Loading Dock will still be open Monday through Friday from 6-10 pm and for brunch and dinner on weekends until Jan. 30 — when Cole will throw a closing party that we’re all invited to.
The Loading Dock [170 Tillary St. near Flatbush Avenue Extension in Downtown, (646) 355-7518].