FROM the oyster stalls of the 19th century to the chicken and rice carts of today, New York has had a long and varied street-food history.
Still, just as we’d prefer not to be served Hot Pockets for lunch at Jean Georges, there are certain items we’d rather not eat from a food truck — cod schnitzel, quiche Lorraine and creme brulee, among them. And yet those are just some of the rarefied dishes recently making their streetside debut.
Now that everything from Belgian waffles (Wafels & Dinges, twitter.com/waffletruck) to cute retro cookies (The Treats Truck, twitter.com/thetreatstruck) have gotten curbside treatment, vendors seem hellbent on taking it to the streets with increasingly prissy fare.
At La Cense Beef Burger Truck (twitter.com/LCB
BurgerTruck), the $7 grass-fed “steakburgers” are supposedly higher in omega-3 fatty acids and beta-carotene. Thanks, but we’ll take the $4.75 patties at Shake Shack — or spring an extra buck or two for the beef bomb at JG Melon.
And then there are the frustrating hours and annoying Twitter feeds. One second, a truck is headed to Carroll Gardens, 20 minutes later, it’s got better things to do. Would the Kwik Meal Cart guy flake out like this? We think not!
“It offends my culinary sensibilities,” says Eli Cane, a 30-year-old producer who favors chicken and rice from the King Tut cart at 50th Street and Sixth Avenue. “Street food shouldn’t be complicated.”
Rather, it should be cheap, simple and easily portable — qualities that some of the fussy new food trucks appear to lack.
Sure, the $9 cod schnitzel platter from Schnitzel & Things (twitter.com/schnitzeltruck) features crunchy, perfectly browned fried fish, but it begs for an ice-cold beer — or at least a bench not occupied by a dozing homeless guy.
Soft, gooey Nutella crepe ($5) from Le Gamin Truck (twitter.com/legamintruck) is outrageously good on the go — if you don’t mind chocolate spread smeared on your chin. And who wants to spend $8 on (admittedly) silky quiche Lorraine with mesclun salad when the sidewalk décor is so charm-free?
Perhaps the one thing that can be said for the twee-ification of truck food is that prices are quite reasonable for restaurant — but not truck — food. But the savings aren’t always that great: The quiche at Le Gamin’s exhaust-free East Village cafe is only a buck more than at the truck — and you get to sit down, maybe even enjoy some air conditioning.
Since its grand opening on Monday, the Bistro Truck (twitter.com/bistrotruck) has been drawing big lunchtime crowds to its spot on Fifth Avenue between 16th and 17th streets.
“I think it’s a good idea,” says Josh Rosenberg, a 21-year-old administrative assistant ordering $6 Dijon chicken with couscous and spring mix salad.
“I’m sick of eating truck food that doesn’t make me feel good afterwards.”
Indeed, the fancy new trucks appear to be attracting those who normally avoid street meats like the plague. “I never ever eat street food,” says Shannon Beck, a 28-year-old executive assistant and Bistro Truck regular. “But they have really good quality food here.”
Still, who wants to wait 20 minutes for fancy restaurant fare from a cart when half of it is going to wind up stuck in your computer keyboard?
“The one thing they need to work on is speed,” admits Joe Tocci, 34. “It takes away from the whole convenience.”
And even Bistro Truck fans say they have their street-eat limits, of which the most commonly cited are sushi and fusion-style food. “You have to remember who you are,” says Tocci. “You’re still a street food vendor.”
So please, no beef carpaccio carts, tuna tartare trucks or stands dedicated to reviving the lost art of aspic molding, OK?