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Gourmet Food Truck Turf War Ruins Prime Spot for Everyone
By
John Del Signore
Published Aug 20, 2010
Modified Aug 20, 2010
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By
John Del Signore
Published Aug 20, 2010
Modified Aug 20, 2010
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A turf war between two food truck vendors has ruined a prime location for all the trucks that used to park on the south side of 48th Street (between Sixth and Seventh avenues, outside the building in which The Wall Street Journal's located). Midtown Lunch says the turfuffle started on Tuesday, when the hot-headed owner of the Frites N Meats truck, Vadim Ponorovsky, arrived to find the Rickshaw Dumpling truck horning in on his business. You may recall Ponorovsky from the notoriously nasty email he sent to staffers at his Meatpacking district restaurant Paradou. He didn't disappoint this time, either.
In a series of mean tweets, Ponorovsky said, "Getting kicked out of spot due to Rickshaw Dumpling Truck deciding to park also. Not sure if well be back here. Boycott Rickshaw Dumpling!" This was followed by: "Its not a war. But if it were, asking whod win, is like asking whod win in a Mike Tyson (us) vs. snot nosed 3rd grader (Rickshaw)." In response, the owner of Rickshaw, Kenny Lao, tells Grub Street that Ponorovsky "really flipped out on us, sending me harassing messages and whatnot. My business partner was there — I didn’t hear because I had walked away, but he said racial slurs against me and sent me a totally homophobic message." Lao, who is gay, says one of the messages read: "Fucking faggot douchebag motherfucker." If they were ice cream men, they would have settled this with a street brawl by now.
Now cops have driven all the food trucks from the spot permanently. Apparently that side of the block has always been off-limits for vendors, but the rule was not previously enforced. Eddie's Pizza truck, which normally parks there on Wednesdays, tells the Journal, "It is a tragedy because it was such a good spot, but I think I'll be able to rebound from it." Ponorovsky says he lost thousands of dollars because of this, and tells Grub Street, "Kenny does a very wonderful job of shifting the focus away from him as the instigator of this event to being the victim. That’s a wonderful skill to have, to be the innocent lamb." Mmm, lamb. Why isn't there an artisanal gourmet Lamb Truck yet?
Tagged
food truck
frites 'n' meats
rickshaw dumpling
Turf War
vadim from paradou
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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