Beef

Frites N Meats to Rickshaw Truck: ‘You’re Ruining This for Everybody’

Kenny Lao
Kenny Lao Photo: Patrick McMullan

Needless to say, Vadim Ponorovsky disagrees with Kenny Lao’s version of the spat that occurred between the Frites N Meats and Rickshaw trucks earlier today. Lao claimed that after he unknowingly took the Frites truck’s normal Tuesday parking spot, Ponorovsky “really flipped out” and sent a strongly worded text message (to put it mildly). Ponorovsky now tells us, “Kenny should consider a career in fictional story telling a la Garrison Keillor.” He says that unlike other vendors, Lao didn’t bother reaching out to him to clear the parking spot, despite the fact that he has his phone number (in fact, the two have been part of recent discussions to form a food truck association). And that was just his first mistake.

According to Ponorovsky, the Frites N Meats truck was the first to arrive on the scene. When a Frites employee noticed the Rickshaw truck, he called Ponorovsky, who was off-site but talked to Lao over the phone. “I said, ‘Kenny, what’s going on? I’m here every Tuesday and Friday.’ And he said, ‘Okay, I didn’t know.’” Fifteen minutes later, Ponorovsky says Rickshaw still hadn’t left, so he went to the scene of the incident and placed a call to Lao, who by then was no longer at the truck.

“Yes, I was a bit upset,” Ponorovsky admits. “I said ‘I don’t really understand why you’re still here when we talked and you know it’s not cool to have multiple trucks in one location. It brings too much attention; it brings the authorities.” Ponorovsky continues: “I’m talking to Kenny saying, ‘You’re ruining this for everybody. This is going to cost me several thousands dollars in lost revenue today.’” Sure enough, Ponorovsky spotted two members of the Fox security team talking to a police officer. “Either the officer or the security guy said the security people at Fox had a meeting the other day and they don’t want any vendors here— they view it as a security problem.” The police officer called an officer from the peddler’s unit who then told Ponorovsky that, according to a list of restricted streets, he couldn’t park in front of the building.

Ponorovsky won’t go into detail about the messages he sent Lao (“how forceful I was in all of that, that’s really irrelevant”) but will say, “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. And he’s far from that.” Finally: “Did I say some words that were inappropriate? Sure. That unfortunately is one of my shortcomings. I’m human.” And, it seems, the food truck business isn’t the most calming…

Earlier: Vadim From Paradou Loses It Again, on Rickshaw Dumpling Truck

Frites N Meats to Rickshaw Truck: ‘You’re Ruining This for