Diner’s Journal brings word today that the NYC Parks Department has made some decisions regarding its recent call for new food vendors to serve at its locations. There are six — count ‘em — new trucks and carts that you’ll want to keep an eye out for in the coming months.
Purple Yam will open two locations of what it’s calling Li’l Purple Yam, savory food will be sold at 114th Street and Broadway, and sweets will be one block south, at 113th Street.
A truck called Borough Fare has soups and sandwiches covered at 116th and Broadway (for which Eater found a job listing yesterday); Je & Jo will hit the Bleecker Playground with cookie-dough ice cream; Coolhaus will be selling similarly minded ice-cream cookie sandwiches (Grub is a big fan of the cookie part) at the American Museum of Natural History; Kelvin will sling slushies at the Little Red Square Park; and a vendor called Food Freaks is bringing grilled cheese to Fort Greene Park in Brooklyn.
If the addition of just six vendors sounds somewhat underwhelming, it’s because the Parks Department didn’t actually get all that many applications — only 58. Why so low? Sean Basinski, director of the Street Vendor Project, tells DJ that the “very difficult” application is to blame: ““It’s not designed to attract immigrant street vendors — you need a Harvard M.B.A. to fill it out.”
After a Call for Better Park Vendors, Six Are Picked [Diner’s Journal/NYT]
