If you’re looking for something new to do this weekend, and still want to enjoy great food trucks, Belmont Park is hosting the inaugural Belmont Food Truck Festival on Saturday, May 25th.

8 of NYC’s best food trucks will be in the Belmont Park backyard from 11 am until post time for the last race, which is scheduled for 5:49 pm. General admission into Belmont Park is $3 and general parking is free.

Admission grants you full access to all of the food trucks, with food and drink being pay-as-you-go.

Click through for which food trucks will be at the inaugural Belmont Park Food Truck Festival, as well as some of the other events happening there on the same day, such as a Farmers Market.

In addition to the Food Truck Festival, on Saturday, May 25th, Belmont Park will conduct the Grade 2, $200,000 Sheepshead Bay for fillies and mares at 1 3/8 miles on the turf and present a $300,000 Guaranteed Late Pick 4.

Every Saturday Belmont Park presents a Farmer’s Market, with local purveyors of certified organic vegetables and greens, poultry, eggs, bakery items, pickles, and fresh fish and shellfish offering their goods.

As for which food trucks will be at Belmont Park on Saturday, the following vendors are scheduled to participate in the festival (subject to change):

Mike ‘N’ Willies

Toum

Palenque

Mac Truck

Chinese Mirch

Taco Bite

Trusty Burgers & Bites

And for dessert – La Bella Torte

Sounds like a nice day at the track.

Cannoli from La Bella Torte (credit: NYSF)

http://newyorkstreetfood.com/42179/belmont-park-food-truck-festival-debuts-this-weekend/

The city is launching a food truck market next month, and will give first preference to Long Beach businesses interested in operating a food truck like Swingbellys, pictured.

City officials announced last week that it would allow food trucks to operate in Long Beach on a trial basis beginning next month, part of an effort to help local merchants this summer in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.

The city is launching a Food Truck Market at the end of Riverside Boulevard on May 23 that will consist of businesses that currently have city mercantile licenses.

“The food trucks will be an extension and represent the existing products available at the business, and should be aesthetically pleasing and of the highest caliber and diversity of food quality as approved by the city,” read a statement on the city’s website. “Only in the event that extra spaces shall exist, then those spots may be obtained by non-mercantile businesses.”

“If extra spaces exist, it will be open to non-Long Beach business,” Councilwoman Eileen Goggin said at the April 22 Chamber of Commerce meeting.

The food truck market will be located at the municipal parking area at the end of Riverside Boulevard and Shore Road, Tuesday through Sunday, and at Kennedy Plaza on Mondays, and will operate from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. from May 23 through Sept. 2.

Those interested in participating in the food truck market may send a letter of intent, along with any supporting documents and pictures, to: City of Long Beach
ATTN: City Clerk, 1 West Chester St., Long Beach, NY 11561.
For more information, visit www.longbeachny.gov.

http://www.liherald.com/stories/City-to-launch-food-truck-market-next-month,47355?content_source=&category_id=5&search_filter=&event_mode=&event_ts_from=&list_type=&order_by=&order_sort=&content_class=&sub_type=&town_id=

]]> http://www.mobilefoodnews.com/2013/05/long-beach-ny-city-to-launch-food-truck-market-next-month/feed/ 0 http://www.mobilefoodnews.com/2013/04/new-york-ny-road-warriors-gourmet-food-trucks-roll-out-quality-across-l-i/ http://www.mobilefoodnews.com/2013/04/new-york-ny-road-warriors-gourmet-food-trucks-roll-out-quality-across-l-i/#comments Sat, 27 Apr 2013 19:00:18 +0000 MFN Editor #1 http://www.mobilefoodnews.com/?p=50883 By Rashed Mian | Long Island Press

Roberto Baez was burnt out.

For more than a decade, the native Long Islander of Cuban heritage had worked as a chef—half that time head chef—within the kitchens of various popular restaurants, manning the grill, overseeing orders and directing staff.

About two years ago he decided to jettison that exhausting lifestyle—and a good chunk of money—for a chance at a new beginning, taking his uncanny knack for concocting mouthwatering Caribbean on the road, literally.

Baez hopped on a plane to California and drove from San Diego to San Francisco, soaking in the sun, making pit stops along the way, all the time inhaling the fresh aromas of gourmet food wafting from the Golden State’s fleet of mobile food vendors.

That’s when it hit him.

“Food trucks are popular,” the 30-year-old recalls, relaxing outside his Rollin’ Cubans food truck, parked just west of Rte. 106 on Old Country Road in Hicksville. “[But] you don’t see them on Long Island at all.”

So, defying the fierce competition that defines the LI food industry, Baez decided to roll the dice, opening up his kitchen-on-wheels last July.

“In the restaurant business your lifestyle is sacrificed for money,” he says. “I’d much rather sacrifice money.”

Roberto Baez is working inside his Rollin’ Cubans food truck in Hicksville Saturday, April 14. His food truck has become a hit, attracting dozens of people a day.

Featuring painted flames curling upward from its wheel wells and large, bold purple lettering above its windshield proclaiming “Eat Cuban,” Rollin’ Cubans should probably be parked outside a crowded Miami nightclub. Instead, it’s adding a dose of culture and flare to an already-diverse Hicksville neighborhood.

And it’s popular—despite being in operation for under a year, Baez’ roving eatery has nearly 1,000 “likes” on Facebook.

Though Long Island is lightyears from becoming a food truck haven—you can’t go a block in Manhattan without seeing a mobile hotdog vendor or Halal meat truck, which isn’t the case here—there are hints the nationwide food truck craze may be catching on in Nassau and Suffolk counties.

Several food trucks were parked outside Tanger Outlets at the Arches’ outdoor shopping mall in Deer Park last month for its Taste and Style event. In Long Beach, which was all-but decimated six months ago, compliments of Superstorm Sandy, there’s currently an effort to breathe some life into the city’s rattled business community by opening a Food Truck Market at the end of Riverside Boulevard and Shore Road, starting this month.

“One of the things that we heard loud and clear from our residents was they were looking for more opportunities to have food near the beach,” says Long Beach City Manager Jack Schnirman. “Hence, the food truck initiative.”

“It’s going to create an oasis for the neighborhood,” adds Sugo Café owner Alan Adams, one of the Long Beach merchants taking advantage of the city’s plan. Adams’ truck, dubbed Beach Buns and Bites, will offer sliders, burgers and even some fresh seafood.

Another food truck, Rolling Spring Roll in Farmingdale, has been so successful that its owner, Joe Bui, is opening up a Vietnamese restaurant this summer. His crispy spring rolls are a crowd pleaser.

There’s no telling what a successful food truck can lead to in the future.

Joe Bui’s Rolling Spring Roll food truck, which serves Vietnamese dishes, inspired him to go all-in and open an actual restaurant. He’ll still be operating the food truck, but away from the restaurant, which remains as-yet nameless.

“I did have a great following,” he says, “people did like Vietnamese food and I wanted to bring it out more.”

Food truck operators admit that the food-on-wheels lifestyle also comes with some hard-to-swallow challenges—some so difficult to overcome that they forced 42-year-old Liam Beardslee, who sold tacos out of Lumpy’s Food Truck in Bay Shore, out of the business.

“It didn’t really catch on Long Island,” Beardslee says. “People didn’t really understand the food trucks that weren’t hot dog trucks.”

Somehow, Baez of Rollin’ Cubans has found the opposite—a re-energized niche among hungry suburbanites.

Baez, who is Cuban on his father’s side, begins each day early in the morning. He walks his dog, then spends the next four hours preparing empanadas, roast pork and Ropa Vieja, while also readying several Cubano sandwiches for the lunchtime rush. It’s common for him to find a long line forming at the curb as he’s pulling up.

The Cubano Sandwich, the most popular item on the menu, is stuffed with roast pork shoulder, cured ham, Swiss cheese, pickles and mustard. Baez presses the sandwich on the grill and repeats the process constantly during a busy day.

“Cuban [sandwiches] at other places…[aren’t] as good,” says 27-year-old Benjamin Gutt, visiting Rollin’ Cubans for the second time that day. “You can take the meat off the sandwich and eat it and it’s amazing. Just everything about it is good.”

Another crowd-pleaser is the roast pork sandwich, overflowing with pepper jack cheese, sweet plantains and hot-and-sweet buffalo sauce.

Baez also prepares custom dishes. One of his regulars asked him to add Ropa Vieja and plantains to the Cubano sandwich, for example. The patron enjoyed it so much that he named it the “Super Cuban,” Baez laughs.

Sure, there’s been road bumps along the way for Baez. Sandy crushed business, and winter forced him to close shop for nearly two months. But Baez is back in Hicksville, and he’s preparing for what he believes will be a busy summer.

But Long Islanders interested in roadside Cuban cuisine will have to be patient, he warns.

“I hate to make people wait,” says Baez, “but at the same time, if you want something good, it’s worth waiting for.”

http://www.longislandpress.com/2013/04/27/road-warriors-gourmet-food-trucks-roll-out-quality-across-l-i/

Since November 1, a group called Mercy Chefs, using a retrofitted RV mobile kitchen, has been supplying hot meals to New Yorkers who lost power after Hurricane Sandy.

“Honestly, the need here is so great that I could have 6 kitchens set up and still not be able to feed everyone who deserves a hot meal,” reported Mercy Chefs founder Gary LeBlanc two weeks ago.

Now, at the request of the Freeport mayor, the unit has just relocated to Long Island to feed 1,000 people still housed in Nassau County emergency shelters — just in time for the Thanksgiving holiday.

Gary’s team of volunteers also freely feed any first responders and cleanup volunteers who are diligently working to help neighborhoods recover.

They began yesterday serving hot meals and smiles in the Freeport recreational center with plans to offer a full Thanksgiving meal with all the trimmings on Thursday.

“We asked ourselves, how do we feed these families who have lost everything,” said Rev. Tina Baker of the Refuge Apostolic Church of Christ. “How do we give them the gift of a Thanksgiving meal? And then Mercy Chefs called and offered to come to our community over Thanksgiving week. It’s a gift, It’s a blessing!”

Donations to Mercy Chefs, a Christian non-profit organization, make these meals possible. Consider donating at www.mercychefs.com

https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/most-popular/mercy-chefs-feed-new-yorkers-without-power.html

Enough for you?

You probably heard that on Wednesday, New York City announced that it would enact a ban on the sale of huge sodas (and some other sugar-heavy drinks) at some public places, namely movie theatres, restaurants, and street vending carts.The Center for Science in the Public Interest applauds the move.

The outcry has been deafening. You can read some of the “comments” appended to the New York Times story here. And as you can imagine, the sugary drinks industry is complaining.

Until recently, I personally have guzzled hundreds of gallons of caffeine-laden colas, some with sugar and some with equally perilous artificial sweeteners, so I think I can offer a somewhat balanced view. Let’s look at three facts:

• The obesity epidemic is dangerous to the health of individuals and to the future of our nation’s health care system. (we spend $14 billion a YEAR on obesity-related diseases such as diabetes).
• Sugary drinks have empty calories.
• People often don’t do what’s in their own best interest.

It’s the last one that starts the heated discussions. On a radio talk show Wednesday, I heard nutrition expert Liz Applegate criticize the move, saying that it’s a question of personal responsibility. Well, she has an impressive resume, but the “personal responsibility” line is exactly what all the makers of dangerous things (cigarettes, guns, pink slime burgers) say when threatened by attempts to curb their freedom to sell their products.

Two years ago, San Francisco banned the sale of sugary sodas in vending machines on city property. Somehow, the sky did not fall.

As a psychologist specializing in eating disorders for 25 years, I saw first-hand how people struggle to make good on their intentions to be healthy. And that doesn’t even count the people who aren’t even trying to eat healthily. As an academic who has published journal articles on obesity and read the research, I’m alarmed by the danger to our country.

What do you think? Obesity costs YOU in the form of your health insurance premiums, even if you aren’t overweight or obese. Should this ban proceed?

http://www.examiner.com/article/mega-soda-ban-new-york

]]> http://www.mobilefoodnews.com/2012/06/mega-soda-ban-in-new-york/feed/ 0 http://www.mobilefoodnews.com/2011/10/long-island-ny-feeding-frenzy-in-montauk/ http://www.mobilefoodnews.com/2011/10/long-island-ny-feeding-frenzy-in-montauk/#comments Sun, 02 Oct 2011 00:35:57 +0000 MobileFoodNews.com http://www.mobilefoodnews.com/?p=22046 By SPENCER E. ANTE | The Wall Street Journal

The Ditch Witch truck (pictured here in August 2010) and the Beach Dog Cart are in a turf battle with newer food vendors bidding to do business. Mimi Ritzen Crawford for the Wall Street Journal

The summer season has ended in Montauk, but a debate is heating up over one of the Long Island beach community’s most contentious issues: its seaside lunch options.

Two longtime truck vendors—Ditch Witch and Beach Dog Cart—have had to make room for a pair of upstarts that many locals fear will end up ousting their old favorites. For many residents and summertime loyalists, what’s at stake is more than a decent turkey and pesto sandwich; it’s the character of the place itself.

The battle began after the Town of East Hampton, which includes Montauk, heard complaints in previous years that there were too many vendors vying for the few spots at the entrances to the popular Ditch Plains beach.

The town devised a public bidding process for permits. Just before Memorial Day, word got out that the town planned to boot Ditch Witch and Beach Dog Cart.

Ditch Witch (pictured in August 2010) is popular with beachgoers. Mimi Ritzen Crawford for the Wall Street Journal

The news didn’t go over well. The bidding formula weighed 40% of the final score on how much rent a bidder promised to pay the town, and the winners were relative newbies Montaco and Turf Lobster Rolls.

One longtime summer resident, Christian Iooss, quickly launched a protest on Facebook with a “Save the Ditch Witch” page that drew more than 1,000 followers and hundreds of comments in just 12 hours.

“To me, it was another step in the wrong direction,” said Mr. Iooss, 34 years old, whose parents own a house near the Ditch Plains beach. “The town went for the money.”

The town soon backed down, saying it had not given bidders a detailed breakdown of the bidding criteria, and allowed all four vendors to do business. But officials still expect to develop a new process over the upcoming months—one that stalwarts fear will set an expensive minimum bid that’s affordable only to more moneyed operators.

“We will keep the law but we will make the process work better,” said Theresa Quigley, deputy supervisor for the East Hampton Town Board.

“Of course, I am worried,” said John Bogetti, 69, a retired police officer who has been selling hot dogs, candy and other snacks from the Beach Dog Cart for 24 years. “It seems like the town bends over backward for the Montaco.”

“I have no guarantees for next year,” said Lili Adams, the owner of Ditch Witch, a local favorite that has been catering to beachgoers for 17 years.

For some Montauk fans, the food truck war is a troubling sign that their laid-back surf town is being overrun by affluent out-of-towners. In 2008, the Surf Lodge—a hotel, restaurant and bar—opened and attracted what many locals derided as a very Hamptons-like crowd. The fears were stoked this summer when a backer of the Surf Lodge helped to open Ruschmeyer’s, a lakeside resort with lodging, a beer garden and a restaurant run by the owner’s of New York’s trendy Fat Radish.

“Either we figure out how to get business that is not tourism or we figure out how to balance the issues,” Ms. Quigley said. “I don’t know what the answer is.”

During a sunny day in the last week of July, while children frolicked in the water and surfers paddled out to catch some waves, a long line formed in front of the Ditch Witch. Down the shore, a few people waited in front of Turf Lobster Rolls as the 27-year-old proprietor, Zachary Lynd, piled chunks of shellfish into a roll.

Mr. Lynd staked $30,000—his entire life savings—on an Airstream trailer that he converted into a food truck. The project also doubled as Mr. Lynd’s master’s thesis for the School of Visual Arts. He sells lobster rolls for $16, and a key lime tart and fruit salad for $5.

“I could be rebidding against a whole other competitive landscape,” said Mr. Lynd, who will stay open part-time through October. “I very well could lose it.

He said he believes he had been unfairly portrayed as the town villain.

“The project blew up before it even got started,” said Mr. Lynd.

He said he received threats that his trailer would be set on fire, washed out to sea or tipped over. Protesters threatened to not only boycott the new food truck, but to form a human chain around the area to prevent anyone other than Ditch Witch’s Ms. Adams from getting in.

But Mr. Lynd took it as a challenge. He worked the local community like a politician, making it known that he was a regular guy trying to break into the hospitality business. After negotiating a deal with East Hampton and a local condominium allowing him to set up at the end of a dirt lot at Ditch Plains, he opened on July 1.

“I was just one person, and it was not some big company trying to buy its way into Montauk,” said Mr. Lynd, a native of Texas who has a degree in graphic design from the University of Colorado.

Mars Ostarello, 30, the owner of Montaco, said she would love to continue doing business next year—her third summer—but is worried the minimum bid may be $10,000, which she considers unreasonable. “There is a need for more food vendors,” she said. “I would have to believe and hope I would be awarded a spot.”

Ms. Ostarello said she’ll continue to do catering if she loses out. “This is the Montaco’s home,” she said. “This is what she was designed for.”

For Mr. Bogetti of the Beach Dog Cart, the situation is more worrisome. His main sources of income are the food truck and Social Security checks. The truck also provides jobs for his two granddaughters, who are working their way through college.

“After 25 years to be out in the cold,” he said, his voice trailing off.

Ms. Adams’s food truck is also her primary source of income. She had been cooking in area kitchens for years before deciding to strike out on her own in 1994. The Ditch Witch is helping put her son Grant, whose name graces the turkey and pesto sandwich, through college.

Sitting on a bench in front of her truck this summer, Ms. Adams said she fears that New York City restaurateurs trying to cash in on Montauk’s surging hipness could snag her spot next year.

“A lot is changing in Montauk,” she said. “We know as a group we are looking at the end.”

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204226204576600880886103922.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

By Amanda Fiscina | Farmingdale Patch

Tom Samodolski, owner of My Mobile Munchies, a coffee truck in Farmingdale. Credit Amanda Fiscina

How one Farmingdale entrepreneur is using the web to keep business moving in this economy.

Like his father, Tom Samodolski beeps his coffee truck horn three times when he arrives at sites on his Farmingdale route. But he also checks in on FourSquare, tweets his location and updates his Facebook status.

“It’s all about rebuilding with the people, changing with the times,” said Samodolski, owner of the one truck business My Mobile Munchies.

Samodolski, 31, is a second generation coffee truck owner who hopes to use technology to innovate the mobile food industry on Long Island, despite facing some resistance from his older peers in the business, a less social media active suburban clientele and a discouraging economy.

After graduating from Providence College in 2002 with a degree in business management, Samodolski worked briefly in finance before getting involved in the family business.

“My family has been maintaining the same routes and trucks in Farmingdale for 30 years,” he said. “We were here way before all the 7-Elevens and Dunkin Donuts’. We served the businesses who built Long Island and to this day they are loyal to us.”

It was at stops like tech schools and internet businesses that Samodolski learned about the web, before buying his own truck two years ago.

“I learned from everyone on my stops every day over coffee,” he said. “At a school for Graphic Design, they taught me PhotoShop and DreamWeaver. At a internet marketing company, they taught me how to put my website online, where would host it for free and how to use Google ad words. It was great and it really helps me as an entrepreneur to run my own technology.”

Dozens of coffee trucks are registered in Farmingdale, but Samodolski is the only one with a website and on Twitter, Facebook and FourSquare.

“The other truck guys are older and don’t do technology so I figured I would be the voice for as many coffee trucks as I could,” he said. “Since we all go to the same supplier I tweet the daily specials for all of us. These other guys don’t really get the point.”

Besides tweeting daily specials, Samodolski takes orders on Twitter and Facebook from customers along his daily route and tweets about the industry and local news. He said a few customers have installed Twitter just for the coffee truck.

“It’s perfect for us,” said Sean Blanc, who owns Global Facility Management, a stop along Samodolski’s route.

Samodolski said he is disappointed that his customer base isn’t more “techy,” but that there are some advantages a less crowded social media scene. On FourSquare he’s often listed as the only “to do” at each location at his daily check in times.

“It seems like people in the city are more adapted to technology,” he said. “I only get a few orders each day on Twitter, around a dozen or so a week.”

Samodolski has had to raise prices because of the increased gas and food costs, but says he refuses to fixate on the rough economy.

“I think that all the negative talk is contagious,” he said. “The other food truck guys complain, but I won’t. I am doing as good if not better than ever. And it is because of things like social media, good marketing and being accessible.”

Samodolski has started getting calls for stops outside the Farmingdale area, something he credits to his web presence.

“I have to give some of those stops to other trucks,” he said. “Now that they can look us up online, it’s really helping me with leads.”

Samodolski just redesigned his truck, hopes to expand his fleet next year and wants to continue to explore how to use social media for his customers.

“We just get a 10 minute break,” said customer Mario Barahona. “He saves our lives every time he shows up.”

Stay tuned for a video from Samodolski’s coffee truck route this Monday on Farmingdale Patch.

http://farmingdale.patch.com/articles/tweeting-from-the-coffee-truck#photo-7789245

Bryan Smith for News A slew of food trucks are headed to Long Island City for an experimental food court on wheels this summer.

Some of the city’s most sought-after food trucks are heading to Long Island City this summer – part of a rotating roster of mobile eateries participating in a Long Island City food truck court.

The daily feast on wheels will begin within the next two weeks at 43-29 Crescent St., organizers said.

Although happy about the new initiative, truck owners said it won’t solve the recent city crackdown on food trucks parking in metered spots.

“It’s an exciting opportunity and a network of private lots could be an alternative to street vending,” said David Weber, president of the New York City Food Truck Association. “But I don’t think by itself it’s a solution.”

Mayoral spokeswoman Samantha Levine said laws prohibiting the sale of merchandise at metered parking spaces have been on the books for about 40 years.

But the law is now being stringently enforced after a judge recently ruled that food was considered merchandise.

“We’re having conversations with truck owners,” Levine said. “We’re helping them identify legal locations where they can park and sell their food.”

After hearing of the vendors’ troubles, the Rockrose Development Corp. real estate development firm stepped in.

Rockrose set aside a parking lot, which it plans to eventually turn into housing, for the food court. It caters to nearby office workers, said Senior Vice President Patricia Dunphy.

Rockrose intends to operate it through the summer and into the fall – if not longer, she said. And a local arts group plans to install swimming pools made from retrofitted Dumpsters across the street.

“This is very experimental,” Dunphy said. “We have to see how it works out.”

Kim Ima, owner of The Treats Truck, which sells homemade cookies, brownies and Rice Krispie treats, said she’s excited about the new endeavor.

“I lost all my bread-and-butter main spots,” Ima said of the staple street locations she has used for the last four years.

“Now the business as I built it is at risk,” she added, noting her profits have plummeted by more than 50% in the last month alone.

Derek Kaye, owner of Eddie’s Pizza Truck, also has seen his profits dip 15% to 20%.

“The Long Island City food court can be a haven without the hassles,” Kaye said.

But Dave Cook, the food blogger behind the popular website EatinginTranslation.com, wasn’t as enthusiastic.

“It might help those trucks tide themselves [over] in the short term,” Cook said.

But he added, “There’s a thrill in going and hunting down a food truck that you lose by having them all parked in a lot.”

Anyone who follows the world of food or lives in a city struck by the food truck craze (see: DC, LA, Portland, Austin, NYC and many, many others) knows that several years ago the food truck business started blowing up, and is still going strong. But now there is a new contender in the “mobile” vending world: a food boat.

Yes, the Burger Buoy is serving up breakfast, hot dogs, burgers and sandwiches from a converted  houseboat, such as their signature Buoy Burger, a six-ounce burger on a Kaiser roll with bacon, cheese, coleslaw and cucumbers. The idea was born out of the frustration boaters often have with how long it can take them to return to shore, dock their boat and wait in line at what is usually a single shop in the harbor. They have a website, as well as a Facebook page that could use some love.   The owner of Burger Buoy explains the concept:

“Boaters can call in an order over the phone or radio or even text it and can either pick up or have their order delivered.”

While they probably have to pay for a dock slip, much like food trucks they don’t have to pay either rent or property tax. Offering a potential low-overhead business after paying to renovate the boat. The boat is operating in the harbor of Freeport, NY and looks like this:

Cool. So what’s next? A food plane? Unicycle delivery riders? A swim-up food submarine that surfaces in the middle of popular beaches? Food parachuters who drop down on you while at the park?

http://www.sogoodblog.com/2011/07/29/restaurants-5-minutes-food-trucks-food-boats/

By Joanne Pilgrim | Observer.com

The opening salvos in this summer’s Hamptons food truck wars have been fired.

Fans of the Ditch Witch—the beloved grub wagon perched at the sandy entrance to Ditch Plains Beach for 17 years—took to Facebook when word got out that the East Hampton Town Board planned to award an exclusive concession for the beach to a competing vendor shilling pricey lobster rolls. The lobster vendor had been forced to get aggressive about acquiring a permit after Montaco, a taco truck, applied for a Ditch Plains permit of its own.

Within hours, a “Save the Ditch Witch” page went up on Facebook, and more than a thousand supporters had pledged their undying support and their intent to “take Montauk back.” Many predicted the demise of true Montauk culture should the Witch be ousted—the last coffin nail after a series of incursions from “the outside” over recent years.

Some Facebook posts predicted a dark future for those daring to unseat the Ditch Witch. Various tactics were considered, from the peaceful (forming a human chain) to the more threatening (truck-tipping).

Late into a town meeting on May 19, after waiting hours to speak her peace, Montaco proprietor Mars Ostarello claimed that one local truck chef had warned her of dire consequences if she trod on his turf.

“Bullying is alive and well in Montauk,” she said.

By the time Memorial Day rolled around, the town had scrapped its plan to grant concessions to the new beach vendors. Montaco was present on Saturday morning, as was the Ditch Witch. The lobster roll truck has not been accounted for. There were no reports of truck-on-truck violence.

“Customers were really excited, because of their participation,” Ditch Witch owner Lily Adams told the Transom. “I think for some people, it was just a limit to what they were gonna take.”

The uproar was not just about drinks and sandwiches, she said. “This was a neighborhood.”

http://www.observer.com/2011/daily-transom/montauk-food-truck-war-05312011

http://www.mobilefoodnews.com/2011/05/long-island-ny-the-battle-of-the-ditch-witch-war-waged-by-montauk-food-trucks/