NYC trip for an el cheapo street vendor weekend - potentially Memorial Day

[ne_cyclone]

Hello All,

After some amazing NYC trips noshing on seriously amazing "chef made reservation only dine in restaurants", the wife and I wanted to come back for a different take of NYC - street food vendors!!

So I found this blog/site http://newyorkstreetfood.com/

I am trying to figure out the percentage of vendors that open shop on the weekends esp the Memorial Day weekend. Any help or links would be appreciated. If there are certain neighborhoods where we can find more carts taht would be awesome - we are not cuisine specific esp not when trying to live a bit adventurously and try out the street food vendors.

Also if we were to go out for falafel/hummus/gyros - any cant miss places? And there will be a late night trip to our Mecca of pastrami - Katzs.

As always - thank you all.

[ne_cyclone]

Thank you all for some great recs - we were able to hit Madison Sq Park eats, Williamsburg Flea and Taiim and RGR's LES Walk.
Also had some wafels and dinges - I plan/hope to put in a blog with our experiences and post back to this thread for others to follow.

Having said that, we are looking at July 4th weekend trip - actually 6/30 - 7/3. I am hoping that we can sample some of the food trucks on the weekday. Are there any other food fairs similar to MSP Eats and Brooklyn Flea during this time?

Thanks again!!

[sugartoof]

Brooklyn Flea, Smorgasburg, Hester Street Fair, and New Amsterdam Fair should be around that weekend.

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Hester Street Fair
Essex St Hester St, New York, NY 10002

[ne_cyclone]

Thanks - looks like New Amsterdam Fair is not open on July 3rd

[kathryn]

The Hester St Fair does "Picnic" on Sundays where all the booths are food related (as opposed to on Saturdays where it's a mix of food and non-food).

Check their Facebook page for more details.
https://www.facebook.com/hesterstreetfair

If you spend Saturday at Smorgasburg and Sunday at Hester St Fair, you'll have a pretty good itinerary.

You could also add on the Red Hook ballfield food vendors one of those days. They were open July 4th weekend last year and likely will do the same this year. Check their Twitter for details:
https://twitter.com/#!/redhookfoodvend

If you want to catch a handful of food trucks all at once, also take a look at The Lot on Tap, under the Highline, or the trucks parked at the "food truck terrace" at the former Tavern on the Green space in Central Park.

The Lot on Tap
http://www.thehighline.org/the-lot

You could also add on a self-guided noshing tour of the West Village or East Village as well for Thursday/Friday of your trip:
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/728356
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/750143
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/711661
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/754497#6150216
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/788541#6591055
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/05/realestate/05block.html
http://newyork.timeout.com/restaurant...

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The Lot on Tap
10th Ave W 30th St, New York, NY 10001

[kathryn]

The Hester St Fair does "Picnic" on Sundays where all the booths are food related (as opposed to on Saturdays where it's a mix of food and non-food).

Check their Facebook page for more details.
https://www.facebook.com/hesterstreetfair

If you spend Saturday at Smorgasburg and Sunday at Hester St Fair, you'll have a pretty good itinerary.

You could also add on the Red Hook ballfield food vendors one of those days. They were open July 4th weekend last year and likely will do the same this year. Check their Twitter for details:
https://twitter.com/#!/redhookfoodvend

You could also add on a self-guided noshing tour of the West Village or East Village as well for Thursday/Friday of your trip:
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/728356
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/750143
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/711661
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/754497#6150216
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/788541#6591055
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/05/realestate/05block.html
http://newyork.timeout.com/restaurant...

[ne_cyclone]

Wow thanks. I did have another follow up Q. Red hook smogasburg fort Greene and hester fair - can anyone rank as cannot miss to next time. I have a possible time constraint. Could do 2-3 but not all 4. Appreciate ur help - now for.a.swim before we head out again.

[sugartoof]

Smorgasburg will give you your fill. It's at least twice the size of the others with a little crossover.

Hester Street Fair is very small. This means getting there early is advised, or risk a crush of people, and sold out booths. You can whip through it fairly quickly.

Red Hook is the most out of the way to get to, and you can find 1-2 of their vendors at other markets.

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Hester Street Fair
Essex St Hester St, New York, NY 10002

[ne_cyclone]

Oh and we did visit the Williamsburg Flea last time. As a point of reference we loved it.

[H Manning]

The Wafels and Dinges truck operates on weekends. My favorite combo is the WMD with spekuloos spread, bananas, and Belgian chocolate fudge. Follow them on twitter.

Schedule:
http://www.wafelsanddinges.com/location.html

Menu:
http://www.wafelsanddinges.com/menu.html

[sugartoof]

Wafels and Dinges have also added carts around many tourist spots, and locations where the truck used to sit.

[Upperwestsider]

Most of these have web sites complete with their current location (many vary from day to day) and op hours: Bian Dang, Big D's Grub, Big Gay Ice Cream Truck, Bistro Truck, Cinnamon Snail, Coolhaus, Cupcake Crew, Cupcake Stop, Desi Truck, eddie's Pizza, Endless Summer Tacos, Feed your Hole, Joyride Truck, Catchkie Truck, Kelvin Natural Slush co., Korilla Food Truck, La Cense Beef Burger, Luke's Lobster Truck, Mexiccue, Mud Truck, Soouvlaki GR, Steak Truck, Treats, Van Leeuwen Ice Cream. Please let us know what your try and your opinion. Good eats!!

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Kelvin Natural Slush
, New York, NY 10010

Bian Dang
New York, New York, NY 10001

Coolhaus
New York, New York, NY 10001

Bistro Truck
New York, New York, NY 10001

Big Gay Ice Cream Shop
125 E 7th St, New York, NY 10009

[ne_cyclone]

Thanks guys - I do have a starting point now. Considering the unbelievable cost of a hotel night in Manhattan, we probably will stay around the Newark area and take the train in.
I just came across RGR's LES food trail - sounded like a good option too.

One of these days we will just a few weekdays off and spend in NYC.....its hard to find any amazing street food vendors in Boston area.

[Windy]

You aren't saving anything if you have to pay for two train tickets and lose 100 minutes commuting every day. Take a look at booking.com or quikbook. There are hotel deals if you know where to look that bring the price down considerably.

[kathryn]

Hmmm, could be tough, since the primary audience for a lot of them are office workers.

But I would definitely check out some of the food oriented street fairs and flea markets.

Check out the Hester Street Fair.. And in Brooklyn: Brooklyn Flea, Smorgasburg, Red Hook Ballfields. Unfortunately I think you're missing the New Amsterdam Market by a week, and the Gourmet Food Truck Bazaar by a week as well.

Best falafel in NYC
http://newyork.seriouseats.com/2010/0...

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Hester Street Fair
Essex St Hester St, New York, NY 10002

New Amsterdam Market
South St Peck Slip, New York, NY 10038

[dontcallmethefword]

I second this. This girl hit the nail in the head. I ate at the red hook ballfields on Saturday and ate at Brooklyn flea in Williamsburg on Sunday. Smorgasbord is starting this weekend and is rumored to be amazing.

[sugartoof]

The above mentioned Food Truck bazaar is part of the Hells Kitchen Flea Market by the way.

If you check the twitter trackers you'll find trucks sometimes hitting the road.
Kwik Meat cart is open on weekends (though I don't know if it's worth a special trip over). Kelvin Slushie, and Go Burger both work weekends. Schnitzel & Things and the Souvlaki Truck have both graduated to their own shops which are open. The Meatball Shop, Momo Milk Bar, Caracas Arepas, Asia Dog, and Baohaus are some shops that serve street foods, with the focus of a food truck.

Madison Square Park is hosting a food fair - I believe it's still going to be open.

Between all that, you'll have loads of fun.

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Caracas Arepa Bar
93 1/2 E 7th St, New York, NY 10009

Kwik Meal
45th St and 6th Ave, New York, NY 10036

Momofuku Milk Bar
251 E 13th St, New York, NY 10003

BaoHaus
137 Rivington St, New York, NY 10002

The Meatball Shop
84 Stanton St, New York, NY 10002

Madison Square Eats
5th Ave E 26th St, New York, NY 10010

Schnitzel & Things
723 3rd Ave, New York, NY 10017

Souvlaki GR
116 Stanton St, New York, NY 10002

Go Burger
1448 2nd Ave, New York, NY 10021

Asiadog
66 Kenmare St, New York, NY 10012

[kathryn]

Good call. Madison Square Eats will be open until June 3rd.

http://newyork.seriouseats.com/2011/0...

I believe the Calexico Cart is going to be full time after that though.

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Calexico
125 Prince St, New York, NY 10012

Madison Square Eats
5th Ave E 26th St, New York, NY 10010

[dontcallmethefword]

Isn't there a Madison Square Park Eats type thing happening in Battery Park as well?

[sugartoof]

Fatty Snacks, Ed's Lobster, and Quality Burger have a concession stand at World Financial Center.

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Ed's Lobster Bar
222 Lafayette St, New York, NY 10012

[coasts]

Ditch Plains has a concession stand at Brooklyn Bridge Park, right near the ice cream parlor.

[glutton08]

Midtown Lunch has a twitter tracker for a bunch of the trucks that frequent midtown. I would have to guess that these are probably the least likely to be around on the weekend, but might be worth having a look: http://midtownlunch.com/twitter-tracker/

[sugartoof]

The OP mentioned the site http://newyorkstreetfood.com/ , and I question the ethics of that site (giving inaccurate rave reviews to certain trucks) their twitter tracker has been very useful.