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New York

Food truck owners turn to brick-and-mortar eateries

Bad weather, parking restrictions, tedious permit process drive vendors elsewhere

From left: Mexicue food truck and brick-and-mortar restaurant at 345 Seventh Avenue
From left: Mexicue food truck and brick-and-mortar restaurant at 345 Seventh Avenue

As the challenges of operating New York City’s ubiquitous food trucks begin to mount, eatery owners are increasingly looking to trade in their wheels for brick-and-mortar establishments and lucrative side gigs.

Among the hurdles are bad weather, restrictive parking regulations and the permit process, to name a few. And so operators such as Mexicue are abandoning their traveling meals, with the four-year-old taco company opening spots in Chelsea, Times Square and a third at 225 Fifth Avenue in NoMad. Green Pirate Juice truck, meanwhile, mixes the truck and brick-and-mortar models, driving into the service elevator at the Starrett-Lehigh Building at 601 West 26th Street and serving freshly squeezed juices to the building’s mostly fashion-designer tenants.

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James Klayman, owner of Gorilla Cheese NYC, is beefing up his food truck income with a side gig as a commercial real estate broker for United Realty Advisors.

“Four years ago, you went out on the street and made good money,” Derek Kaye, who owns Eddie’s Pizza Truck, told Crain’s. “Now you have to offset the [vending] with other things.” [Crain’s] — Julie Strickland