Red Hook Vendors Aren’t Out of It Yet
Eat for Victory’s Nina Lalli spoke to Red Hook vendors rep Cesar Fuentes yesterday and posted an admirably easy-to-understand summary of the current bureaucratic boondoggle that is currently holding the vendors’ fate in limbo. To sum up the summary: All isn’t lost, but the future doesn’t look rosy, either. We’ll let Nina explain.
The State of the Ball-Field Vendors, Plus a Ceviche Exclusive [Eat for Victory/VV]
Related: Red Hook Vendors Bid for Ball Fields
Earlier: Grub Street’s Complete Coverage of the Red Hook Ball Fields
NewsFeed
Red Hook Spokesman Strikes Back, Puts Down CoupThe Times reported dissension among the Red Hook vendors, and we were surprised. But not as surprised as Cesar Fuentes, who was furious when we talked with him over the weekend. “This wasn’t really dissension,” Fuentes says. “It was more of a coup d’état.” Seriously? What’s going on in Red Hook?
Mediavore
No Rest for the Red Hook Vendors; Bourdain Considers ‘Top Chef’ Episode a WasteCan the Red Hook Vendors never rest? Now Cesar Fuentes is causing concern for resigning and threatening to sue the same people he represented. [NYT]
Bourdain considers Wednesday’s Top Chef a waste, as the producers snagged Eric Ripert only to “shoehorn him into a Scout jamboree” when “it would have been nice, given the all-too-rare presence of a distinguished specialist, to see what the kids could REALLY do with fish.” And why won’t Hung cook Vietnamese? [Bourdain’s Blog/Bravo]
Discrimination lawyer Marc Rapaport is surprised by his own defense of O’Reilly in a Times op-ed about the Sylvia’s incident, saying “it is apparent from [his comments’] context that O’Reilly was actually attempting to dispel racial stereotypes regarding African-Americans.” [PR Web]
NewsFeed
Senator Schumer Springs to the Red Hook Vendors’ Defense AgainAnother weekend went by without incident for the Red Hook food vendors, and don’t think we’re not happy about it. We’re grateful, too, because there’s reason to believe that the intervention of Senator Chuck Schumer halted the bulldozers of the Department of Health, much as he did the incipient threat from the Parks Department some weeks ago. Vendor representative Cesar Fuentes tells us that Schumer wrote Dr. Thomas Frieden, the department’s commissioner, thanking them for consideration and leniency. Fuentes, though, doesn’t feel that the vendors are out of the woods and not just because of the DOH: “As the deadline for our current TUA permit looms near, NYC Parks Dept. has not -as of yet- issued an extension for our operation to continue beyond Sept 8th and until the expected end of our season on Oct. 28th. As we are still hopeful this permit extension will be granted, we trust the Parks Dept. earlier decision to extend such permit is still in place -that it has not backed out of its decision, but just delayed it for unknown reasons…” The Parks Department to the left of them, the DOH to the right, on rode the food vendors.
Senator Schumer’s letter to the Department of Health [pdf]
Earlier: Red Hook Vendors Make It Official: Their Fingers Are Crossed
NewsFeed
Red Hook Vendors Make It Official: Their Fingers Are Crossed
Cesar Fuentes, the official face of the Red Hook food vendors, released a statement today, detailing some of the specifics of the vendors’ arrangement with the Department of Health. Though there’s little here Cesar didn’t tell us about the other day, the upshot of it seems to be that the vendors and the DOH are trying to work it all out and that the former has a shot at not getting shut down before the season ends. We hope so. That isn’t to say it’s a lock, and we would feel better if the statement included word of an actual promise by the DOH not to break out the bleach and shutdown notices. But we’re pulling for them. The full release is below.
NewsFeed
Is This the Last Saturday for the Red Hook Vendors?
Things have looked dire for the Red Hook vendors for much of the summer, with first the Parks Department and then the Department of Health threatening their future. As Porkchop Express reported last week, the DOH popped in for a surprise inspection and was shocked — shocked! — to find no running water there. So will the situation be remedied by this weekend, when inspectors are rumored to show up again? Doubtful, says vendor representative Cesar Fuentes. “They want us to have hot and cold running water, a refrigerated truck to store food in, all the food prepared either in a restaurant or in a DOH-approved preparation facility, and a lot of other things.”
