Two food stories ran in every NYC outlet this week, and side by side, they're the same story wearing different outfits.
The first is a question the city is hoping you don't ask: how does the same parks agency that's been turning away small vendors all spring suddenly find room for a 25-vendor market in Central Park?
The second is a number nobody put in the press release. Seven. As in the seven New York "restaurants" Goop announced this month, and not one of them is a place you can actually go.
Both of these were sold to you as good news. Neither one is.
IT’S A BIG DEAL
THE CITY SAID NO PERMITS UNTIL AFTER THE WORLD CUP. SMORGASBURG GOT CENTRAL PARK ANYWAY.
By Marco Shalma
A dozen independent vendors spent the spring filing permits to work in city parks this summer. Every one of them got the same answer: nothing's available, come back in the fall. They paid the fees, followed the process, and waited their turn.
…until April 23. On this day, the same agency that turned them away quietly handed Central Park to Smorgasburg for the entire season. Same calendar, same World Cup, same set of rules, and yet somehow, for one operation, the answer changed. We've been asking why for a week now. Nobody at City Hall wants to put their name on the reply.
Read which operators got denied — and what City Hall won't answer
GOOP JUST OPENED SEVEN NEW YORK RESTAURANTS. YOU CAN'T WALK INTO A SINGLE ONE.
What everyone tries to ignore is that not one of those seven locations offers anything at all in person. The whole operation runs out of a back kitchen somewhere down the block from where you live, and by the time the $28 pizza reaches your door, a delivery app has already taken its 30% cut.
The entire restaurant is happening somewhere you'll never go on behalf of a brand that decided not to bother showing its face.
We tried to name one thing Goop does better than the counter on your block.
See if anyone got there.
CITY SIGNALS
What New Yorkers Should Know This Week
Rules bending for the right names: When a system says no to most people and yes to a few, the rule was never the rule. The list was.
Words sold for parts: Restaurant. Local. Independent. Small. Watch what's behind the label, not what's printed on it.
Press measuring publicists, not food: Every story you saw this week came with a press kit. The taqueria on your block didn't. That's the whole business model.
LAST MONTH’S HIGHLIGHTS
NYC HAS THE VERY BEST PR MACHINE FOR MEDIOCRE FOOD The week Shuko closed after thirteen years, food media ran the soup candy and the lip gloss instead.
TOM COLICCHIO IS THE COOLEST CHEF IN AMERICA. HE'S NEVER ONCE TRIED TO BE. Twenty-five years on the same block. Fifteen years lobbying Congress for free.
THE 5PM RESERVATION IS THE SINGLE GREATEST QUALITY OF LIFE UPGRADE FOR A NEW YORKER OVER 30. No wait, no crowd, no screaming over a playlist nobody asked for. Home by 8. “Do we need more day parties and concerts?”
PAY ATTENTION
The vendors who got turned away from the park are the same kind of people who've been feeding this city for decades. Most of us have eaten at one of their counters without ever knowing how close it came to closing.
So this week, eat there. Tip cash. Tell a friend. And if you got handed a permit denial this season, or you know somebody who did send it to us at: [email protected] 👀
We're building the list. We're running the names.
See you Thursday.
