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New York Press JULY 21-27, 2010 NEW YORK’S BELLICOSE WEEKLY NEWSPAPER NYPRESS.CO M VOLUM E 23, NUMBER 30 FREE You Could Win a 42” Flat Screen Plasma TV. Log onto www.nypress.com and take our reader survey. he sloppy sign taped to the He claims that whenever Health side of the chrome halal cart reads: Department inspectors arrive, the “hi gangters of plein Sud guess restaurant staff spills out ont o the sidewalk What!! We are not moving…from to observe them and make sure they issue this spot.” tickets. Boubane’s been given several tickets TTwo scribbled arrows point toward the for hundreds of dollars for what he claims restaurant nearby. The hasty sign was To Kebab are false complaints. composed with different colored ink on “I have to admit that at the beginning, green and brown paper taped together in a the owner of the hotel and myself looked checkerboard design. It’s slightly illegible, into options of having him move,” Lesort which means you have to get up close to and explained when questioned about the read the screed. The diatribe continues in a incidents. Lesort didn’t elaborate further sort of streetwise poet ry: on what those options entailed, but he contends they did nothing shady. “I Since they started working on their understand that he can make more money “fancy” restaurant the owners and the on the corner than in the middle of the managers of Plein Sud restaurant started block, but his cart is open 24-7. There’s a campaign of intimidation and Conquer a bank across the street that closes at 6 harassment against our beloved food cart. o’clock. He could move there after 6 and The Plein Sud gangsters used a mix of not bother anyone.” connections with NYPD, FDNY, and the a sidewalk squabble between a street Boubane says he doesn’t understand Health Department and tried to move us why they’ve gone to war against his kebab from our spot of 3 years. vendor and a hotel restaurant is cart. “They sell French food. I sell street And they failed :D Why?? food. We’re not even competing.” Because we are perfectly legal and just the latest food fight for the public The laid-back Lesort couldn’t agree more that’s not stopping them. with Boubane’s apt summation. “I'm not So we wanted to tell them that’s not sidewalk By Jeffrey Stanley sure where this aggressiveness is coming the way it works in TRIBECA. from,” says Lesort. “He’s no competition Maybe in France for me. We’re in a very different business… A smiley face functions as a full stop. I’ve been in this business for many years; I A squiggly line outlines a call to action: own many restaurants. I have never Support vendors in TRIBECA. Support our encountered anything like this before.” Is he stand. Call Plein Sud / talk to them / take indeed a gangster? one “post-it” sticker and stick it on their wall “No, I am not,” Lesort replies, with / So they know they are wrong. a laugh. Apparently it all comes down to he Tunisian struggl e for independence bad lighting. T from France may have officially ended Boubane employs a harsh, bright in 1956, but it’s being reenacted daily by light that he has at times aimed at the Mounir Boubane on the noisy corner of restaurant’s window. Chambers street and West Broadway in “So far, the only thing i’ve asked him the heart of Tribeca. And this mishmashed either directly, or through my managers, message is his treaty of war. is, he has a bright neon light, I asked him Construction began in late winter on very simply if we could provide him with Plein Sud, Frederick Lesort’s upscale a softer light,” says Lesort . He claims he French brasserie. It opened last month off went outside himself to speak to one of the lobby of the swank Smyth Hotel. The Boubane’s Tunisian workers. “We even original plan called for a single entrance to spoke a little French. He was actually quite the restaurant through the chic lobby, but nice with me. he said, ‘no problem,’ and soon an exterior entrance was added to the adjusted the light.” builders’ punchlist. Lesort thought peace had been “I insisted on having a door of my achieved, but within a few days, the own to give the restaurant a feeling of light had been re-aimed squarely at the independence,” Lesort explains. The new restaurant’s windows. When the manager entrance just happened to be steps away asked Boubane’s worker why, he said, “The from Boubane’s cart. boss didn’t want it.” That’s when the sabre-rattling began. Boubane agrees with this recap but Boubane says he was paid a visit this sp ring scoffs at Lesort’s innocent-sounding claim by two plainclothes police officers who that this is only about a light. “This has drove up in unmarked cars, flashed their been going on for a long time. I had another badges and said, “you know you guys are cart for awhile, and it didn’t have a light,” not gonna stay here, right?” Boubane says. “And he was complaining If their purpose was to strongarm then.” He alleges that in mid-June, soon afte this bureaucracy-savvy entrepreneur into the restaurant’s official opening, someone submission, they failed. “I say to them, from the restaurant came out and intentionally threw a lit cigarette ont o his ‘Why not? My papers are in order; that’s how it works. How do you know about tz gasoline-powered generator. “It was the R this and why are you coming to me a manager and somebody else,” Boubane w now?’” The supposed officers departed h insists. “I said, ‘What are you doing! Are SC without explaining themselves. But you trying to blow me up or what?’” That the battle was underway. According to prompted Boubane to call 911. When the cops arrived, they told Boubane, he’s been visited by a stream of aNdREw city agencies. Mounir Bonbane’s food cart faces Plein Sud in Tribeca. Boubane he had no grounds for his complaint. “The cops said, ‘Maybe he his workers, I see them taking a break and didn’t mean it.’ I told them, ‘There’s a smoking cigarettes. I don’t see any sink camera, you can see the whole thing. It’s where they go and wash their hands.” an NYPD camera!’” He was referring to By Boubane’s accounting, Chambers the surveillance camera mounted at the Street was already plenty nice before the intersection, but as far as he knows, they Smyth Hotel showed up, and he balks at didn’t check it and have offered him no characterizations of uncleanliness. “He’s further support. not the Health Department. A lot of people eat my food, and say I am the best guy It may seem like we’ve entered a new era around. Check the Internet. People love for street food. The past few years have my food.” seen a surge in high-end food trucks If nothing else, Boubane’s sign seems catering to a clientele interested in haute to have had it s intended effect of artlessly fair. More and more people seem eager to hurting Lesort’s feelings. “That comment eschew pricey sit-down meals for on his sign—‘Maybe in France’—I’m proud something delicious bought curbside. to be French, but I’ve lived in New York for But it has also been a banner year for 29 years. I’m OK with everyone.” local politicians looking to crack down Perhaps this is actually a culture on them. First, Council Member Dan clash older than the Treaty of Bardo. “I Garodnick introduced a bill that would wonder if he knows that in France 10 require food carts and trucks to post letter percent of the population is Muslim, and Need a Great Doctor? grades from the Health Department. they’re happy to be there,” Lesort says, Then, Council Member Jessica Lappin broodingly. “How many Tunisians live in wanted food truck vendors’ licenses France and are happy to live there? It’s For an outstanding physician close to your home or work, revoked if they received three parking really not cool. One of my best friends tickets in a year. Food truck vendors, a is Tunisian.” relativel y new movement in New York’s Boubane isn’t sure whether Lesort has street food history, feel singled out. personally done any of the harassing The Urban Justice Center’s Street himself, but he does recognize that call (866) 318-8759. Over 4,000 physicians Vendor Project, an organization that particular statistic. According to Boubane, provides legal help for vendors, estimates someone from the restaurant recently that there are more than 10,000 street shouted it at him. “He told me France is vendors in New York City and they 10 percent Muslim and said, ‘You Muslims are affiliated with the Continuum hospitals: are often subject to “quality of life” already conquered France. You want to crackdowns. Project director Steve conquer the U.S., too?’ I’m like, oh man, Basinski isn’t surprised about this latest these people are dumb.” turf war, and congratulates Boubane for Despite all the sniping, Lesort insists Beth Israel Medical Center; Roosevelt Hospital; exercising his first amendment right to he’s eager to let diplomacy prevail. He free speech by posting his sign. “He has claims he’s given up on trying to force a lot more power than the owner probably Boubane to move and, to prove his thinks,” Basinski says.
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