Vendrification

The encroachment of fancy food trucks upon traditional street vendors.

Writing in Black Book Magazine, Katie Robbins explored the turf wars breaking out between upscale, Twitter-savvy street food purveyors (selling cupcakes, waffles, and other treats) and Manhattan’s more established vendors of hot-dogs and pretzels:

In a city accustomed to gentrification, perhaps this new phenomenon could be described as “vendrification,” with more expensive, higher-tech carts and trucks sweeping in and shaking up the culinary terrain of the streets. Predictably, this shift has led to some tensions between the “traditional” vendors and the newer-style sellers, who often use heavily decorated trucks, rotating seasonal offerings, and regular Twitter tweets advertising their current whereabouts to draw in customers. For the kebab and hot dog vendors, who often stay in the same city-assigned location day after day, it becomes a question of market infringement.

Robbins described examples of the conflict:

In late June, an exchange over turf outside the Metropolitan Museum between the fancy food truck Street Sweets and a few other vendors grew so heated that police were called to the scene. And the Schnitzel & Things truck has endured confrontations both with halal vendors and a Mister Softee truck.

Vendrification has found a home in the Food Section’s Dictionary of Modern Gastronomy, which also includes the memorable term“foodiot,”defined as “an overzealous gastronome whose exhibitionistic affection for food is an annoyance to his or her peers.”