NYU dosa guy Thiru Kumar is in the running yet again for the 3rd annual Vendy Awards:

[After] July 1, anybody can write in to our Web site and nominate his or her favorite [street] vendors… the last two years, the runner-up was Thiru “Dosa Man” Kumar from Washington Square Park. I think a lot of people are going to be wondering if this is Thiru’s year. I know a lot of people who are pulling for him. He’s like the Susan Lucci of the Vendy Awards. [Link]

He’s been the runner-up the last two years running:

Thiru “Dosa Man” Kumar — (Washington Square Park South at Sullivan Street) . Can last year’s crowd favorite come back after that heart-wrenching loss? Is the Dosa Man too laid-back to win such a competitive event? Can his specialty vegan fare even compete against the street meats of the world? [Link]

In a carnivorous cartosphere, NY Dosas is a beacon in the street-meat wilderness, attracting cash-strapped NYU students, spice-craving South Asian natives, and vegetarians of all socioeconomic stripes to the southern edge of Washington Square Park, where Thiru Kumar’s parked his popular cart for the past five years. The lanky and aggressively mustachioed Sri Lankan native once worked at Flushing’s Dosa Hutt, where he perfected the art of the lentil-and-rice crêpes that he griddles and stuffs with spiced potatoes and vegetables and serves with the traditional accompaniments of lentil soup and coconut chutney. The Special Pondicherry Masala might be Kumar’s best seller, but it’s the diaphanous Special Rava Masala Dosa, a lacy wisp of red-raw-rice-and-cream-of-wheat batter dabbed with chile paste and griddled to the quintessence of crispness, that could make you consider giving up meat. [Link]

Kumar’s interview with Rachel Ray is being repeated on the Food Network tonight at 11:30pm.

We asked him what he thought of lil’ ole Rach, and he said he liked her. Aw, Dosa Man, how come we never talk shit anymore? [Link]

New York mag also published an interesting feature this week after spending a day with an Egyptian-American hot dog vendor:

Until the seventies, the cart business was dominated by Greeks. Now, coffee carts are run mostly by Afghans. Bangladeshis man virtually all fruit stands and most hot-dog carts, though many uptown hot-dog carts are Dominican. The Vietnamese run smoothie carts. Nut carts are manned by Brazilians and Colombians. [Link]

… a bedraggled, homeless-looking Indian man whom Elnagar calls “Errand Guy…” His responsibility is to run to nearby stores and pick up things for the vendors. Elnagar hands him $5 and sends him off to search for a new yellow squeeze bottle…

He’s been at it for nine years, everybody knows him, and if you usurp his place, he will simply show up earlier the next day or slash his prices or squint at you until you’re gone, in a bloodless kind of Wild West showdown. “Nobody owns any spot,” he says. “Just respect.” A new kid recently showed up on the block, a Latin American guy not familiar with the rules. He had set up a small cart not 30 feet from Elnagar’s… Within a week, the guy disappeared, perhaps fined into oblivion by the Alphas [cops] or maybe shamed into leaving… [Link]

The margins show beverages have the highest markups:

The most profitable food-cart item is coffee, which commands a 500 percent to 1,000 percent markup (it costs the vendor between 10 and 20 cents a cup and sells for a dollar). [Link]

Water is one of a street vendor’s most profitable items–a bottle costs about 25 cents wholesale, and the spoilage rate is nil. Later in the summer, the price will go up with the temperature, from $1 to $1.50 (more ice is needed to keep the water cool…) Come August, most vendors… essentially become water salesmen… [Link]

But nobody’s getting rich off this:

The average daily revenue of a food cart is $200 to $300. Once overhead costs are subtracted–permit, garage rentals, transportation costs–the cart owner or operator is left with daily net earnings of $100 to $150. Because most vendors work only part of the year, their average annual take is $7,500 to $14,000… [Link]

He got a $200 vending license, passed a city-mandated food-handling test in Arabic, rented a $3,000-a-year permit from an absentee owner, and got behind a grill… As a year-round vendor, Elnagar makes about $35,000… [Link]

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