by But Mousa focused on one number: 3,892. That was his position on a New York City food vendor’s waiting list.
Like thousands of street food vendors in the city, Mousa cannot obtain a permit for his cart, Halal Plates. A long-standing cap limited the number of permits to 5,100, before a 2021 law began allowing 445 new permits a year for a decade. So far, the city has issued 71 new permits.
Nearly 9,500 people were on the waiting list in January, according to the city’s health department. A spokesman said he had posted 1,074 applications (a prerequisite for the permit) since the law was enacted, but that most applicants had yet to complete the process.
While he waits, Mousa said he and his business partner pay $18,000 in cash every two years to rent their permit from a Bronx cab driver who Mousa said got it decades ago for a few hundred dollars. Mousa said such agreements were the only way many sellers, who otherwise follow regulations, can avoid fines and confiscation of their carts.
Mousa hopes to negotiate the same price this summer, but anticipates the permit holder will try to increase it.
“What I can do?” Mousa said, adding: “He has what he needs.”
That’s the math of chicken and rice (a pile of heavily seasoned boneless chicken with yellow rice and salad) that swept the city in the 1980s, after the arrival of a wave of Egyptian immigrants.
Mousa, 30, also from Egypt, increased the price of the dish by 67 percent since 2020. He said he closed the business for more than a year, working as a food delivery driver.
Managing the cart includes tracking dozens of expenses, starting with saving $750 a month for leave. The business, which relies on students and office and construction workers, operates two 10-hour shifts, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 a.m. In winter, Mr. Mousa and two cooks (paid $150 a day) work on Wednesdays for Domingo; After Easter they work every day.
Mousa also pays $450 a month for space in a garage and commissary kitchen in Red Hook, Brooklyn, to store the cart and ingredients. He spends $30 a day for a worker to clean the cart and $65 for a driver to transport it to and from Lower Manhattan.
Most of the cooking is done on the 5-by-10-foot metal cart. A $2,000 generator powers a small refrigerator; The flat top grill and fryer consume a $25 tank of propane per day. Commissary workers usually cook an $18 bag of basmati rice.
In the colder months, the company could earn $500 a day, Mousa said: a net loss, but enough to survive until the summer, when sales range from $700 to $1,400 a day. Chicken and rice is the most popular dish and accounts for two-thirds of revenue.
New York is the only major U.S. city that imposes a limit on food vendor permits, said John Rennie Short, professor emeritus at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. But that could change.
In December, members of the Municipal Council presented a bill increase the number of new permits issued annually (from 445 to 1,500) and eliminate the cap after five years.
Mohamed Attia, CEO of the Street Vendor Project, an advocacy group, said the changes would be transformative.
Opponents say removing the limit could create overcrowding and safety problems.
A spokeswoman for the mayor’s office said the city was reviewing the legislation.
For Mousa, who lives with his wife and baby in Jersey City, New Jersey, a legitimate permit could save him significant amounts of money. He said he also has a stake in two nearby cars that also use borrowed permits.
Maybe there is enough savings to kickstart your retirement. “When I’m 50,” she said, “I’ll be fishing in a lake.”
Produced by Eden Weingart, Andrew Hinderaker and Dagny Salas. Development by Gabriel Gianordoli and Aliza Aufrichtig.
