

NYC's Underground Grilled Cheese - wyclif
http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2010/09/21/am-nycs-undreground-grilled-cheese/

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rcavezza
Interviewer: So, Why [do they call you] Ronnie?

Ronnie: Well, it's the perfect pseudonym because it's my name also.

This is the funniest thing I've read all day.

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proee
He will probably need to up his price from $5 to $10 if he goes legal. The
increased overhead (especially in NYC) will kill the operation.

If he wants to be really clever, he could offer on-demand pricing and ensure
that he doesn't get overloaded with order and fail to deliver on time. People
would text and say "how much?". Then he would reply with the on-demand pricing
"$5 in 20 minutes or $15 in 5 minutes."

If someone in the subway is REALLY hungry they'd probably pay $15 for a
sandwich - especially if they know there's a two hour ride home.

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rcavezza
You are over thinking this. The greatest part about this story is the
simplicity. I bring sandwich to you - you give me $5

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proee
I'm trying to find the sustainable model in this operation. From reading the
article he's obviously trying to take it to the next level. Having good advice
from a hacker (such as on-demand pricing) could make his next move that much
more likely to succeed. Hacker News is about creating and improving upon
ideas. We're not here to keep the status quo - we're here to say you can do
more and do it better...

NEWNAM: So what's next?

RONNIE: Next I'm looking to get into a legal kitchen. For example, a
restaurant that isn't open for lunch. I would rent it out from them and just
work the lunch shift delivering sandwiches everywhere.

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rcavezza
I don't think the answer is to have a complicated fee structure, just charge
more.

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sspencer
Lot of illegal consumables innovation in NYC these days as well:
[http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/21/nyregion/21nutcracker.html...](http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/21/nyregion/21nutcracker.html?src=ISMR_HP_LO_MST_FB)

With only two texts I could have a delicious grilled cheese and a nice
styrofoam cup of Nutcracker!

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tdonia
see also: the twitter lobster roll guy in greenpoint
[http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/33/20/wb_lobsterman_201...](http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/33/20/wb_lobsterman_2010_05_14_bk.html)

got caught:
[http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/33/34/wb_drclawcuffed_2...](http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/33/34/wb_drclawcuffed_2010_08_27_bk.html)

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mattmichielsen
His gangster persona is brilliant marketing.

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bugsy
This story keeps getting media coverage and is presented as a good thing.

I wonder though. Coverage makes clear that running a small business like this
is illegal in NYC and the only alternative is to acquire costly government
permission to engage in basic entrepreneurial activity that would be legal in
any normal free state.

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_delirium
With food in particular there aren't actually that many places in the western
world where you can legally run an unlicensed/uninspected operation at
significant scale. People think of Texas, for example, as a libertarian-
leaning state, but it's actually _completely_ illegal in TX to sell home-
prepared food, even at church bake sales (though in practice it's not enforced
for small-scale charity bake sales). There are a handful of states that have
recently passed "cottage food laws" that allow people to sell home-baked goods
in certain categories below a certain volume, so e.g. it's now legal in Ohio
to sell modest amounts of cupcakes and cookies and whatever. But not that
many, and most don't cover food outside of baked goods and perhaps some kinds
of home preserves (marmalades and similar).

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rationalbeaver
I like where these cottage food laws are going. I'm just thinking out loud,
but I'd be interested in seeing a system where smaller outfits would simply be
required to post some kind of notification that they are
unlicensed/uninspected. This might also be accompanied by a higher cap on
claims resulting from food poisoning lawsuits or something similar.

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roel_v
From a policy maker point of view this would be saying 'we are going to allow
unsafe goods to be sold'. While I personally agree with the sentiment, it's
never going to happen.

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JoeAltmaier
What? Your Mom bakes unsafe cookies?

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roel_v
Huh?

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sokoloff
Joe's point was that your mom's kitchen is neither licensed nor inspected by
the state. Yet, she served you baked goods out of that kitchen. The false
implication that unlicensed == unsafe is what he was commenting on.

If they were safe enough for you to eat, they're probably safe enough for me
to eat, regardless of whether she has a seal from the state.

~~~
roel_v
Oh I see. But that's unrelated to the discussion. Fact is that to produce and
sell food outside of the 'home' setting requires a license, for food safety
reasons. While we (or rather, other people - myself I'm not so much interested
in that discussion) could argue about whether or not that's warranted, fact is
that such regulations exist and they are very unlikely to go away.

Now, while technically 'unlicensed' does not equal 'unsafe', the existence of
'licensed' outfits, for safety reasons, does mean that 'unlicensed' means 'we
cannot verify the safety'. Which, realistically, is as good as 'unsafe' in
terms of pressure against it.

(This is not a discussion about actual food safety, this is about processes
and pressures on policy makers and perceptions of control.)

(edit: add 'un' to 'likely')

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JoeAltmaier
Of course its going away; folks have commented on this - allowing church bake
sales etc.

Agreed on other points however. There are Mom's Kitchens I would definitely
NOT want to eat out of. And licensing means (or used to mean) inspecting.

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js2
Favorite bit:

    
    
      NEWNAM: So why Ronnie?
      RONNIE: Well, it's the perfect pseudonym because it's my name also.
    

If those sandwiches are 100% cheddar they're missing the flavor that only
gruyere can bring to a grilled cheese.

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hipsterelitist
we got him to cater a lunch at our start-up... i think most of us weren't very
keen on the sandwiches, though we thought it was great in the abstract.

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stcredzero
I was thinking about a similar service paired with a smartphone app. You're in
Central Park, and you're thirsty, you press a button in an app, and a guy on a
bike finds you from GPS coordinates and gives you a bottle of water.

Something like this could revolutionize Taxi service. No talking to a
dispatcher, fumbling with your wallet, or dealing with credit card numbers,
just bring up an app and press a button.

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mdolon
Funny, I was just talking with a friend last night about the viability of a
cheese sandwich cart/stall in NYC. They're extremely cheap to produce (plain
wheat bread and Kraft singles) and when hot, are delicious snacks. I was
thinking of a price point closer to $1, since you can easily get so much food
in the city for around $5 (gyros, chicken w/ rice, etc). Interesting to see
someone doing it already!

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rjett
Assuming you can even get ahold of the appropriate licenses to run a
cart/stall, that's between $10-20k right there. Now add on the cost of paying
someone to take orders at your stand, the stand itself, heating element,
insurance, etc... that's a lot of $1 cheese sandwiches.

Oh, and watch out for the hot dog stand guy or the guy selling beads near you
who thinks you're encroaching on their turf.

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bcl
His business isn't going to scale very well. I've never been to NYC but I
expect you can't cover much of the city in 15 minutes.

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brianmwang
It seems that he only delivers to people in the Lower East Side for now. Of
course, food delivery has operated on a limited geography basis since...well
pretty much since its inception.

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callmeed
Hmmm, someone needs to build an "AirBnB for Lunch" so Ronnie can take orders
online

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maxawaytoolong
what's the number?

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ezl
Looking for the number as well.

Sort of an interesting exercise... Can you find it? If that piece of
information is available online somewhere, how would you get it (calling all
of your stoner friends is probably the fastest way, but disallowed for this
exercise).

I couldn't find it, so I called AMEX concierge service to see if they could.

edit: boo, i suck. was easy to find, but i missed it the first time.

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digitallogic
I'm more curious if the AMEX concierge was able to find it.

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zackattack
__found it: 917.727.6643 __

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zackattack
i had a similar business idea in college. breakfast express, an all day
breakfast delivery for hungover college students.

