The food trucks outside 345 Park Ave. returned to business as usual Tuesday, but behind the clatter of grills and lunchtime chatter, the vendors were quietly mourning the victims of Monday’s Midtown mass shooting — and coming to terms with the loss of people they considered coworkers, not just customers.
Flanking either side of the building on 51st and 52nd Streets at Park Avenue, the cluster of food trucks that typically rely on the office lunch crowd found themselves facing an unfamiliar calm.
For Henry, who works at Uncle Gussy’s, a Greek food truck on 51st Street, the day after the shooting was anything but normal.
“I thought it was just a madman shooting in the street,” he said. “When I found out more, I started thinking about all the people we serve here — the customers we see every day. One of the victims, I recognized her face from coming by to get a gyro.”
“It’s sad,” he continued. “We’re like co-workers with the people in that building. We may not work in the same offices, but we see each other every day.”
Just one block over, on 52nd Street, Maribel Macedo of Eggstravaganza, a Mexican food truck stationed there for the past 16 years, recalled how quickly the chaos unfolded. Macedo said she didn’t hear gunfire, but the rapid police presence signaled something serious.
“We closed at 4 p.m., and by the time we were packing up, police had locked everything down,” she said. “They told us to leave the truck and get out.”
Though she’s always felt safe working in Midtown, Monday’s violence changed that sense of security.
“Now we have to be more aware of what’s going on around us,” Macedo said. “It’s usually peaceful here. Everyone’s polite, we know the faces. So when something like this happens, it’s a shock.”
Reda Mansur, who owns the nearby Halal Food Truck, was there as the events unfolded Monday evening. “I was here yesterday,” he said, saying people were running from all sides in a panic.
He added that the police told him to “go away from here” and that he had to keep his car running until after midnight before he could return to his food truck.
Lunch service also resumed on Tuesday at Los Cuñados, a taco truck directly across from 345 Park Ave., but the energy was far from normal.
“Usually, we get a rush around noon. Today? Not that many people,” said Esmeralda, who’s worked the lunch shift there for years. “I think people are staying home. Or maybe they were told not to come in.”
The lingering concern, she said, wasn’t just for business. Several workers from 345 Park Ave. are regulars at her truck, and the idea that one of them could have been caught in the shooting weighed heavily.
“We were worried,” she said. “You just don’t expect something like that to happen here. And now, seeing all these officers everywhere… It’s a constant reminder.”
Despite the uncertainty, vendors and workers decided to return, not out of obligation, they say, but to maintain a sense of rhythm in a shaken routine.
“If it’s your time, it’s your time,” Henry from Uncle Gussy’s said, shrugging. “You can’t live your life afraid. But you do look around a little more now.”
