What's behind a $10 chicken over rice from a cart? An $18,000 permit.
But Mr. Mousa focused on one number: 3,892. That was his position on the waiting list of food vendors in New York City.
Like thousands of mobile food vendors in the city, Mr. Mousa cannot obtain a permit for his cart, the Halal Borden. A long-standing cap limited the number of permits to 5,100, before a 2021 law allowed 445 new permits per year for a decade. To date, the city has issued 71 new permits.
Nearly 9,500 people were on waiting lists in January, according to the city's health department. A spokesperson said it had released 1,074 applications – a licensing requirement – since the law came into effect, but most applicants had yet to complete the process.
While he waits, Mr. Mousa says he and his business partner are paying $18,000 in cash every two years to rent their license from a Bronx taxi driver, who Mr. Mousa says obtained it decades ago for a few hundred dollars. Mr Mousa said such arrangements are the only way many otherwise compliant sellers can avoid fines and the confiscation of their carts.
Mr Mousa hopes to negotiate the same price this summer, but expects the licensee will try to increase it.
“What can I do?” Mr. Mousa said, adding, “He has what I need.”
That's the math of chicken and rice — a heavily seasoned mound of boneless chicken with yellow rice and a salad — that swept the city in the 1980s after a wave of Egyptian immigrants arrived.
Mr Mousa, 30 and 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 and worked as a food delivery driver.
Running the cart involves tracking dozens of expenses, starting with saving $750 monthly for the permit. The company, which relies on students, office and construction workers, operates in two 10-hour shifts, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 a.m. In winter, Mr. Mousa and two cooks (who pay $150 a day) work Wednesday through Sunday; after Easter they work every day.
Mr. Mousa also pays $450 monthly for space in a garage and 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 to have a driver transport him to and from Lower Manhattan.
Most of the cooking is done in the 1.5 by 3 meter metal cart. A $2,000 generator powers a small refrigerator; the flattop grill and deep fryer burn daily through a $25 propane tank. An $18 bag of basmati rice is usually cooked by commissaries.
In the colder months, the company could make $500 a day, Mr. Mousa said — a net loss, but enough to survive until the summer, when sales range from $700 to $1,400 a day. Chicken with rice is the most popular dish and accounts for two-thirds of sales.
New York is the only major U.S. city to impose a limit on food vendor permits, said John Rennie Short, professor emeritus at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. But that could change.
Municipal councilors in December submitted a bill to increase the number of new permits issued annually – from 445 to 1,500 – and abolish the cap after five years.
Mohamed Attia, director of the Street Vendor Project, an advocacy group, said the changes would be transformative.
Opponents say abolishing the cap could cause overcrowding and safety problems.
A spokeswoman for the mayor's office said the city was reviewing the legislation.
For Mr. Mousa, who lives in Jersey City, NJ, with his wife and baby, a legitimate license could save him significant amounts of money. He said he also has an ownership interest in two nearby carts that also use borrowed permits.
Enough savings perhaps to boost his retirement. “When I'm fifty,” he said, “I'll go fishing on a lake.”
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