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Grilled Cheese and Frosty Drinks Coming to West 33rd Street Garden Oasis

By Gwynne Hogan | August 18, 2015 10:57am
 Food trucks stationed in an open air courtyard will peddle decadent grilled cheeses, organizers say.
Shipping and Receiving
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CHELSEA — An old loading bay on 33rd Street next door to B&H and down the street from Penn Station will transform Thursday into an open air courtyard with two food trucks, one serving up fancy grilled cheese sandwiches, the other dispensing frosty drinks.

Shipping and Receiving, which is set to open Thursday at 333 West 33rd Street between Ninth and Tenths avenues across from James A. Farley Post Office, will trade dumpsters and diesel fumes for a landscaped garden. Visitors can lounge outdoors while chowing down on decadent grilled cheeses garnished with fig paste, veal meatballs, white bean paste or spicy buffalo chicken, according to a proposed menu.

“It was a beat up old loading dock…that’s been there for 20, 30 years,” Shipping and Receiving manager Ryan Giuliani said at a recent community board meeting. “We’ve invested a significant amount of money to turn it into a beautiful green space.”

The garden can hold up to 300 people and has space for three food trucks, a permanent truck that will serve alcoholic drinks, and two other food options that will vary, according to Giuliani, who will run the operation with his wife Mary.

The pair manage a high-end catering business in the city and also run an inn and a restaurant in Woodstock, New York. The pair applied for a liquor license for the space but have not yet been approved.

At a community board meeting on Aug. 11, some residents raised concerns about noise, trash and food smells, but others voiced support for the project.

“[It’s] a really interesting,” said Adrianne Welt, 58, “And perhaps one that’s needed in that area.”