Dinner rolls

Photo: Cinzia Reale-Castello

The Treats Truck

The brand-new retro-chic Treats Truck (treatstruck.com, 212-691-5226), with a red, white and blue logo and a staff outfitted in flight-attendant–style uniforms, looks as though it drove straight out of midcentury suburbia. That is, if 1950s chuck wagons doled out handmade sweets like Mexican chocolate brownies and vanilla-cream sandwiches, all baked in Red Hook. The brainchild of Kim Ima, a theater professional with no previous food experience, the 15-foot truck (named Sugar) will begin distributing treats by the first week of June, possibly as early as Saturday 26. The exact routes have yet to be determined, so call or check the website for the opening date and ever-changing locations—Ima aims to hit each of the five boroughs by the end of summer. Expect to pay from 50¢ for a sugar cookie all the way up to $6 for a goodie bag crammed with chocolate-covered sweets. Unlike the Good Humor man, the Treats Truck won’t go into hiding when the seasons change. Come fall, the crew will tweak the menu to include cold-weather goodies, such as miniature pies and hot chocolate.

Photo: Cinzia Reale-Castello

Mo Gridder’s BBQ

If you drive up to Mo Gridder’s BBQ (565 Hunts Point Ave between Oak Point and Randall Aves, Bronx; 718-991-3046), consider taking advantage of one of the city’s best deals: a lube, oil, filter and ribs for $34.95. That’s because this ’cue joint, located inside a 35-foot, fire-engine-red truck complete with a pit, is run by Fred Donnelly, owner of the adjacent car shop, Hunts Point Auto Sales & Service. Donnelly earned his low-and-slow chops during the 14 years he spent scouting auto-business merch down South. Back in New York City, he started serving his meats to locals on the weekends. Folks lapped them up so quickly that, two years ago, he decided to open a restaurant. But the application to secure a permit was too laborious, and Donnelly turned to what he knows best: wheels. The eye-catching trailer, which opened about a year ago, is almost always parked outside of the auto shop (“People get aggravated when it moves,” says Donnelly), churning out his pork ribs, pulled pork, brisket and grilled sausages. Dine at the outdoor picnic tables or in the converted repair bay.

Photo: Cinzia Reale-Castello

Habana Outpost

Behind lime-green fencing and razor wire on a Fort Greene corner sits Habana Outpost (757 Fulton St at South Portland Ave, Fort Greene, Brooklyn; 718-858-9500), the younger sibling of Nolita’s perpetually mobbed Café Habana and Habana To-Go. Many of the same classic Mexican-Cuban eats are available here, but in a spacious, artfully graffitied lot. An old postal delivery truck parked out front reveals itself, on closer inspection, to be the kitchen, where quesadillas, grilled corn and Cuban sandwiches are prepped for the cult-following of patrons. The eatery is also eco-friendly, using biodegradable cups and alternative forms of energy, from solar panels to the customers themselves: Patrons can knock a dollar off the price of a fruit smoothie by hopping on the bike blender, a cycle hooked up to power the blades.

Photo: Cinzia Reale-Castello

Birdbath Bakery

It’s been whizzing around downtown for the past month, a bright-green rickshaw leaving smiling faces and the scent of baked goods in its wake. “People who see it on the street, I can tell you it just makes them happy,” says owner Maury Rubin of his zippy new wheels, which deliver booty from his East Village Birdbath Bakery (223 First Ave between 13th and 14th Sts, 646-722-6565) to the newer West Village Birdbath location (145 Seventh Ave South at Charles St, 646-722-6570) and Rubin’s flagship: the City Bakery. Starting in July, the rickshaw will deliver orders of the bakery’s signature bear claws, croissants and cookies to customers within the West Village. But fret not: For those with immediate-gratification needs, you will be able to flag down the rickshaw for goodies on the spot. The gas-free ride fits snugly into Rubin’s environmental mission for the Birdbath bakeries, which he claims are the greenest in town. The menu items are all made from organic ingredients, and even the spaces themselves sound edible, with walls made of sunflower seed husks and coated with milk-protein paint. As for the rickshaw, the only fumes trailing behind it come from the pastries, not petroleum.

Photo: Matt Schodorf

Heartschallenger

L.A.-import and alt-ice-cream truck Heartschallenger (heartschallenger.com, 888-566-3338) will make New York City the next stop on its path to global domination. The pale pink former mail van starts its rounds in Manhattan on June 15 (you may catch a peek during its dry run in the weeks leading up to the official opening), and will stay on the road into September, before heading out to London and Tokyo. Pioneered by former interior designer Leyla Safai with the help of her boyfriend, Benjamin Pollock, Heartschallenger is on a mission to spread fun, magic and tooth decay through the van and its disco-punk band, Heartsrevolution. Finding the truck will be easy: Just log on to its MySpace page (myspace.com/heartschallenger) for a daily update of the route. Pinpointing what will be for sale will be more difficult. Safai and Pollock get goodies from more than 30 suppliers and try to represent at least five countries at any given time, with dainties like Japanese mochi ice cream, Mexican Popsicles shaped like boom boxes and It’s-It ice-cream sandwiches from the distant land of San Francisco. The goods aren’t limited to food—there’s also music (mix-tapes of Japanese and French dance tunes) and toys. Just don’t get too attached to your favorite sweet, as the inventory (which starts at a measly 50¢ and goes up to $50 for some inedibles) rotates with head-spinning regularity. The truck, though, is forever—with five already on the road in L.A., Heartschallenger expects to send a full-time vehicle to New York next summer...in yellow.

Additional reporting by Rebecca Flint-Marx.