By Nathan Duke
A Long Island City company that specializes in organic cupcakes and milk shakes has been chosen by the city to operate as a vendor outside Manhattan’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Cake & Shake, which currently sells its products out of Artisan Baking Center at 37-46 37th St. in Long Island City, will begin selling cupcakes, milk shakes, coffee, water and hot cocoa outside the Met on Fifth Avenue in June.
The cupcake vendor, a sister company to Long Island City’s Culinary Engineers, will also open a cart at Manhattan’s Washington Square Park in April.
“Our whole operation is here in Queens,” said Gina Ojile, who owns the company with chef Derek Hunt. “We’ve been in the food business for about 10 years and have been looking for something to sink our teeth into.”
Culinary Engineers has acted as a consultant to city food companies, but Ojile and Hunt said they wanted to begin their own operation and founded Cake & Shake last summer.
They applied to the city Parks Department last fall to open a cart in Washington Square Park. Then in January they made a bid to set up shop outside the Met. The city approved them for both sites.
Cake & Shake will join pretzel carts and Dan Rossi, the only hot dog vendor at the museum, this summer, operating at the north side of the Met’s steps.
The Queens-based vendor will pay the city a total of $659,350 over a period of five years as part of its contract, a Parks spokeswoman said.
The Long Island City company’s menu includes $3 cupcakes, such as the milk chocolate cake and caramel mousse Whatchamacallit or the yellow cupcake with vanilla pastry and chocolate butter cream Moon Cake, and $5 milk shakes.
The vendor, which will also serve coffee, water and hot cocoa for $2, plans to incorporate a green mantra into its operations.
“We offer organic cupcakes and milk shakes with biodegradable packages,” Ojile said. “The cart will have solar panels that provide light and it operates on biodiesel. If you get a shake on our cart, the cup is made of corn or sugar cane. So there’s less of a carbon footprint.”
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is located at 1000 Fifth Ave. at 82nd Street in Manhattan.
Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe said Cake & Shake would “diversify” outdoor culinary options at the Met.
Reach reporter Nathan Duke by e-mail at nduke@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4566..
