NYC Food Truck Lunch: Skirt Steak Pita Deluxe From Uncle Gussy's

Perry, the founder of New York Street Food, brings you his latest review on New York City street food.

We're not sure if there are records kept of this, but Uncle Gussy's is likely one of the oldest street food vendors in NYC. A hot dog and pretzel cart was started in 1971 by the eponymous Uncle Gussy. His nephews Nicko and Frank expanded the business to include street food staples (burgers, grilled chicken) and Greek specialties (souvlaki, gyros and homemade Greek dishes cooked by their mother).

The quality of the food is high, and service is fast and accurate. When we arrived, there was a long line of about 25 people, but it only took 10 minutes to walk away with lunch in hand. They are a well-oiled machine.

The menu is extensive, but we like to order their Daily Special. This day it was a grilled skirt steak sandwich on pita with "seasoned fries" for $11.

You can't see it in the photos, but there was plenty of meat underneath the toppings of fresh lettuce, tomato, onions and sweet and hot peppers. Not only was there a good amount of steak, but it was nice and tender, and cooked to medium, as ordered.

We got our lunch "Greek and Spicy with The Works". That means a yogurt-based tzaziki sauce, hot sauce and all the toppings listed above. You can also get this lunch mild (sans hot sauce) or leave out any of the toppings you don't like, but don't under any circumstances skip the homemade tzaziki sauce. It's the "magic sauce" that pulls everything together.

The seasoned fries were crispy, just as we like them, and were seasoned with thyme and oregano. That's definitely an improvement on the usual street food (and deli) french fries.

You can find Uncle Gussys weekdays for lunch on the SE corner of 51st St and Park Ave. Don't be put off by the ever-present long line. It moves quickly, and the food is worth a short wait. (That's why there's a line in the first place.)

It's not hard to see why Uncle Gussys is a former Vendy Award Finalist. They also do catering, if you want to hire them for a private event. Their website is here, Twitter is here and Facebook is here.

Nicko is pretty good about posting the Daily Special each day, so you can see what it is before heading over. Insider tip - all of the Greek specialties cooked by their mother are worth trying.