Dumplings. Little doughy pockets. So cheap. So delicious. So ... controversial. New York mag's Intelligencer column has the lowdown on the war brewing between the revered Dumpling Man on St. Mark's (period-apostrophe) and his young challenger Plump Dumpling, located just three blocks north. Dumpling Man Lucas Lin is pissed that the not-yet-open competition has been flaunting a smiley-faced dumpling logo that is similar to his own. He had his lawyer fire off a cease-and-desist letter, he's threatening to spy on the store, he's putting up incendiary flyers and he's issuing warnings like a professional wrestler:
"I want to give you some advice. The East Village is one of the toughest neighborhoods to run a restaurant. People want something nice and trendy that has character. And if you are doing what you?re doing now, it?s lacking all of that. And you?re going to close. Very soon."Surely this is the toughest tofu talk since Moby threatened to kill all those schoolchildren. That happened, right?
· Dumpling War! [Intelligencer]
· Dumpling Imposter [And... Go,]
· Dumpling Man [dumplingman.com]