Photo via @nnnardone/TikTok
October 18, 2021, 12:50 pm
A New Jersey food truck owner is concerned that a viral TikTok video that seems to show him in a bad light could hurt his business and says that the actions taken by the women in the video led to an employee quitting due to safety concerns. David Gilenson, owner of Taxi Cab Burger, has been seen by over 9.1 million people on TikTok alone telling a small group of women to get lost after one of them opened the side window of the truck without permission.
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The fact that this interaction was filmed in the first place makes it appear possible that the women were trying to provoke Gilenson by violating some clear boundaries in order to create a viral video — a not uncommon tactic by TikTok users in their quest to get views. This video, posted by Nina Nardone, shows a woman opening up the window to yell “hello, New York” and then screaming and pointing at Gilenson, who slaps her hand away and makes his displeasure known.
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“No, no. Go away,” Gilenson shouts. “Don’t touch my fucking truck.”
He then closes his window and one of the women can be heard calling him “so scary.”
Though Gilenson might look unreasonably angry from this perspective, the Daily Dot was able to contact him and gain some additional context into what happened. According to the food truck owner, he had already told the women that the truck would be open for business in 10 minutes as he and his team prepped for a private event. Anyone who has worked in a kitchen knows that it can be a high-pressure environment, and that’s when you’re working in a full-size kitchen, not a space small enough to be on wheels.
For one of his employees, the realization that absolutely anyone could open up that window while they’re prepping, possibly for reasons worse than trying to make a viral video led them to quit out of fears for their safety. Meanwhile, Gilenson now feels like being captured on film reacting strongly to a woman being disrespectful and failing to consider the potential stress people undergo when working hard at anything could hurt his business.
“I’m on the road nine years. Never had a problem like this,” Gilenson said. “What if people see this video in the future and then make a decision not to solicit?”
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He also says he personally contacted Nina and asked her to take the video down, but as of this article’s publishing, it remains up. The silver lining is that many commenters on the video don’t find the women’s actions to be funny, but rather inappropriate and a sign that none of them have worked in food service in their lives.
“And that’s on today’s episode of spoiled entitled rich kids,” remarked one commenter.
“It’s always satisfying to see people actually put customers in their place,” wrote another.
Perhaps Gilenson’s earnings won’t take as much of a hit as he’d feared.
*First Published: October 18, 2021, 12:50 pm
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