For this week, the CF On The Street team covered the (almost) momentous occasion of fellow employee and all-round cheerleader Kate eating her very first burger. Yes, hard to believe that someone could go 20+ years without succumbing to an iconic piece of Americana, but so it was.

With the help of George Motz, America’s foremost hamburger expert, Kate’s first was a Bill’s Classic made to order by chef Brett Reichler, from Bill’s Bar and Burger. Catch the short movie on her experience (”It’s like a taste explosion in my mouth”) at the upcoming NYC Food FIlm Festival, or read Micah Cohen’s report about it in the NY Times (out soon).

Thanks to Erika and Brett (Bill’s and BR Guest), George and Micah.

With smaller Main Street retailers feeling the pinch of the financial crisis and closing up shop, where does that leave ailing landlords? Some shuttered stores in high traffic areas like 5th Ave or 23rd St have become street-level billboards, plastering their windows with advertising.

We don’t really care for more visual pollution, but making the best of a bad situation gets a tip o’ the hat.

Twitter, twitter, twitter… You can’t swing a digital cat in cyberspace without hitting a tweeter, but out on the streets, what would the chances be? Plum in front of the entrance of the Union Square Whole Foods store is a sandwich board telling shoppers to follow them on twitter. So we took a peak.

Weighing in with 1,544,264 followers, the global @wholefoods account is a big hitter. The New York account @wholefoodsnyc is growing steady at 4,889 followers (at time of writing).

Where a lot of corporate accounts tend to drift between product dissemination and pleasant chatter, Whole Foods adopts more of a real time discussion forum approach, inviting followers to request refunds or make inventory suggestions. It may be a little dry for some, but as a grocer that caters to special interest and needs of consumers, twitter is an ideal platform to interact with these customers and, ultimately, build great relevant content for the brand.

For Whole Foods, twitter is like 24/7 customer service hotline + food information source + special alerts for local stores with just enough whimsy without being cute, so interacting at street level is important. It’s a reminder that the online and the offline are not mutually exclusive.

It may be the pastry turf war on 5th Ave, or just plain ol’ street level marketing, but long standing Eisenberg’s on the west side below 23rd issued a cheeky update on their outdoor board. It’s aimed at an upstart over the road on the east side below 23rd. “Cupcakes from a truck? What will they think of next?…” goes the message.

It’s tough to launch a business, especially in this economic climate, and food trucks seem to be gaining momentum as we are seeing more and more parked in their regular spots to try generate a following. However, they aren’t going unnoticed from long standing shop fronts.

Summer is over. It started low and slow and ended hot and high. Amidst this heaving heat a new player emerged in the fairly saturated ice cream truck market. Enter the Big Gay Ice Cream Truck. That’s right: Big. Gay. Ice Cream. Truck.

Stand aside Snow Cones and Mister Softee, the BGICT lures in punters with outlandishly inventive and interesting toppings such as Ground Wasabi Peas, Banana-Scharffen Bergen Cocoa Puree, Cayenne Pepper and the all time favorite - The Choinkwich - a Caramelized Bacon Chocolate Ice Cream Sandwich. Yes, that’s right, baaaaccccooooonnnnn.

With over 4,000 followers on Twitter by the end of summer, we think they got it right. They launched a product into a crowded marketplace, created a noticeable presence, utilized social media tools to aid distribution, got loyalty, and, daresay, even created a brand in a season!

More on BGICT
http://www.biggayicecreamtruck.com
http://twitter.com/biggayicecream