[New York Magazine] "Wednesday night, get your head right," they shout. "Why settle for a beer when the nutcracker’s here?"
The candy-colored drinks are such a staple of summer in the city that "nutcracker" has become an umbrella term for any sweet, boozy drink that’s sold illegally on the street, out of barber shops or bodegas, and, increasingly, online. Instagram teems with dozens of sellers, with handles like thenutcracker_jacker, nutcrackers_nemos, and kerbyscups, each offering free delivery and video testimonials: "This shit is fire!" says a devotee of brooklyn_nutcrackers. He takes a swig as the cameraman makes the rat-a-tat noise of a machine gun.
While police and community organizers once went to war with nutcrackers, the drinks remain largely unregulated. Now, John Cori, president of the Rockaway Civic Association, watches helplessly as sellers work in teams and reload from cars parked on side streets. "They’re definitely a menace," Cori says, bemoaning lost alcohol sales suffered by concessionaires on the boardwalk. Cops admit they tend to turn a blind eye to nutcrackers, as a spokesperson wrote in a terse email: "This is not something that is tracked by the NYPD." |