Bringing you the freshest, most earth-shattering New York City food tidbits, we present, for your viewing pleasure, the most momentous, stupendous street cart scoop in recent memory.*

"What are these men doing?" you ask? Why, they're capturing the images for the recently unveiled menu redesign on the Rafiqi's carts.

I spotted this scene in late March at the northwest corner of West 26th Street and Seventh Avenue, where the owners had parked their resupply truck near their Chelsea cart and had set up for a DIY photo shoot. After offering some friendly photo advice, I found out they would be rolling out new menus and signage throughout the fleet. Today, the new carts went live (or at least the one near the SE office). [After the jump, before-and-after shots.]

Side View: Before

Side View: After

Analysis

The previous iteration of the menu on the side of the cart featured Rafiqi's fare pictured in the same Styrofoam containers it is served in. The name of the cart is featured prominently, with an outer glow effect applied to the type; the type itself is rendered in at least three different typefaces with yellow backgrounds for dish names applied haphazardly and diagonal type that appears distorted. Food is relatively small and difficult to read visually.

In the after version, the food is pictured on plates resting on rattan placemats. The food photographs are larger and easier to read thanks to the sharper photos. Unified design uses a single typeface. The signature Rafiqi colorway of red, white, and yellow has been reduced to red and white only. And the name of the cart has been dropped. Together, that's a one-two punch that strays far from the established Rafiqi brand identity, pushing the stand into generic street cart territory. A huge mistake in this amateur design critic's opinion.

Full Frontal: Before

Full Frontal: After

Analysis

Again, we have the signature red, yellow, and white colorway and cart name replaced with a red-and-white scheme and new verbiage ("More toppings, more flavor, same price") in place of the Rafiqi's name. Unless you were a regular before, you would be hard pressed to ID this cart as a Rafiqi's.

The previous iteration used the horizontal space above the serving window to its fullest. The redesign makes the critical mistake of leaving available surface area bare, cramming the photos together with too little negative space between them—especially among the three dishes on the right, which display cropping that's inconsistent with those on the left side of the cart.

The surface area above the drinks drawer, which could have prominently displayed the cart's name, goes unused.

Unused surface area in the previous design, however, has been reclaimed on the left side of the new version.

There are several Rafiqi's throughout Manhattan (at least five, according to StreetGrub.com). They're not the best in the street meat category (I'm a Kwik Meal fan), but they're always reliable enough in quality to get you through lunch—and they're cheap, to boot. Pre-redesign, they were easy to spot and unmistakable. Post-redesign, however, I'd have a hard time recognizing one of these carts as a Rafiqi.

That bodes ill for Rafiqi, but perhaps it's a blessing in disguise for cart-goers. It may force us out of a lull and drive us to find other, deliciously unexplored options.

Rafiqi's

NW corner of West 26th Street and Seventh Avenue, New York, NY 10001 (map)

* If by "recent memory," you count the last day or two.