Vendors look for Martha to perk up everyday living

NEW YORK —  Bagels, buttered rolls and crullers were flying off Susie Dang’s stainless steel shelves while hot java flowed like freshly struck crude from her coffeemaker last October when Rosie O’Donnell was embroiled in a breach-of-contract lawsuit. The former talk-show host, actress and magazine diva’s daily pilgrimage to the courthouse at downtown Foley Square drew swells of fans and media, who thought nothing of getting their morning joe from Dang.

“Last year when we had Rosie, it was good,” Dang says, looking out from the window of her coffee cart.

But, so far, Martha Stewart, who knows a thing or too about retail, hasn’t shown she can move a single jelly doughnut. John Quader, 37, who has been manning a coffee cart in the city for more than a decade, concurs that “Rosie O’Donnell was better than this.”

Quader, who is from Afghanistan but grew up in the United States, says it surely can’t be the cost of the food or beverages. “A cup of coffee was 50 cents 10 years ago,” says Quader, who once sold a regular coffee -- that’s with cream and sugar -- to Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton while he was in town. “And it’s still 50 cents a cup!”

Now, to be fair to Stewart, who has pleaded not guilty on charges of conspiracy, obstruction of justice and securities fraud, the elements were much kinder during the O’Donnell case. New York is in a deep freeze, and Thomas Paine Park and Foley Square are covered with thick patches of ice that will not melt soon, as temperatures are expected to remain in the 20s next week.

“When the line gets too big in the cold weather, people don’t wait,” says Wais Quadir, 36, whose cart is at the southwest edge of the square near a subway entrance. “You even lose regular customers.” But the bitter cold doesn’t completely explain the lack of sales. While the forecast may keep fair-weather fans and the nominally curious away, how does one explain the ever-present press corps’ lack of coffee purchases? “Many of them bring their own stuff,” Dang says, motioning toward the convoy of parked trailers sporting antennas. And those who don’t pack a Thermos, Dang adds, opt for “something fancy at Starbucks.”

That’s typical of the media, says Lou Colasuonno, a former top editor at both New York tabloids who is now a communications consultant to Stewart’s co-defendant, former stockbroker Peter E. Bacanovic. “Free is the press’ favorite word,” he says only half-jokingly. “And, of course, you can expense a $4.25 mug at Starbucks, but how can you do that with a cup that costs less than a buck?”

Tightfisted media aside, some court observers attribute the lack of brisk business outside the federal district court to the veiled proceedings going on inside. Judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum is interviewing prospective jurors in private, charging that the presence of the media would have a “chilling effect” on proceedings. So as information trickles out a day later via printed transcripts, the case is in a sort of anticipatory limbo. If there is no sexy action, there is no live audience. And no live audience means fewer potential customers for the cart collective.

At least one longtime street vendor shrugs off the light lines with a been-there-seen-it-all-before attitude. “It’s just the beginning of the case,” says Brooklynite Tony Polos, 55, who has been selling hot dogs and sausages (for $1.25 and $1.50 a pop, respectively) from his cart for nearly 15 years. He was here when real estate queen Leona Helmsley ran afoul of the law and when part of the case against former Philippine first lady Imelda Marcos was heard in New York. “It’ll be like a circus here,” he assures. “It’s always like a circus.”

For Dang, who spent most of her morning being polite to customers who wished her a happy Chinese New Year, (she’s Vietnamese and chooses not to celebrate the lunar new year), that would be a professional boon. But, personally, the Bronx resident and mother of one is torn. “Yes, I buy Martha’s stuff -- linens for the kitchen and the bathroom -- from K-Mart,” she admits. And she’s impressed by the business acumen and tenacity of the ubiquitous former chief executive of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. “She works hard,” says Dang, who remains unconvinced of the government’s case.

Polos, who has served wieners to Stewart’s mother and daughter, has no such reservations. “I think,” he says of Stewart, “she did something fishy.”