Tunnel Vision
More than 100,000 cars travel (23) ___________ the Holland Tunnel daily. But while some drivers are planning their (24) ___________ home, others are planning their next snack. Luckily, Ali Hoblos is there, at the corner of Varick Street and Broome Street, ready (25) ___________ hot dogs or warm buns right to drivers’ cars.
After 17 years of working at this corner, just one block from the tunnel’s entrance, Hoblos knows drivers’ dietary (26) ___________ well. And he (27) ___________ on traffic moving, at least slowly, because “when they’re stopped, they don’t usually want anything,” he says.
(28) ___________, Hoblos sells two or three dozen hot dogs and about as many buns each day during his noon-to-eight shift. He says there is no big difference in winter sales (29) ___________ summer, and that overall his business has declined in the last year. “I think a lot of people are on diets lately, (30) ___________ just after the New Year,” Hoblos reports. In addition to his handful of regulars, he says his best customers are parents with kids in the car. The hardest sell is taxi drivers, who almost never buy from him. “I’ve been doing this a long time,” Hoblos says. “You don’t get rich, but you make a (31) ___________. And sometimes you get a tip if they’re in a good (32) ___________.