Midtown Lunch

Every Tuesday I turn over the site to a different Midtown Lunch’er for his or her recommendations for the best lunch in Midtown. Today it’s Paul, a die hard Mets fan from Queens who has been waiting over a year for his Profile to finally see the light of day.

Name: Paul

Age: 26

Occupation: Literary Agent’s Assistant and part time/uncompensated consultant for http://www.beermenus.com

Where in Midtown do you Work?: 56th & Park at Janklow & Nesbit (feel free to snail mail me if you happen to be a brilliant writer with a polished manuscript)

Favorite Kind of Food: Y’know, the four food groups: pizza, Chinese, Mexican, and breakfast.

Least Favorite Kind of Food: I’m not down with hating on vegetables cause they are wonderful things, but the overdressed Midtown salad is disgusting. And since when did salad need to be “chop’t”? And what the hell’s happened to the normal NY slice in the past 15 years? I feel like I have to go to gourmet pizza parlors to get something edible- consarnit.

Favorite Place(s) to Eat Lunch in Midtown: My original response was the Azuri Café on 51st, but then it popped up on in another profile, so my tip for your Midtown West folks is a burger place named Vizio. They featured Angus beef, which is incredible (and maybe unbelievable but that’s for someone else to discuss) for $5.50 burger, even if fries aren’t included. It puts goodburger, betterburger, bestburger, homeburger et al to shame. In my heart of hearts, I’m a street food man and I try to hit the Dragon on 62 & Mad and the Indian cart on Park & 53rd often.

The “go-to” lunch place you and your co-workers eat at too often: Lightbites, 55th btw. Park & Lex (prototypical and awful representation of quick salads/sandwiches for people ‘on the go’ in Midtown)

Place you discovered thanks to Midtown Lunch? Indian fast food carts on 53rd+Park and the 1.25 pizza at Naples 45 (although the price is up!). The after work, Naples 45 slice might be a tad stale, just so your readers know, but they’ll reheat if it’s not packed. Recently tried the Pampano Taqueria and Sophie’s Cuban , both of which were terrific. I’ve pretty much planned my life around this website for the past year and a half.

If you could work anywhere (just because of the lunch) where would it be and why? My roommate and I once talked about getting into the cart game so lunch would follow work around; however, I’m leaning towards Brighton Beach/Coney Island. They have a wonderful talent of stuffing meat inside of dough and then frying it…or Napa.

As always, if you want to be the next Profiled: Midtown Lunch’er, or you’d like to nominate somebody in your office, email me at zach@midtownlunch.com