Midtown Lunch

Save Tony Video, courtesy of the Street Vendor Project

The New York Times has an article this morning about Tony “The Dragon” Dragonas, the famous street meat and burger vendor situated just outside the Midtown Lunch boundaries, on 62nd & Madison.  According to the Times, the 2005 Vendy Award winner “has 42 outstanding violations totaling $16,865” and “next month he is scheduled to appear before an administrative law judge, who will determine whether he can continue operating.”

Not mentioned in the newspaper article, but highlighted on the website of the Street Vendor Project, the organization who runs the annual Vendy awards, is Tony’s explanation for the fines:

Last year, the guy in the restaurant down the street started to complain about my smoke. I’ve never really had any problems with the Health Department, but the inspectors started coming every couple of weeks. Every time they came, they would give me 3,4, 5 or 6 tickets. Usually they cited me for the smoke. They also gave me tickets for not wearing my hat, being too close to the crosswalk, and other things. But never for selling bad food — nobody has ever gotten sick or complained about my food.

If “The Dragon” gets shut down, it will be a big blow to the city’s street meat conossieurs.  Get more information, and sign the petition to help save Tony at http://streetvendor.org/

On Thursday from 11am to 3pm, Yorganic, a new frozen yogurt place in the same basement food court as Pampano Taqueria, and the new Sophie’s Cuban (which had their own free food day a month ago), will be giving out free servings of their frozen yogurt. 

As you know, we’ve been burned by offers of “free yogurt” before, so I confirmed with the owner- it’s a 5oz serving of yogurt with one topping.  (I don’t know if that’s alot, but i’m pretty sure it’s more than a thimble full.)  As you can see from the flier above, they’ll have another free yogurt day on May 27th from 11am to 3pm, exclusively for the tenants of the building- but it’s unclear exactly how they are going to differentiate from the average freeloaders (check building IDs perhaps?)  Might be worth a shot on the 27th if you work in the building next door- but if you don’t want to chance it, tomorrow is the day.

Thanks to Gracenotes NYC for the orginal heads up…

UPDATE: Plus I totally forgot to mention that our Downtown Lunch Correspondent Daniel Krieger took some sweet ass yogurt photos, and forwarded them along (did we mention he does weddings too?).  Check out the yogurt w/ topping porn, after the jump   Read more »

My search for decent (but cheap) sushi in Midtown has been well documented, and while I think Aoki on 48th btw. 7+8th is probably the best quality to price ratio (even with their recent increase), it still isn’t truly a Midtown Lunch. You have to sit in a pretty nice restaurant and order from a waiter, or order in advance, and take the food to go. I still haven’t found a true take out sushi place to fully get behind, and it’s that quest, which took me to Norimaki on Monday.

Situated in a long and thin, oddly antiseptic storefront on 35th btw. 7+8th, there is still a lot to like about Norimaki. You order from a counter, but they have a number of tables, and a long bar with stools for you to eat your sushi at. They have pre-made rolls, or you can order your food to be assembled fresh, and everything is sold in very small portions (mostly 3 pieces) so you can mix and match for optimum variety.    Read more »

This morning’s NY Post has an article listing all the daily food items we buy that have increased in priced since the beginning of the year. I’ve complained so much about the rising cost of Midtown lunches, they asked me to comment on it for the piece, and this is the quote that got printed:

“It used to be that $9.95 was the standard price for an all-you-can-eat lunch buffet. Now it’s hard to find. It’s very upsetting to me. I want to be able to stuff my face for under $10, pretax.“

I suppose there is no denying that quote. (It sounds like something that would come out of my mouth.)

Coincidentally enough, after talking to them, I discovered another buffet has raised their prices. Find out which one after the jump… Read more »

Oops! Sorry Whole Foods… I posted a few weeks ago about the rotisserie chicken at the newly opened Brassierie Cognac Boulangerie (B’way btw. 55+56th), totally forgetting that you have a much cheaper option at your location on 8th Ave. & 58th St. in the basement of the Time Warner Center. A whole chicken in the prepared foods section is just $7.99 (compared to $13.95 at Cognac) and half is just $4.99 (compared to $7.99), plus there’s money left over to fill up on sides at their by the lb. buffet.  Damn that’s a good deal (and makes eating an entire chicken, well within your Midtown Lunch price boundaries!)

Related: Whole Foods is Hands Down the Best Generic Midtown Deli

Just got this from the Volstead (on 54th btw. Park+Lex), the restaurant which has been giving away free lunches to Midtown Lunch readers every Tuesday this month:

Wanted to give you a heads up that we have to postpone today’s free lunch for two weeks. The water department has shut down the water for the entire block and a few blocks of Lexington! Since we can’t get a straight answer as to when it will be turned back on, and we’re completely booked for next week we will honor all of today’s reservations in two weeks, Tuesday June 3rd. We’re trying to contact as many people as humanly possible that have reservations today.

This probably has something to do with yesterdays water main break on 57th btw. 5+6th, although strangely enough, it’s business as usual at most of the restaurants in the vicinity- including the Cosi (on 56th btw. Mad+Park), La Strada (on 56th btw. Lex+Park), Fika Espresso Bar (58th btw. 5+6th), Tina’s Restaurant (56th btw. 5+6th) & the Burger Joint (56th btw. 6+7th).

As I mentioned at the very end of the day yesterday, Crazy Legs Conti and Tim “Eater X” Janus will be squaring off in a watermelon eating contest at the Ninetendo Store in Rockefeller Center today from Noon to 3pm.  Most people know Crazy Legs Conti as a hero of the competitive eating circuit (he’s always at the Nathan’s hot dog eating contest), but did you know he is also a Midtown Lunch’er?  That’s right, when he is not stuffing his face, Crazy Legs has a day job at The Penthouse Executive Club in the outer reaches of Midtown West.  Situated around the corner from the actual Daisy May’s BBQ (the restaurant where the cart comes from), Crazy Legs knows his way around food, and was kind enough to give us an inside glimpse into his unique Midtown Lunch’ing experience.

Name: Crazy Legs

Age: 37

Occupation: Purchasing Director of the Penthouse Executive Club & Competitve Eater

Where in Midtown do you Work?: 45th & 11th Ave. As purchasing director, I order everything from demitasse spoons to demi sec champagne. Everything, but the food for Robert’s Steakhouse, which is the high end restaurant inside our swanky gentleman’s club. The food is impeccable, and as strip club menus go, this is usually not the case (years ago, the chicken nuggets and baked ziti at Shenanigans were considered haute cuisine). I have a janitor’s ring of keys, but as the 11th ranked Major League Eater they don’t allow me access to the meat aging vault or any of the refrigerators. Probably, very wise. Despite the world class restaurant, the Penthouse Executive Club’s scenery of seventy five topless women each night, gets the most attention. Evening gowns precede the topless part — it’s a very classy place. The enthusiastic ecdysiasts are not known as “Strippers” but as “Entertainers” and the PEC is anything but a run-of-mill peeler joint. But, here’s the disappointing part for Midtown Lunchers — Robert’s is only open for dinner and the PEC is a night time place. For me, it’s doubly disappointing, because even though my office, a giant warehouse of liquor, shares an air vent with the Entertainers’ Locker Room, my workday finishes long before the women show up. In some ways, I feel like a modern day Tantalus — so close, yet so far. During the day, the place is as quiet as the public library. Granted, instead of books, we have a light-up wall of naked 1970s Penthouse Pets so there are some perks to the day shift. Often when college kids ask for advice, I tell them to study harder; otherwise they will end up commuting to a strip club at 9 am every weekday.

Favorite Kind of Food: As a competitive eater, one has to be a cross disciplined athlete — eating whatever foodstuff is on the plate. During my seven year pro eating career, I have in short time consumed voluminous amounts of esoteric fare such as pelemeni and posole and more common foods such as Krystal hamburgers and Nathan’s hot dogs. However, if it wasn’t financial untenable for me, I would probably eat sushi every day. There has not been a US sushi eating contest in the modern era of pro-eating. Taped while I was still a casual diner, Fox’s 2002 Glutton Bowl featured a fire hose of poorly made sushi that caused one gurgitator to suffer, “an urge contrary to swallowing.” Recently Tim “Eater X” Janus, in exhibition, ate 141 pieces in six minutes. If Major League Eating holds a sushi eating contest in 2008, I wouldn’t even care about the trophy, just the free food. Hungry Charles Hardy (who once had the opportunity to eat fifteen feet of sushi in Japan) and I have been thrown out of two all-you-can eat sushi places. I believe our pictures are still under the counter in the right-to-refuse section. If I can swing the bucks, I will order from Oyishi, a tiny place on 46th btw. 8+9th. Instead of ordering rolls, I usually just point to the party catering platter menu. Options A and C make for an enjoyable lunch for myself, but if I am going to share, we have to order deeper into the alphabet. I also love Japanese noodle soup. It’s a great time for ramen and noodle soups in NYC. I could watch “Tampopo” for lunch and be just as satiated without eating a bite.

What even Crazy Legs refuses to eat, plus his favorite carts in Midtown, after the jump… Read more »

My love of the kati roll (or kathi roll, as I believe it may be officially spelled) is pretty well documented. The original Kati Roll on 46th btw. 6+7th is probably the most viewed Midtown Lunch post of all time, and I have always felt it embodied what this site was all about. Cheap (although prices have gone up recently), unique, and most importantly, delicious. When they moved to 39th btw. 5+6th, it opened up a void in the area which was quickly filled by the cart on 46th & 6th, who began selling chapati rolls, a similar creation with a few unique twists. Their “kati rolls” were on a slightly thinner chapati bread, and they offered both sweet and spicy toppings, give their offerings a broader range of flavors. (Everything at the original Kati Roll is just spicy.)

Indus Express took the kati roll and tweaked it again when they opened up on 48th btw. 5+6th, serving up a more burrito’ish, larger creation filled with sauteed veggies and a fried egg. For those working on the west side, there was no shortage of these Indian wraps. But what about the folks on the east side who don’t have time to make the walk? Well, Grill 44 has stepped in to fill the East side void. Originally a Mediterranean take out place, specializing in falafel and shawarma, Grill 44 (on 44th btw. Lex+3rd) has now added Indian food to their menu- and one of the options now available is- you guessed it- Kathi Rolls. Read more »

There are a lot of strip clubs in Midtown, and many of them have food- but I’m guessing most are pretty expensive (like that weird sushi bar/strip club, Flash Dancers, on B’way btw. 52+53rd. You know you’ve noticed the awning!)  That’s what makes the $10 lunch deal at Rick’s Cabaret so amazing!  We could have a Midtown Lunch that doubles as a strip club.  How sweet would that be?

I remember the first time I ate in a strip club. It was when I lived in Boston, and a friend told me he needed to pick up something from his roommate who worked at the Centerfolds in Chinatown. An all you can eat pasta buffet was mentioned, and next thing I knew I was stuffing my face with spaghetti and meatballs in a dark, naked lady filled club.  I obviously have nothing against strip clubs, but there’s something about eating in one that even grosses me out. There’s also something about a free pasta buffet, that trumps all other rules.  Plus- as dirty as it was to eat in a place like that, it probably isn’t the dirtiest all you can buffet I’ve gorged myself at.

I really don’t want my ‘much better than I deserve’ wife to divorce me, so I don’t think I’m going to be checking out the Rick’s Cabaret $10 lunch deal… but I’m sure there are some of you who are willing to “sacrifice” and report back in the comments. Right?