Midtown Lunch

I don’t know how we missed out on this one but Oscar Meyer was giving away free hot dogs in Times Square today, and apparently Mario Lopez was here as well! He’s appearing in A Chorus Line half a block away, so
it’s unclear whether he was here as part of the promotion or he just wanted a free hot dog. Either way, he was gone by the time I got here, and the wienermobile is pulling away now. Damn you A.C. Slater!!!

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 Monica, an Attorney who hates raspberries, but loves Chinese food. 

Name: Monica

Age: 35

Occupation: Attorney

Where in Midtown do you Work?: 62nd & Madison.

Favorite Kind of Food: Tapas, Greek, Sushi, Soba Noodles, Dim Sum, Chowder, In-N-Out burgers

Least Favorite Kind of Food: I detest raspberries. Everything about them – the way they taste, smell and feel. I know everybody else loves them, but I just can’t bring myself to even mildly tolerate them. I’m also not a big fan of ricotta cheese.

Favorite Place(s) to Eat Lunch in Midtown: Pretty much anything from the Dishes salad bar, Margon‘s Cuban sandwich (46th btw. 6+7th), Utsav‘s buffet (47th or 46th btw. 6+7th), especially on the days they have chicken tikka masala, Lenny’s (any place that puts freshly sliced pickles on a sandwich gets my seal of approval) and Wu Liang Ye’s pan-fried pork dumplings (48th btw. 5+6th). It’s probably outside the ML boundaries, but the Follow Me Caffe on 62nd and Lex is a cute sit-down place with inexpensive sandwiches, salads and soups. For excellent cheese and Italian sandwiches, I like Cheese on 62nd (also at 62nd and Lex).

“Go-To” Lunch Place You and Your Coworkers Eat at Too Often? Since switching jobs last year, I can only live vicariously through the adventures of Zach and the Midtown Lunch readers. I now work in a kosher facility, so we’re not allowed to bring any outside food into the building. We do, however, have a private chef who prepares hot multi-course lunches for us every day and the food is tasty (and free), so I can’t complain. I used to work at 47th and 6th and would go to Europa for a salad at least twice a week.

Place you discovered thanks to Midtown Lunch? Oms/b (45th btw. Lex+3rd), Taki Sushi (48th btw. 5+6th), Woorjip (32nd btw. 5th+B’way)

If you could work anywhere (just because of the lunch) where would it be and why? San Francisco. Specifically, right near the Ferry Building. I could eat Acme bread, Cowgirl Creamery cheese and the Shaking Beef from Slanted Door every day. Locally, I’d say Chinatown due to the easy access to dim sum.

Is there anything you’d like to ask the Midtown Lunch readers? Other than Wu Liang Ye (the one on Lexington btw. 39+40th), is there any good Chinese food in the Murray Hill/Midtown East area?

Phew. I thought you were going to drop the “Is there anywhere to get good Dim Sum in Midtown” bomb. Clearly if there was, this site would go away- because I would have to eat there every single day of the week.  Anyway- back to your very good question.  My one Murray Hill recommendation, after the jump…

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The new location of Joe and the Art of Coffee is scheduled to open tomorrow (6/11) in the graybar passage of Grand Central (enter off of Lex).  But according to an email they sent to “regular customers” they’ll be doing a “dress rehearsal” from 4 to 6pm today (Tuesday, 6/10) where they’ll be serving FREE coffee drinks and snacks.” 

Photo courtesy of Blondie and Brownie, the tip came courtesy of Tina “The Wandering Eater“.

It’s freakin’ hot as shit outside (can I say that?)  That means Japanese Ramen places are rolling out the cold noodles.  I’m pretty sure Menchanko Tei (55th btw. 5+6th & 45th btw. Lex+3rd) always has Hiyashi Chuka on their menu, but Men Kui Tei (56th btw. 5+6th) and Sapporo (49th btw. 6+7th) only serve it in the summer time.  And I think it’s pretty safe to say… it’s summertime.  (I called to confirm… all three restaurants are serving it.

But the most exciting news is after the jump… Read more »

If you missed the one on the left this weekend, get the one on the right today in Midtown

It was a porktastic weekend for everybody who braved the heat and hit up the Big Apple BBQ Block Party this weekend.  I stopped by for a bit on Sunday and enjoyed my personal favorite: Ed Mitchell’s whole hog sandwich.  A creation just as amazing as it sounds, he literally takes a whole pig out of the smoker, and chops it down into sandwich form (you may say the secret ingredient is the crispy bits of skin.)  If you missed it, and now you’re craving some ‘cue (there are alot of meat photos from Madison Sq. Park floating around flickr today) there really is only one for lunch today in Midtown:  the Daisy May’s BBQ cart on 50th btw. 6+7th. 

I though everybody knew about this pretty famous cart, but you’d be surprised.  They used to have a couple more carts on the east side, and one downtown- but it looks like those are gone for good, leaving 50th as your only option.  (Actually the last time a Daisy May’s cart was on the east side was for the filming of that new Adam Sandler “Zohan” movie.  Anybody see the cart in the movie?)

Seeing as how you probably won’t want to eat outside today (“Feels Like” 102° + 43% humidity = a very sweaty Zach), the cart does a real good job of packaging up everything to take back to your desk.  If you do eat outside,  you might want to snag one of their awesome sweet teas.  At $4, it’s a little pricey, but you get to keep the mason jar.

Lobster Stew from Free Foods NYC. Photo Posted to ML Flickr Pool by BlondieandBrownie.

• Free Foods NYC is expensive but the soups are tasty [Blondie & Brownie]
• The Dragon cuts deal with DOH… his famous street meat cart will not close! [Serious Eats: New York]
• Flo Fab discovers the rotisserie chicken at Boulangerie Cognac [NYT]
• With the addition of two more buildings in the area, Bryant Park may become more unbearable at lunchtime than it already is [NYT]
• You can find Frogurt in Times Square and the Grand Central Food Court [Su Good Sweets] 
• Chowhounders sound off on the new chaat place that opened inside the Indian newsstand [Chowhound]
• Just to show you I can be refined, check out the meal I had with my wife for our three year anniversary (not in Midtown obviously) [Serious Eats: New York]

After posting about the mediocre gyro at Gyro II, I complained that I couldn’t find a decent Greek version of the gyro sandwich in Midtown (my nit picky distinction between a “Greek” gyro, and what you get at street meat carts is in the original post). As always, the commenting faithful had some good suggestions, and while most of them were out of bounds (that’s where all the good stuff is), there were a few places I vowed to check out. Seeing as how I am already a big fan of the Famous Chicken Place on 3rd Ave. btw. 38+39th, I figured I’d start there.

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Sorry for the spam, but as long as people want to give you guys free stuff, I will keep posting about it.  Tomorrow (Friday) is National Doughnut Day, and in honor of this most exciting occasion (I’m sorry but I freakin’ love doughnuts more than anything) the Krispy Kreme in Penn Station will be giving away free doughnuts all day long.  They’re open from 6am to 10pm.  [NYMag] 

(Photo courtesy of Roboppy)

Tomorrow is the grand opening of the new (enormous) Starbucks inside the (I can’t believe you’re doing this to the) Empire State Building (entrance on 34th St. btw. 5+6th), and it looks like alot of people are leaving with free stuff. I got this email from Midtown Lunch’er Claire:

They’re giving away free everything at the brand new Empire St. building Starbucks, according to my co-workers who keep streaming past me with all their big Starbucks cups. I’m going now, hoping to score some kind of brownie!

Not so fast freeloaders… the promotion is an invite only friends and family thing, which they have opened up to the tenants of the Empire State Building.  So, if you work in that building (350 5th Ave.), grab your ID and head down from some free stuff. The rest of us will just have to wait until tomorrow don’t care.