PROFILE: Midtown Lunch’er “Phil”
Every Tuesday I turn over the site to a different Midtown Lunch’er for his or her recommendations for the best lunch in Midtown. This week it’s Phil, a musician who loves soup.
Name: Phil
Age: 28
Occupation: Temp/Musician
Where in Midtown do you Work?: 48th & Broadway
Favorite Kind of Food: Any good soup, grungy Chinese food, fancy sandwiches, Mediterranean/Israeli, diner food, anything really REALLY spicy, In-N-Out Burger (alas), breakfast, mac and cheese, pad thai…
Least Favorite Kind of Food: Anything even remotely related to coconut, anything that has been in the same store/warehouse as a coconut, most Vietnamese food.
Favorite Place(s) to Eat Lunch in Midtown: The Outpost in the Viacom building on 44th and Broadway (all their soups are amazing), Chipotle burritos very occasionally (trying to avoid that pre-30 heart attack), that natural market on 54th and 8th (Powerbars and lentil soup), the teriyaki bar just above the M&M store on 48th and 7th (the soba is not terrible).
“Go-To” Lunch Place You and Your Coworkers Eat at Too Often? Belly Delly. Damn. Also, Hale & Hearty (wayyy too expensive, but the soups are not too bad).
Place(s) you discovered thanks to Midtown Lunch? Actually The Outpost. So cheap it makes me dizzy.
If you could work anywhere (just because of the lunch) where would it be and why? 79th and Amsterdam, so I could eat at Shining Star Diner every day, interspersed (on paydays) with the mac and cheese from Fred’s. Wow. Alternatively, in Silverlake in LA, because of the Brite Spot.
Is there anything you’d like to ask the Midtown Lunch readers? Oh man, YES! Where can I get blow-your-mind-amazing takeout soba soup in Midtown? It’s got to be takeout, too – I only get about 15 minutes for lunch… Thanks in advance!
Wait just one second here. Teriyaki Bar just above the M&M Store? What the hell are you talking about? When you say above, do you mean below? Are you talking about Teriyaki Boy? Or is there some crazy-ass hidden Japanese place above the M&M Store. Please do not play with my emotions sir!
As for your soba question, I admit to not being a soup expert, and I don’t think there is a soba recommended on Lunch’er Grace’s Soup Post… so I guess we’ll need to turn this one over to the commenters. Got a soba recommendation for Phil? Put it in the comments.
And 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
Posted: 11:00 am, September 30th, 2008 under PROFILE: Midtown Lunch'er.
51 Comments | RSS comments feed for this post
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51 Comments
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hello there. what instrument do you play?
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The mac and cheese from Fred’s is frozen and disgusting. I hope no one ever goes there-everything is frozen crap-nothing’s fresh and tastes like dog food. Even a chain store like Applebee’s beats Fred’s.
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Your appearance is decidedly unkempt and offputting. It comes as no surprise to me (a PhD, by the way) that you are “employed” as a “temp.”
Grooming matters, young man. Please take that nugget of wisdom to heart.
Should you have tatoos of any type, you might also consider having yourself tested for the infectious herpes virus. Though I am guessing that a person like you might wear that diagnosis as a sick badge of accomplishment in a city like New Yawk.
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I can’t tell if he really is cute, or just has a john krasinski face on in that photo thusly I’m getting visual cues that he is a cute boy.
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Mangostrawberry! Me thoughts you disappeared into the internet ether!
And seriously, Chipotle? And Powerbars? Do you have taste buds?
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Yeah, I feel ya sarah. I was looking at him and thinking the same thing.
Back to the food: I have a feeling this guy doesn’t know about good food.
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I think the trauma he went through on mount doom may of aged him.
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I used to work on 84th and CPW… never once ordered from shining star… thought about it a few times but it never really stood out as something special… so please enlighten me… lol
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And chucky?…..personal grooming….have you seen yourself?
In that sweater and pigglywiggly hat a can only shudder in disgust at sweaty dew flaps scarecly concealed by your elasticated waist fatboy pants.
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Gotta be skinflute.
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Bossman, I was just typing that. You and I were separated at birth.
This week’s freak is a real over-acheiver, eh? May want to team up with the other guy who makes lunches from samples, they could dumpster dive together
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He looks cute to me, hey I was gonna make the skinflute comment!!!
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The bailout is going over better than this guy, ha ha..
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Did everyone lose their jobs or something?
Phil, you have two problems in your soba wish: 1) soba is not easily found in midtown and 2) if it is found, the place isn’t within your alloted 15 minute lunch (temp to temp, you need to work on that agreement.) The only place I’ve seen soba is Cafe Zest and that’s in the soba salad (which is very tasty and healthy). You may want to try the trifecta on 41st St.
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NO! on the Shining Star! NO NO NO! Found cockroach IN my friend’s omelet. Sure, that was years ago, but the fear still remains. BTW, they still charged us for the omelet.
Only one NO on Fred’s. Find the food kind of gross.
There is an udon bar in the deli on the corner of 54th and Broadway. It’s seasonal (summertime it’s a salad bar), so it should be coming back soon. Quick and OK, not great.
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it grosses me out that he wrote off vietnamese food as inedible yet loves pad thai. just saying, there’s a lot of crossover between the 2 cuisines, although vietnamese is clearly better.
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I like this guy. Note to pretentious guy who pretended to eat only free food but actually only eats Freefood: learn from this guy. He is different but not annoying or off-putting.
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yea but does this guy shuck oyesters in his free times during finals…. no! lol
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I don’t know this person, but as a long time UWS resident, I truly question someone that view anywhere on the UWS (no less a no-name diner or a seriously mediocre restaurant) as their culinary mecca…
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chiyoda makes a delish soba salad.
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@ b-eater: What about Dinosaur BBQ? That’s fairly up there on the upper west.
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I know the UWS culinary world, and it is a sad, sad, sad, world…. and overpriced.
Sal & Carmines does not count as UWS… too far up, BTW
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Not to pile on, but the Brite Spot (which is amazing by the way) is in Echo Park, not Silverlake.
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soba soup? damn that’s difficult… try Yagura on 41st or the other Japanese joints to see what’s up. Don’t hold your breath though… under $10 and good and fast for soba? hard to find.
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It should come as a surprise to no one – shortly after entering his personal evaluation of this young man, DocChuck blew up the photo to roughly life sized, cut out a circular hole at the mouth, plastered the cutout over my face, and then – well, you know the rest. He sang the theme from Disney Channel’s “Phil of the Future” throughout. I think he also said something about altar boys should cast their eyes up to heaven – just as this week’s profilee has. Twitchy (his beloved hamster who lives in his rectum, if such things infiltrate you) popped loose during the proceedings.
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I do not own a blow-updoll and have not for over 35 years, now.
I do own a lifesize voodoo doll of Ms. Jane Stern, should that interest you.
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There are actually several places to get soba over here on the east side, but none of it is “blow-your-mind-amazing.” The new Silo place in Crystal Pavillion has a soba/udon bar that my coworker enjoyed, and there’s a few generic delis over here that do similar things (but with less ingredients than I saw from Silo). You’re probably better off just ordering takeout from somewhere like Menchanko Tei (more expensive but tastier).
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Doesn’t Cafe Duke have a soba station?
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Cockchug, you and Tingtong aren’t worthy enough to clean Jane Stern’s underpants. While you spend your time harrassing food blogs, she and Michael actually create one, and a good one at that. (www.roadfood.com)
While they are a blessing to the food community, you are but a pus-filled pimple upon it’s hairy ass
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Whatever, I think Phil’s cute, John Krasinski pose or not. What instrument do you play? (You look like a bassist.)
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For UWS, your mecca should be Silk Road.
I’ve already said too much…
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He really looks like Jack Dee.
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HAHA! Silk Road… really bad chinese… but cheap, so yeah, I’ve been there.
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PS… I think he’s trying to look up at his receding hairline.
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The food improves tremendously if you factor in the free, unlimited box wine.
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Do they do that for lunch? I had lunch there a few months ago and they never even offered me booze, THE NERVE!!!
Yes, I may be a refined lady of wealth (I have a full $20 in my purse!) and sophistication, but I am not above accepting free box wine. -
My dearest “Wayne,” so-called:
Jane Stern has been ripping off her “followers” on their CULTsite, RoadFood.com for years.
They have recruited people of the same mentality as themselves to PROMOTE their cheesy, meaningless, pulp-fiction-type publications.
It is time that Jane Stern is exposed for what she REALLY is: a grotesquely obese gypsy fortune-teller who eats bad food and then writes about it. Snooze.
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Chucky, even for a texan paedorist you’re enormously ugly.
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Dunno if it’s quite “mind blowing,” but the soba/soup station at the 49th St omnideli is very good. It’s between Park and Madison, north side, and they nalso have a great salad deal (a salad bowl with ALL the add-ins you want, including meats, etc., for $7) and decent Mongolian BBQ.
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Please don’t mind my husband, folks – he’s just overly agitated from having had to recently register as a sex offender and pedophile. He even had to throw out his entire beloved collection of young boy’s briefs and pop warner jockstraps. He also had to buy a much higher powered zoom lens for his camera after the judge increased the distance he must keep between himself and local elementary schools by an additional 100 yards.
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Wow… OK, a couple of responses:
1) The picture is cut out from one of my bands’ press shots – these guys (www.myspace.com/atomictom). We were kind of going for the “dirty rock star” look – I usually shower and shave, trust me. When Zach asked for a photo, I was on my work computer and didn’t really have anything else to upload…
@Liz in the City – I actually AM a bassist! Impressive…
2) Shining Star – it’s right near my apartment, and I think I just like having a place where I know what to eat, what not to eat… I dunno! No defense here, just a preference. Same as Fred’s – I have to say, the mac and cheese doesn’t taste frozen at all, though it absolutely does not beat my mom’s. And I completely agree about the Upper West Side being a foodie wasteland, but I guess that just means I need my horizons expanded!
@Zach – sorry, should have been more specific about the soup bar: it’s just NORTH of the M&M’s store. “Above” was an idiotic way to describe it… :)
3) John Krasinski? OK, he’s a good looking dude, I’ll take that! Just saw the season premiere the other night, fantastic.
4) I’ll fully admit I don’t know very much about good food, but I do have a few things working against me: not enough time for lunch (freaking finance), not enough money for lunch, and not enough time spent in the area in general. But that’s what this blog is for, right? I continue to be educated…
PS – If you all are curious, I’ve got my own blog at angularmomentum.tumblr.com – links to the artists I play with on the right hand side. And to those who had actual food suggestions (and who remarked on my cuteness): a hearty Thank You.
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It’s two “l”’s and it rhymes.
Did you all see Crazy Leg’s Conti is entered in the Movie Watching World record thing?
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I don’t ever ever do this. But, boy, you’re cute.
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Young man, have you considered “Hair Club for Men?”
They can do wonders these days.
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@Rudy McBagel- “I think the trauma he went through on mount doom may of aged him.” Though I find nothing wrong with Phil nor his post, the Dominic Monaghan reference is amazing.
@Phil- “I’ll fully admit I don’t know very much about good food… But that’s what this blog is for, right?” Agreed. I think ML has captured the hearts of the teeming midtown masses because of its egalitarian manner of juxtaposing the voice of bona-fide food writers with that of “borderline street urchins” who subsist off the kindness of street vendors. At the end of the day, we all work in midtown. We come to ML to share our tales of survival.
@Doc Chuck- you are my favorite writer on this site. Why were you not inspired to comment on my post?
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@ Mamacita: SAL AND CARMINE’S!!!! a hidden treasure. I have no idea why it hasn’t been in the TONY pizza countdown yet, but am glad that: it exists, I have eaten their pizza, and I will continue to eat their pizza for as long as possible.
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La Caridad is the best thing going for the UWS (know what to order). Cheap Cuban[esque] with Chinese for any boring friends.
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Digger, what do you order at Caridad, I’ve been curious about that place.
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@The Indisputable First Lady of Fruit — Dominic Monaghan was not on Mount Doom. He was with Billy Boyd and the rest of the valiant army at the gates of Mordor, drawing The Eye from Sean Astin and Elijah Wood, who were on Mount Doom. Not sure which one Phil is supposed to be, but Rudy’s comment made me laugh out loud! And yes, I am a nerd. And yes, I also think Phil is cute.
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@codenamekaren- Point taken. I was going more with the way he looks (i.e., like Dominic) but you are definitely correct. Your memory of the LOTR movie plot is far better than mine. I wonder whether Rudy was comparing him to Elijah or, ahem, possibly Rudy?
What’s good at Shining Star? Looks like an average diner, what makes it so worthy? Because seriously, the UWS is not the greatest place to work.