Midtown Lunch

With less than a month to go until the big day, the line-up for the Village Voice’s Choice Eats event is almost completely solidified- and if you haven’t gotten your tickets yet, what are you waiting for?!?! A Midtown Lunchers dream, the event features over 50 (not too fancy) restaurants from all five boroughs, hand picked by Robert Sietsema & Sarah DiGregorio.  Just like last year, Midtown Lunch is only represented by Margon (sadly none of the chaat places written about in the Voice are participating), but there are a few honorary out of bounds ML favorites like Baoguette and Tiffin Wallah. (Not to mention a bunch of places I’m personally excited for, like Momofuku Bakery & Milk Bar, Motorino, Porchetta, Barbao, Fette Sau, Nicky’s, Pinche Taqueria, and Salumeria Rosi.)

Tickets are a pretty cheap $35, and I’m sure it will sell out.  It all goes down Tuesday, March 31st from 6:30 to 9:30pm at the Armory on 26th and Lexington.  See the whole list of participating restaraunts, plus buy tickets at http://choiceeats.villagevoice.com.  Plus you can read last year’s coverage here.

It’s funny how different people can view a restaurant in completely different ways.  Take Schnipper’s Quality Kitchen, the newly opened self serve diner in the New York Times Building (on 8th Ave. & 41st) opened by the original founders of Hale & Hearty Soup.  When Josh Ozersky, Profiled Midtown Lunch’er, burger expert, and editor of the Feedbag, went to Schnipper’s he saw a burger operation trying to be The Shake Shack. When I went to Schnipper’s I saw a fast food/diner concept, where burgers were just a small part of the operation (unlike the Shack, where they are all of the operation.) In fact, I completely ignored the burgers- and why wouldn’t I?  I knew that any place that serves a burger thicker than 1/4 inch, but forces you to get it cooked medium, was not going to replace any of my favorite burgers in Midtown.  So why bother trying it? 

Instead I zeroed in on the real heart and soul of the Schnipper’s menu.  The mac and cheese, and the sloppy joe. There are plenty of people who will go to Schnipper’s for the burgers, or the salads, or the hot dog, or the chicken sandwich.  But the real Midtown Lunchers know there are better and cheaper versions of all of those things to be found in Midtown.  What you can’t find anywhere else is Mac & Joe- the mac and cheese topped sloppy joe that I’ve been wanting to try at Schnipper’s since the first day I saw their menu. After failing on my first visit, I finally got a chance to try this monstrosity… and I wasn’t disappointed.

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In an attempt to rebuild our trust in peanut butter, the National Peanut Board is giving away a bunch of peanut products in Grand Central Terminal today from 8 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Lunch’er Adam stopped by yesterday and sent in this report: “I got a free apple, free small container of peanut butter to dip pre-cut apples in (which I also got). Other items include peanut energy bars, peanut brittle bars, small packages of peanut M&Ms, and as many spoonful samples of Peanut Butter & Co. peanut butter as you can get away with.” Update: Blondie and Brownie also posted this report.

Hello!  Lunch’er Sal spotted this at Cafe Zaiya (on 41st btw. Mad+5th) and was kind enough to send the photo along. How can that be bad?!?! (No word on whether or not they’ve begun pumping cinnamon bun smell onto the sidewalk.)

Related:
A Food Porn Guide to Navigating Your Way Through Cafe Zaiya

Actually, maybe I should rename this “what I expect from Midtown’s Baja Fresh”.  When I passed through L.A. this past week, I took the liberty of enjoying a Baja Chicken Burrito from Baja Fresh, rekindling my excitement and raising my expectations for the branch of the chain we are getting on Lexington btw. 45+46th. I’ve heard that the Jersey locations are not that good, and quite frankly I will accept nothing less than a perfectly executed West Coast version of Baja Fresh, at the top of its game.

Example: the photo you see above is a salsa bar.  More importantly, it’s a FREE salsa bar.  And it doesn’t just have pico de gallo, salsa verde and two other kinds of salsa.  It also has cilantro, limes, pepperoncinis, and sliced jalapenos. Take what you want… as much as you like!  They better not pull any “this is NYC, we can’t afford a free salsa bar” shenanigans.

Oh, and that goes for the free chips as well.

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Back when I was on my quest for a real deal Greek gyro (not a Middle Eastern shawarma sandwich, or a chopped up gyro from a cart), a number of commenters mentioned Akdeniz.  Sure it’s Turkish, and not Greek, and the place is a sit down restaurant- but their gyro sandwich is under $10 (one of the few things on the menu that is) and came highly recommended.  Well I finally got around to trying the thing, which is only available during the day, and although it wasn’t what I initially was asking for, it is definitely a tasty sandwich.

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Tony Luke’s, the famous Philly based cheesesteak/pork sandwich purveyor, used to have a “location” on 9th Ave. btw. 40+41st- before the franchisee got sick of paying the fees and changed the name to Shorty’s (they still serve practically the same menu.) Well, according to the official Tony Luke’s website there is another location “to be announced” in NYC. It’s not clear whether it will be another “franchise” situation, or if it will the real deal- but either way, may I humbly suggest they return to the Midtown area? Even a half decent Tony Luke’s is probably better than most of the Philly cheesesteak (and roast pork with broccoli rabe!) options we’ve got. [via Serious Eats Comments]

Photo courtesy of Josh Bousel

New York Magazine has released their annual ‘Best Of’ issue, and while there isn’t much in the way of Midtown Lunch’ing honors, editor Robin Raisfeld chose Beacon as her favorite (bargain?) burger in New York City. I don’t see how it fits in the “Best Bargains: Cheap Food” category, but then again NYMag and Midtown Lunch have always had a different idea of what cheap means.

Related: Beacon’s Burger Bar Attempts to Gain Coveted Midtown Lunch Status