Midtown Lunch

Three new spots have opened on the east side that are most definitely not what I consider to be Midtown Lunch material… but I won’t discriminate. Just because I’m a fat bastard doesn’t mean you all have to be. (Plus it’s Earth Day, right?)

The Green Room Cafe (on Lex and 45th) opened this past week- and it turns out it’s not a health club cafe from Singapore, but a total Pret rip off playing up how fresh and organic their lunch stuff is.  The free sample (and make no mistake about it, I will never turn down free samples) of tuna sandwich I tried tasted like every tuna sandwich on wheat bread I’ve ever had. Thanks but no thanks.

The second place, Recharge (on Lex btw. 39+40th), has probably been open for awhile now, but I hadn’t walked by in a long while.  I made fun of their menu back before they had opened… but nothing could have prepared me for the scene inside this Pump Energy Food/Energy Kitchen wannabe.

Call me crazy, but I don’t want to see giant tubs full of powdered protein on the counter in my lunch spots.  What is it with that GNC shit anyway?  Is that stuff really good for you in a non bodybuilder application?  I don’t think I’ll ever understand the whole getting your nutrients in powder form from giant plastic tubs. Next.

When I lived in LA for two years, I discovered a soft spot in my heart for the smoothie which has dissipated a bit since moving to New York (replaced by that cold blackness that permeates every true New Yorker).  It must be something about that West coast weather.  Sure, I’ll still get a Jamba Juice every once in awhile on a hot day… but I have never liked Smoothie King (there was one across from my wife’s dorm in New Orleans.)  Maybe you will. One just opened on 41st btw. Lex+3rd.  Enjoy!