Midtown Lunch

Another review of Schnipper’s Quality Kitchen focuses on (what everybody agrees are) their mediocre burgers, but surprisingly Serious Eats’ Ed Levine had nicer things to say about them than the Mac & Cheese: “The mac and cheese ($6.99) was pretty standard and wholly unremarkable. The cheeses didn’t stand out and the bread crumbs couldn’t overcome the fact that the unbaked mac and cheese had no significant amount of crunch.” I agree that baked mac and cheese is preferable to unbaked, but sadly this “unremarkable” product is one the only decent versions in Midtown, for a reasonable lunchtime price.  (And I’d take unbaked mac & cheese over a burger they refuse to cook medium rare any day of the week.) [Serious Eats: New York]

Related:
Schnipper’s May Have the Best Mac & Cheese in Midtown

The Under $25 column in today’s New York Times takes on three newish burger places (Flip, Black Iron Burger, & City Burger), and drops this LaFrieda bombshell about the burger that City Burger (on 39th & Broadway) calls the “Black Label”.

“City Burger’s menu says it uses LaFrieda’s aged Black Label blend in some burgers. But Mr. LaFrieda told me he sells Black Label only to Minetta Tavern and that City Burger’s blend, which he calls City Black mix, isn’t aged quite as long.”

Uh… that’s good to know (I guess?) You could say it’s just a matter of semantics, but to burger aficionados it could be an important distinction.

Related:
Original City Burger Better Than Black Label? Combo Comes Down By $1
AHT Calls City Burger’s Black Label “Best Burger in the City”

A couple of deals worth mentioning for tax day tomorrow (Wednesday, 4/15): Golosi, the new pizza by the inch place on Park Ave. btw. 41+42nd, is offering buy one get one free scoops of gelato and buy some pizza, get the same amount free (minimum 3″ purchase) from 11am to 9 pm. And if you are willing travel a bit out of bounds, Supermac (on 7th Ave. btw. 29+30th) is offering 8 cent mac and cheese through the 8coupons website, and Energy Kitchen (not to be confused with Pump Energy Food) is offering a free bison cheesesteak, thai chicken wrap, or chicken burger with the purchase of any drink between Noon and 2pm. Energy Kitchen has three locations just out of the ML boundaries… one on 2nd Ave. btw. 57+58th, one on 41st and 2nd Ave., and one on 47th btw. 9+10th Aves. [Eater, 8Coupons, Eater]

Late Addition: According to this website there will also be free Cinnabon bites in Rock Center from 5 to 8 p.m.

XPL, the street meat cart that surprised everybody by coming in 2nd place at last year’s Street Meat Palooza, might have raised their prices recently: “Hey Zach, Went down to the 3rd Ave. outpost of the XPL Halal food cart at 48th St. for lunch today. They charged $5 for a platter (chicken or lamb over rice) and included in that price was a free drink. Great deal, and pretty good street meat for us eastsiders not a quick walk from the Halal Guys on 53rd and 6th. Anyway, I got my food and my normal drink and instead of receiving a $5 bill as change for my $10, I got four singles. So just like that, I guess they’re now charging $1 for drinks. Not a huge deal, as $6 for meal and drink is still good. I just won’t be getting drinks from there any more so that I can keep my costs steady at $5. P.S. – The rice today, usually a standout, was bland and flavorless. I’m hoping it was just a bad batch… Edward”

Sounds like they either started charging for drinks… or maybe they are now charging $6 (and you still get the free soda.) Anybody else experience this? (Or bad rice?) XPL has locations on 3rd & 48th, Park Ave. & 48th, and Broadway btw. 53+54th.

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, I’m pretty excited to welcome Sisha Ortuzar, the cofounder of ‘wichcraft, which has many Midtown locations. Whether or not you love or hate ‘wichcraft, Sisha is an amazing chef who has cooked in some of ML’s favorite cities- including Chile, New Orleans, and of course NYC (at Grammercy Tavern). And he co-wrote the brand new ‘wichcraft book (along with Tom Collichio). We actually have 5 copies to give away at the bottom of the profile.

Name: Sisha

Age: 36

Occupation: Restaurant owner, so it depends on the day (sometimes chef, sometimes designer, sometimes architect, sometimes marketer, sometimes dishwasher, etc.)

Where in Midtown do you Work?: ‘wichcraft (several locations in Manhattan, a lot of them in Midtown)

Favorite Kind of Food: I like almost everything; it really depends on the day. The food that I find most interesting tends to be spicy (Szechuanese, Korean, Indian) but I also like simple and straight forward food. One of my favorite things to eat is toast with butter.

Least Favorite Kind of Food: Puerto Rican food. It just seems very bland and one-note to me.

Favorite Place(s) to Eat Lunch in Midtown: Bar Zippeto (on 6th btw. 56+57th) for espresso. The halal meat cart on 6th Ave. and 49th for meat on a stick. A cheeseburger from the Burger Joint at the Parker Meridien (on 56th btw. 6+7th), and Yushi (on 47th btw. Park+Lex) for a healthy snack.

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Certe’s First Two Sandwich Challenge Entries

So, I’ll admit, it’s taken me awhile to go and check out “The Primavera”, Certe’s new entry to the Midtown Lunch Sandwich Challenge. Part of it is because it’s their *third* entry (they have done one every month since we started), but part of it had to do with the fact that it was a vegetarian entry. Don’t get me wrong, it sounded good and all (crispy eggplant, zucchini and yellow squash with basil ricotta, fresh mozzarella on a homemade garlic herb focaccia), but not blow-me-away good. Not so-good-I-felt-the-need-to-rush-over-there and stuff my fat face good (which presumably would get fatter and fatter just by looking at the sandwich.)

Yesterday, I finally found time to trek over to Certe (on 55th btw. 5+6th) and try the sandwich. And boy am I glad I did.

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Photo courtesy of chris6sigma

Remember Obika, the Italian Mozzarella bar that opened in the atrium on Madison & 56th last year? Their sandwiches were pretty good, but a little small for the price- and I haven’t really thought about going back since the original +/- they got in November. That is, until I saw these photos that chris6sigma posted to the Midtown Lunch Flickr Photo Pool. Damn, that mozzarella/proscuitto sandwich looks good.

But the eye grabber (and the thing that may have me drop everything to return immediately) is after the jump…

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