Midtown Lunch

I fully admit that my Midtown Lunch pricing rules have always been a little vague. Under $10 is the rule, but does that mean with or without tax? Does it have to include a drink? And how much food do you have to get for your $10? The answer to all those questions is… uh… maybe? The truth is, it’s all about feel. You could easily spend over $10 at many of the places that are written about on this site, and there are places I refuse to write about that have items under $10. Sometimes it just comes down to instinct.

My original instinct about HB Burger, the newish Heartland Brewery owned burger spot on 43rd btw. B’way+6th, was thumbs down. Even though their burgers are well under $10 (in fact, they boast that everything on their menu is less than $9), it is a sit down restaurant where a burger *and* fries will cost you well over $10. I will occasionally write about sit down restaurants on ML, but the bar is much higher for those places, and the ideal Midtown Lunch spot is a place where take out is the norm or they have a free seating area for once you get your food at a counter. Heartland Brewery (and by transitive property HB Burger) is not one of those places. In fact, it’s the kind of place this blog was created to combat: the slightly-overpriced-for-what-you-get, tourist magnet, that might also appeal to the type of Midtown worker who doesn’t want to walk the extra few blocks for something more interesting.

But in the end taste and price can go along way to help me ignore a bunch of tourists, so when HB Burger decided to offer that $9.95 Midtown Lunch special for one this week only– I figured it couldn’t hurt to give it a try. It’s only fair.

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Here we go again! Remember when Yushi (on 47th btw. Park+Lex) first launched their lunchtime conveyor belt, and gave away free lunch to a few lucky Midtown Lunchers? Well now that they’ve reconfigured their conveyor belt to be completely refrigerated they want to give free food away to ten more Midtown Lunch’ers. To win, all you have to do is comment below with the reasons why you should be chosen. 10 winners will be randomly selected in a drawing this Friday (7/17) at 3pm, and will get to have lunch at Yushi’s new conveyor belt one day next week with a friend. (Each winner and their guest will get a free drink and any four plates off the conveyor belt- probably because the previous winners pigged out too much!) Good luck! (No matter how many times you comment, your name will only be entered once in the drawing.)

Time Out New York’s Cheap Eats issue hits the newsstands today, and in case you weren’t sure that it’s meant to compete with the New York Magazine cheap eats issue it kicks off with this message from the Editor: “A certain other Cheap Eats issue this week features the foods of New York, but comes with a punch line: “all* for under $25.” And then at the asterisk: “*Okay, almost all.” $25? Cheap? Last time we checked, a $16 sandwich from Le Cirque (“as God intended, with a fine glass of the best Meursault”) is not cheap.” (I love how everyone is picking on the sandwich from Le Cirque.) Just like Midtown Lunch, everything in the Time Out NY issue is under $10, and unlike NYMag they’ve listed a decent number of Midtown Lunch options.

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If you’re not sick of the whole Tim Horton’s thing yet, read on! (If you are than clearly you haven’t tried their iced cappuccino, which I probably should have explained is more like a frappe or icy milkshake than a straight up coffee drink.)  Unscientific polls were conducted all over Midtown yesterday, pitting timbits (Tim Hortons’ version of the doughnut hole) against Dunkin Donuts’ munchkins- and the results were mixed.  The New York Daily News scored it 5 to 4 in favor of Tim Hortons, while TONY’s feed blog had it 11 to 5 (!) in favor of the almighty munchkin.  Gothamist decided against polling, and just declared the timbit the winner.

So that solves the “timbit” mystery, but what’s all this about “double double”?

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Speaking of street vendor wars, two ML commenters pointed me towards these two articles.  Last week AMNY posted this story about how Mister Softee is trying to crack down on all the imitators (trucks with names like “Mister Soft, Mister Soft Freeze and Mr. Softee”.)  And for those who thought vendors were only limited to those selling unhealthy snacks, NYT’s City Room Blog has this report about two feuding fruit stands in Hell’s Kitchen. And from the sounds of it, they have more than each other to contend with.  The Food Emporium they are parked in front of wants both of them gone.

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 Jessica, a Midtown sales/marketing lunch’er who can cook a meal on the streets of NYC for under $12.

Name: Jessica Hartley

Age: 26

Occupation: Sales Development/Marketing (I also have a blog called Hartley Confections, and I’ll be starring in a webisode called the $12 Challenge on Food Network’s new blog, Food 2 in the next few months. Essentially its a cooking and dating show where you compete to win a date with a foodie by using your culinary skills to prepare a fabulous meal given $12, two hours and the new york city streets as your kitchen.)

Where in Midtown do you Work?: Midtown East

Favorite Kind of Food: Hamburgers, Lasagna, & Mexican Food

Least Favorite Kind of Food: Korean

Favorite Place(s) to Eat Lunch in Midtown: Gourmet 53 (on 53rd & 3rd) for their salad assortments. You get a salad, homemade pita chips, & a cookie for $5.50. I also like Zarela’s for special occassions. It’s my favorite Mexican restaurant in the city! Plus Asian Station (on 52nd btw. Lex+3rd), PJ Clarke’s (on 3rd & 55th), Thai 51 (on 51st btw. 2+3rd), and Yama 49 (on 49th & 2nd.)

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