Midtown Lunch

Asking your kid to hold your Tim Hortons Iced Cappuccino = Bad Idea

• SMP 2 Winner Kwik Meal included in this look at the country’s best street food [Forbes Traveler]
• Tuesday there’s 2 for 1 beers at House of Brews [Eater]
• Joe The Art of Coffee has a mighty fine chocolate chip cookie [Blondie and Brownie]
• The Southwest Porch will now be serving food and drinks during lunchtime everyday [Grub Street]
• You will be seeing a lot more 7-11 locations very soon [Gothamist]
• James Boo decides he likes Kati Roll better than the Biriyani Cart [Eaten Path]
• Katsuhama’s lunch special is “not bad for $11, eh?” [A Passion For Food]
• A Restaurant Twitter Tracker! What a great idea… [Wined and Dined]
• Where do street vendors get their eclectic collection of cups? [City Room]

If you like to eat, chances are you like to drink (read: a lot of you are freakin’ lushes), so I thought maybe it was time to introduce a happy hour column to the site. Every week, our Happy Hour Correspondent “Mamacita” will post about a different bar in Midtown that fits the Midtown Lunch mentality: unhealthy food, not lame (unless it’s lame in a cool way), and most importantly… cheap. This week she hits up Wakamba, a dive bar that should be right up her alley.  Only it wasn’t…

The Distinguished Wakamba Cocktail Lounge cemented its roots in the seamy stretch of 8th Avenue when in 2000 an unarmed Brooklyn man was shot and killed in a fracas with three undercover narcotics detectives on the bar’s doorsteps. This is now the unsavory reputation that has publicly followed Wakamba, but this is not the reason tourists or professional don’t want to be caught dead there (no pun intended).

You see at first look Wakamba has all the makings of a great dive. It has a memorable and quirky name (it’s distinguished after all), plus a Hawaiian meets nautical theme. It’s fully equipped with fish netting, Hawaiian leis, bamboo, paper lanterns, life savers, plastic fish and flowers. It even has a small Catholic altar perched on the side of the front windows, Mets and Yankees jerseys, and a ceiling that looks like the dingy whipped peaks of a frosted cake.

Sounds awesome right?

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You know the gross (and somewhat embarrassing) photo I post of all my lunches at the end of the year?  Inexplicably, Photo Magazine’s new food issue (August 2009, in stores now) thinks it’s “hypnotic” and “sublime”.  “All those beige carbs and and lunch meats form a compelling quilt of everyday eating.” [via Eat Me Daily]

The Serious Eats New York crew hit up the newly opened Mantao Chinese Sandwiches (on 53rd btw. 2+3rd) the other day and posted a pretty comprehensive (and attractive, thanks to the photos of Robyn Lee) look at their offerings:

The sandwiches range from $2.50 to $4.50. They’re dainty things—you’d probably want two for a meal, although one makes a nice snack. The soft and fluffy sesame seed-topped bread is the best part about the sandwiches. The fillings, while not bad, are less memorable (right now, at least; hopefully they’ll improve with time).

From the sound of things I think these guys need a little more time before being subjected to the Midtown Lunch +/-

Related:
Mantao Sandwiches “Official” Opening is Today

Ever since visiting Thailand 2 1/2 years ago I’ve been borderline obsessed with khao soi, the soup-like curry noodle dish topped with pickled cabbage, shallots, lime, and deep-fried crispy egg noodles. Despite all the great Thai food we have in New York, khao soi (being a Chiang Mai specialty) isn’t as ubiquitous here in the states as your pad thai, pad see ew, or the standard curry dishes (red, green, massaman, etc.) According to this post in the forums Sripraphai (unsurprisingly) makes a good version at their restaurant in Queens (I haven’t tried it yet), and I had a decent (but hipster’ish) version at Thai Market on the UWS.

So when I heard last week that Talent Thai (on 34th btw. 2+3rd) specialized in Chiang Mai style dishes, like khao soi, I was pretty excited. And yesterday, I traveled that extra 25 feet outside the Midtown Lunch boundaries to check it out.

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HB Burger (on 43rd btw. B’way+6th) has decided they want to be considered a bona fied Midtown Lunch for one more week! Today was supposed to be the last day for their $9.95 Midtown Lunch special, but they’ve decided to extend the deal for one more week. That’s a cheeseburger plus fries, tator tots, or onion strings for just under $10. Plus, according to this post by Blondie and Brownie, they’ve improved the tator tots. (Or I just got a bum order.) Either way it’s great news! (Now good until July 24th, M-F 11:30am to 5pm.)

Related:
HB Burger May Not be a “Midtown Lunch” But It’s a Damn Good Burger

Twitter is not just for the hipster trucks anymore! Judging from their tweets it’s clear that the Steak Truck (on Park and 47th) hasn’t completely grasped what twitter is all about (“print this ad with code 7787 and get free soda can with any lunch purchase, but you must present this print .from twitter,s web site.”) but it’s a start. And anybody that uses twitter to give out free food stuff is alright with me.

Speaking of getting deals on Twitter, Burger Joint in the Parker Meridien is also using the social networking tool now (@burgerjointnyc) to let people know about specials. On Monday they did an early bird special, $10 for a cheeseburger, fries, and a soda between 11 and 11:45am. No word on when the next one will be.

Can’t bring yourself to sign up for twitter, but wouldn’t mind hearing about deals from the Steak Truck and Burger Joint? They’ve both been added to the Midtown Lunch Twitter Tracker>>

Roy Choi & Lee Anne Wong During Last Month’s Midtown Kogi Invasion

A rumor that had been floating around for a bit was finally confirmed at last night’s Eater panel at the 92YTribeca: Lee Anne Wong is no longer working as the East coast rep for the LA based Kogi BBQ Truck.  According to the former Top Chef contestant “Kogi will be focusing on their West Coast operations” while she moves on to “some very exciting projects down the line.”

So does this mean Kogi in NYC is dead?  Kogi’s Chef Roy Choi had this to say: “I love NYC! We are doing our best but my energies right now are trying to keep the food fresh to def! 55th and Lex….it will go down in history :)” History?  That doesn’t sound too promising.

Could Baja Fresh be our best chance of getting “Kogi” to NYC?

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