Midtown Lunch

It’s time for the 3rd Annual Midtown Lunch Readers’ Poll. Your nominations are in, and between now and the end of the year I’ll be asking all of you to vote for the best Midtown Lunches in a whole range of categories. You can only vote once per category (so choose wisely), and official results will be posted after the new year.

Let’s kick this thing off with a big one, shall we? Best burger. With a full year under its belt, did Five Guys do enough to overtake perennial favorite, the Burger Joint? Can the deep fried awesomeness of the schnitzel burger overcome the fact that you can only eat it once a month (at most.) Whichever spot wins, one thing is for sure… now that the Shake Shack is on its way, this could be the last year this award is up for grabs. The nominees are:

• Burger Joint at the Parker Meridien (on 56th btw. 6+7th)
• Carnegie John’s Cart (on 56th & 7th Ave.)
• Five Guys (Multiple Locations)
• Goodburger (Multiple Locations)
• Schnitzel & Things (Multiple Locations)

Vote for your favorite after the jump…

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Put away your stop watches and metro cards and complex maps with the quickest route to Madison Square Park, because this news is huuuuge. There’s a big article in this mornings New York Times about Danny Meyer and his growing Shake Shack empire, and it includes the bombshell that Midtown is getting its own Shake Shack! It’s going to be on 44th and 8th, and will open next year along with new locations in Soho, the UES, and Miami Beach. The Times solicited a reaction from Schnipper’s Quality Kitchen, which is just a few blocks away from where the new Shake Shack will go, and unsurprisingly have expansion plans of their own (the owners of Schnipper’s founded Hale & Hearty soup.) They were said to be “sanguine”, which could be code for “deliriously in shock.” I know I am!!! [Photo and Story courtesy of Eater]

Related:
Both Shake Shack’s Are Do-Able From Midtown in 60 Mins

The brand new version of Article 89 of the Health Code of NYC, which now outlaws all seafood, fish, and shellfish from being prepared or sold by street vendors, takes effect in just 15 days. And as yesterday’s news makes its way through the vendor community (and those love it) it’s looking more and more like the Department of Health slipped this rule in under our noses. A small percentage of vendors in New York City sell seafood, and some might be able to get rid of it without a huge impact on their bottom line- like the tianbula from the NYC Cravings Truck (“chicken and pork chops are our bread and butter”). But for vendors like the Schnitzel Truck and Kwik Meal, (and street food lovers like us) it’s a far bigger deal.

Schnitzel Truck owner Oleg had this to say:

“If fish is stored, prepared and sold properly, why is it assumed to be more dangerous than meat or poultry that can also easily spoil if not kept under proper conditions. We feel that our cod schnitzel is a great addition to the menu and adds another dimension to the overall experience of eating from a food truck. There are numerous customers that only eat the cod from us and we feel terrible that we’ll have to remove it from the menu.”

I also spoke to Kwik Meal owner Muhammad Rahman, and he seemed genuinely speechless that he might have to give up selling something he’s been cooking for years.

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The Times Square toilet paper sponsored pop up restrooms are baaaaaaack! (Insert “plop” up jokes here.)  Just another of the many reasons I love hate love to hate just have to laugh at working in Midtown this time of year.

More news from the newly renovated Chicken House (on 36th btw. 7+8th) which is hoping to reopen next week.  I just got a copy of their new menu, and it’s twice as big as the original.  There are still super cheap platters of fried chicken, fried fish, fried shrimp and fried crabsticks… but the new Chicken House will also have Vietnamese banh mi, pho, and bun! If it’s good, this could end up being huge news! Check out the complete Vietnamese portion of the menu after the jump.

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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 excited to welcome Moira, the brains behind Rum and Blackbird a brand new food walking tour company in Hell’s Kitchen.

Name: Moira

Age: 28

Occupation: Tasting Tour Tycoon

Where in Midtown do you Work?: Rum & Blackbird Tasting Tours in Hell’s Kitchen – I know 9th Avenue is technically out of bounds for midtown lunch, but I do find myself venturing into the thick of midtown for the right food, especially if its something Mediterranean or barbecued.

Favorite Kind of Food: Savory pastries and meat pies

Least Favorite Kind of Food: Salisbury steak and over-cooked salmon.

Favorite Place(s) to Eat Lunch in Midtown: This list is a bit 9th Avenue focused: Xie Xie (on 9th btw. 45+46th) for their sweet glazed pork bun, Poseidon Bakery (on 9th Ave. btw. 44+45th) for their spanakopita and tiropita. Inside midtown, Akdeniz (on 46th btw. 5+6th) for hummus and babba ganoush and Virgil’s BBQ for BBQ trash riblets.

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If this is wrong, than I don’t want to be right…

I’m all for the Department of Health making sure our food is safe to eat, but this is ridiculous!  Apparently at the end of last year, the Department of Health adopted a resolution that rewrote many parts of the health code as it pertains to street vendors.  It takes effect January 1st of this year, and if enforced it’s going to have a huge effect on Midtown Lunch’ing.  Namely, no more fish, shellfish, or seafood from street vendors.  Here it is direct from the newly rewritten Article 89:

§89.19 f(2) Fish. No fish, shellfish, or any food consisting of or made with an aquatic animal, as defined in Article 81, shall be prepared, stored, held for service or sold from a mobile food vending unit.

The full ramifications of this are just sinking into my brain right now, and it’s easy to joke about the “safety” of eating seafood from a truck. But think about all the great seafood options being offered right now from carts and trucks in Midtown alone… the fried cod from the Schnitzel Truck, Tianbula from the NYC Cravings Truck, and the always delicious salmon and tilapia served by Kwik Meal (shown above.) And worst of all, what the hell is Kim’s Aunt Kitchen Cart going to sell?! This must be some kind of a bad dream.

And that’s not all.

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