Midtown Lunch

Photo courtesy of @UrbanLobster

The Urban Lobster Shack’s Twitter account has been pretty active since they opened their new Midtown location. Just before New Year’s they took over the little take out space in the basement food court on 3rd Ave. btw. 49+50th, that used to be occupied by Yorganic, and since then they’ve been sending out messages about mascots, shrimp & mussels lunch specials, and of course the $10 lobster roll. In this world you always get you pay for, but the under $10 lobster roll has a special place in my heart. I wrote about the one at Fairway for Serious Eats, and always dreamed that eventually Midtown would get its own.

Did I expect beautiful big lumps of lobster meat, no filler, and a fully intact claw adorning the top? Of course not. I’d settle for a decent size sandwich, that tastes somewhat like lobster. (What can I say… for $10 you have to lower your standards.) Thankfully Urban Lobster Shack doesn’t disappoint.

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Got this message from Lunch’er “Michael” the other day: “A new cart opened on 53red and Park. Its an “international soup” and “halal” cart that offer 9 soups daily plus a special. 12oz = $4.50, 16oz = 5.50 32oz = 9.50. The guy running it was very nice and generous with the samples.” Turns out the cart is from a newish soup restaurant in College Point Queens called the Herb International Soup Factory. It’s got great reviews on Chow and Chowhound, and like Michael said they’re willing to give you a sample of any of the soups. I tried a taste of the pumpkin soup yesterday, which was really tasty and more of a savory squash soup than the sweet orange goop you’d expect. Super interesting, and a great change of pace from the red signed Hot Soup carts that have come to dominate the Midtown soup scene. It’s parked on the NW corner of 53rd & Park (where the Mexican burrito cart used to be.)

Wafels & Dinges isn’t the only truck in Midtown to make some New Year’s changes. The Jiannetto’s Pizza Truck (on 45th btw. Park+Mad) has added some new items to their menu for the first time in… well… as long as I can remember. The biggest news is, they’re now serving proper torpedo shaped chicken and meatball parm heroes. (The original versions were served on these smaller round rolls.) And, in a Papa Perrone twist of student schooling the teacher, they will make the hero on garlic bread for an extra $1. In addition to the sandwiches, they’ve also added a fresh mozzarella vodka pie, a chicken vodka roll, and a pepperoni roll.

Related:
Jiannetto’s Pizza Truck (Original Post 8/28/06)
Papa Perrone Will Put Any Hero You Want on Garlic Bread

The Wafels & Dinges Truck has decided to mix things up at the beginning of the new year by changing up their schedule.  Here’s where and when you can expect to find them in Midtown:

Tuesday: 58th betw Lex & 3rd
Wednesday: 52nd betw 6 & 7 / alternating with Financial District
Thursday: 46th betw 5th & closer to 6th (previous Thursday spot was on 45th)
Friday: Broadway & 60th

They’re also still serving their croque monsieur, which I tried just before the New Year… and let me tell you it is one big hot mess (in the best possible way.)  Check it out after the jump…

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If 2009 was the year of the food truck, 2010 might be remembered as the year of the food marketing truck.  Earlier this afternoon we reported that Daniel Boulud/NBC promotion happening on Feb. 8th, and now there’s this.  2010 Winter Restaurant Week kicks off on January 25th, and for added promotion it will include a NYC Restaurant Week Truck, which will travel around Manhattan during lunch “offering gourmet soup from various NYC Restaurant Week participants.”  Naturally, you’ll be able to track the truck on Twitter.  [via SE:NY]

Earlier today Eater broke the huuuuuge news that Bill’s Bar & Burger will be moving into the old Tuscan Square space (on 51st btw. 5+6th.)  I sampled their smashed burger craziness in the Meatpacking District a few months ago, and from my one experience fall firmly on the “love it” side. (There has been a vocal backlash since the initial great reviews.)  It doesn’t matter which side of the debate you fall on, when combined with the Shake Shack news from last month 2010 is already shaping up to be a burgerrific year for Midtown!  The new Bill’s is slated to open in “a few months”.

Remember last April when NBCNewYork put David Chang into a street cart downtown to promote their new website? Well, they’re at it again.  We’re hearing from a very good source that on Feburary 8th Daniel Boulud “and friends” will be hijacking a food truck to promote the launch of NBC’s new restaurant site. “It’ll be a bonafide truck, stopping at various unannounced locations through out the city.” And unlike the Chang thing, they are guaranteeing a Midtown stop. (My vote is for charcuterie sandwiches!)

When Lan Sheng first put up their sign up back in September (on 39th btw. 5+6th), I was pretty skeptical. Were these people crazy? Opening a Sichuan restaurant across the street from New York Times 2 starred Szechuan Gourmet seemed like suicide. How could they possibly match up? The regular menu had some tasty looking stuff on it, but their lunch specials seemed a bit Americanized in contrast to S.G.- which offers a good number of their best Sichuan specialties as lunch specials (twice cooked pork belly with chili and leeks I’m looking in your general direction…)

I suppose with S.G. packed every day for lunch they could hope for some spillover, but after trying out the place just before the New Year I think it’s safe to say they’re not hoping for spillover. They have the potential to be doing some major customer poaching from their rivals across the street.

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