Midtown Lunch

Photos courtesy of Lunch’er “nomnomnyc”

Thanks to Luncher “nomnomnyc” for posting in the forums about this new taco truck that has shown up near Penn Station (on the corner of 31st and 7th Avenue.) It’s just out of ML bounds and the selection seems to be limited, but given how woefully under-served the area is for Tacos, I’m willing to go the extra block for some carnitas that don’t come from Chipotle.

More photos, the menu, and a brief report is after the jump.

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Photo courtesy of Blondie and Brownie

• Saturday is the best day for doughnuts at Bouchon Bakery [Blondie and Brownie]
• Sakagura has a great $11.50 lunch special [Food Mayhem]
• Midtown has 3 of the top 10 ramen spots in the city [Feed Blog]
• Burger Joint = Non Touristy?  You’re on crack. (It is good though!) [Amateur Gourmet]
• 57 Napoli has a 2 for 1 happy hour drink deal [Wined and Dined]

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.

In my eternal pursuit of the lofty and elusive goal of finding the finest midtown burger and beer happy hour I have encountered many highs and lows. From the juicy goodness of Muldoons to the blackened hockey pucks of Coppersmith’s. I have tasted both the joy of victory and the agony of defeat. I’ve considered price comparisons and budgetary restrictions. The cheaper the better, the bigger the better, and the cheapskate’s fallback: quantity over quality for that is the ML way. Foods that lift you up above the mediocre and pedestrian, meals that make your coworkers jealous, and in my case, drinks that make your coworkers want to stay in Midtown after office hours.

Ladies and gentlemen there is now a new contender in the ring.

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Totally forgot to mention this… my trip to 57 Napoli Pizza e Vino wasn’t all bad. The deli downstairs sells a motley arrangement of quality baked goods: a selection of macarons from Macaron Cafe, various super-large cookies from Eleni’s, and morning pastries from Ceci-Cela. On my way out, I picked up a chocolate and salted caramel macaron that tasted fresh enough (even though the salted caramel had shamrocks on it.) A great find for sweets lovers in Midtown North…

C’est Bon Cafe, 120 E. 57th (btw. Mad+Park), 212-888-7272

Every time a new pizza place opens in Midtown I get hopeful that we will be one step closer to ending the Midtown pizza debate once and for all. 57 Napoli Pizza E Vino seemed promising enough but a bit too expensive, until they introduced the $6 10-inch personal pizza made with fresh mozzarella. It seemed too good to be true.

Could this be the Midtown Lunch fancy pizza savior we’ve been waiting for?

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Now that Downtown has its very own section of the site, what are we going to post on Fridays at 10am? Answer… how about a new column devoted to those lunches just south of the ML boundaries. Please give a warm welcome to Jason Lam from the blog Me So Hungry. Every Friday at 10am he’ll post about lunches in Murray Hill south, Grammercy, Flatiron, and everything in between… or as we’ll call it from now on: Flatiron Lunch.

The early media blitz for the new No. 7 Sub shop at the Ace Hotel did it’s job, so much so that that they ran out of bread during their soft opening. Yesterday was their official “opening day” and I checked in to find out what every Midtown Luncher wants to know (at least of those of us who work around there) are these fancy, hipster hotel lobby subs worth the $9 price tag and the hype.
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• Who doesn’t want a nice Belgium Trappist Ale with their drugstore sushi? [Midtown Eating]
• It’s just out of bounds, but…$2 falafel alert! (although Luncher “Goats” wishes there had been more balls) [Midtown Eating]
• Mustang Cafe has joined the $5 lunch trend for this week only. I hope they extend it! [Midtown Eating]
• The ML happy hour meetup on Tuesday included a Shake Shack glutton fest (and there’s video) [Midtown Connections]