Midtown Lunch

• Sure you eat street meat, but what’s your take on street fruit? [Midtown Eating]
• With Carnegie John M.I.A., I need a Greek street meat alternative [Midtown Eating]
• Damn! The commenters in the forums can be ruthless [Midtown Eating]
• The next ML happy hour is April 27th, cast your vote on the venue by the 20th! [Midtown Connections]

We know it doesn’t look like it from this photo, but the long awaited Pizza by Cer Te will be opening a week from today (Thursday, 4/22) on 56th btw. Lex+3rd.  And if the sandwiches and pizza from the mothership (Cer Te, on 55th btw. 5+6th) are any indication, this should be a great addition to the Midtown Lunch’ing landscape.  (Especially for those who work in the particularly desolate area of NE Midtown.) As announced last year, the pizza spot will also be environmentally friendly, and yet still manages to keep slices and sandwiches under $10.

Check our the menu, after the jump…

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Last week Lunch’er Christene floated the idea of a banh mi tasting in the connections section of the forums. Yesterday 7 Midtown Lunchers gathered in Grand Central to turn her dream into a reality. Here is Christene’s report…

With open minds and empty stomach, 7 Midtown lunchers gathered to rate 7 different banh mi-style sandwiches in a head-to-head competition. To ensure nuance and balance in the competition, representative banh mi’s were to include Chinatown (Paris Sandwich, Banh Mi Saigon), East Village (Nicky’s), Gramercy (Baoguette) and, of course, Midtown (Ma Peche, Yushi, and Boi To Go). We rated the sandwiches with 5 points assigned to each of 6 categories: bread, pork, vegetables, overall taste, authenticity and value. To ensure purveyors and/or price-point did not prejudice the taste ratings, we labeled sandwiches A-G and provided price on the flip side of post-its, so that tasters could self-reveal price after eating the sample and thus rate value independently.

The results are after the jump…

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Sorry for the schmear-my lens had a run-in with BBQ sauce

Two very important things happened to Midtown yesterday. 1) We got the Double Down (and Mamacita immediately improved it), and 2) we got steak sandwiches! While I loves me some fried chicken, biscuits, cheese, and bacon, I love steak more. I especially like when it’s a somewhat affordable lunch. Tri Tip Grill is probably the most important thing to happen to Rockefeller Center since the ice rink, and maybe NBC calling it home, and the tree; so it’s the 4th most important thing. But it’s number one in most delicious and juicy!

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There’s nothing more miserable than standing in line at the post office, unless it’s standing in line at the post office on Tax Day. For those of you haven’t e-filed and find yourselves in the unfortunate position of heading to the city’s main post office to mail in your returns, might I suggest a side trip to the slightly out of bounds NY Pizza Suprema for a fortifying slice?

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Thanks to Jean for pointing this one out in the forums! Mia Dona (the upscale Italian restaurant on 58th btw. 2+3rd) is launching a “meatball cart” on Friday.  According to Diner’s Journal the meatballs are “slow braised in ragu, smothered in caciocavallo cheese, garnished with arugula and sandwiched between two squares of homemade potato-ricotta foccacia.”  Sandwiched between two pieces of focaccia, the meatballs will cost $6, without the bread $5.  And according to Fork in the Road the cart will be open from Noon to 2pm. Sounds pretty awesome.

In honor of tax day (that’s today, by the way, for all you procrastinators), there is all sorts of free stuff being given away. The big one is Energy Kitchen, who will once again be giving away free lunch with the purchase of a beverage from Noon to 2pm. You get your choice of a Bison Cheesesteak Wrap, California Wrap or Buffalo Chicken Burger. That’s not the only thing going on though… if you’re looking for something after work, McCormick & Schmick’s is doing $10.40 specials at the bar (and giving out $10.40 gift certificates.)  And finally there’s free drip coffee from Starbucks all day (as long as you bring your own mug), and free mini cupcakes at Cinnabon from 4-6pm 6-8pm.

Do you wonder what our new ML contributors do when they’re not eating lunch in Midtown? (They’re actually pretty easy to stalk!)

Photo courtesy of Blondie and Brownie

Brownie was at Ippudo in the EV loving on the pork filled “special ramen”, while her partner in crime, Blondie, was buying chocolate covered pork at Roni Sue’s in the LES to make cookies for this weekend’s Great American Bake Sale to benefit Share our Strength. Ultraclay finds pernil goodness in Chelsea.  Danny is in France eating rillettes (lucky!)  Jason tried the pork belly while brunching at Diner in Brooklyn. And our own Amy Cao was featured in the New York Daily News!