Midtown Lunch

Every Tuesday we turn over the site to a different Midtown Lunch’er for his or her recommendations for the best lunch in Midtown. This week it’s Chris, an Editor who loves comfort food and hates fake bacon.

Name: Chris

Age: 29

Occupation: Editor

Where in Midtown do you Work?: Park in the high 40s.

Favorite Kind of Food: The food I eat most often is cereal. But my favorite is “comfort food.” I love fried chicken and bbq even though I don’t eat either that often. I’ve entered a few chili cookoffs and have been known to put out a mean Thanksgiving spread in months other than November. As far as lunch goes, I’m very content with a good sandwich.

Least Favorite Kind of Food: Hmmm…. When eating in Midtown, my biggest pet peeve is really just lack of value. If I’m not going to eat the canned soup or leftovers that I brought from home then my overpriced meal better be nap inducing. Overall, my least favorite foods are tofu and fake meat. I’m all for vegetarian options and mixing in a salad now and again, but it drives me up the slaughterhouse wall when people who have opted not to eat meat, especially if it’s for moral reasons, try to make their food look and taste like meat. “Thou shalt make no false bacon” is a food commandment of mine.

Favorite Place(s) to Eat Lunch in Midtown: The roast beef and mozzarella sandwich that is available on Tuesdays and Thursdays at Previti Pizza (on 41st btw. Lex+Park) is probably my favorite at the moment. Something that I usually only get in Midtown and absolutely love is a good Indian buffet. It’s something that I don’t usually treat myself to unless there is some sort of occasion but I’m always happy when I do.

“Go-To” Lunch Place You and Your Coworkers Eat at Too Often? Steak Truck seems to be very popular as do the generic salad places up and down Lex. I end up at the Pinnacle Deli (on 3rd btw. 45+46th) too often. The “A” special (breaded chicken cutlets, swiss, bacon, lettuce tomato, mustard on flat bagel or hero) will shorten your life and your afternoon and is a once-a-month guilty pleasure.

Place(s) you discovered thanks to Midtown Lunch? Jeez, I don’t even know where to start. My waistline and the breadth of Midtown eating options have both expanded exponentially due to ML. I guess, my biggest “discovery” was the overall viability of cart food in the days before the fancy-schmancy carts arrived. Also, El Rey del Sabor.

If you could work anywhere (just because of the lunch) where would it be and why? San Diego, maybe. I could eat fish tacos all day long and take sunny lunch hours every day. That would be nice. For something more mundane, I have a friend who is on the road all day in North NJ and he can pick and choose from Fiore’s in Hoboken, Rutt’s Hutt in Clifton, Taqueria in Jersey City and a handful of top-notch pizza joints across the Hudson. It might not be glamorous but it sounds delicious.

Is there anything you’d like to ask the Midtown Lunch readers? Gosh, so many things. Where is the best burrito? Which deli has the best fresh mozzarella on its sandwiches? Where is the best place to sit down with my lunch so that I don’t end up eating back at my desk?

Got answers for Chris? Put them in the comments. And, as always, if you would like to be next week’s Profiled: Midtown Lunch’er (or know somebody you’d like to nominate), email editor@midtownlunch.com.