Midtown Lunch

My 11:45 am trip to Shake Shack (on 44th and 8th Ave.) on Monday morning was smooth sailing (great for me!), but that relatively short line on the first real day of Midtown Lunch service wasn’t a very good indication of what the mob scene has now become. As the week has gone on reports have poured in between Noon and 2pm from the new Shack- and, no surprise, it can get pretty bad.  It’s only a matter of time before they Disneyland the sidewalk up with a rope line and “Your Wait Time From Here…” signs.  In the meantime, as a service to Midtown Lunch’ers, we have created a thorough guide to determining how long the wait is going to be.

So before you throw your arms up in disbelief and head to Schnipper’s, gauge how long the wait will really be after the jump…

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Photo courtesy of @discskyer

Sad new from Lunch’er Alvin yesterday: “Piece of Chicken doors closed and kitchen gutted.” Even though Piece of Chicken was slightly out of bounds (and there are plenty of other fried chicken options around 8th Ave.), we always loved its pricing model and considered it an honorary Midtown Lunch. We have no clue what happened, but it will be missed.

Today’s Flatiron Lunch is going to be a little different than usual. There’s been a lot of news on the food scene in the area lately and I wanted to catch us all up on the new and upcoming food options.

Upcoming Thai food, Barbecue, Classic Brooklyn Pizza, free desserts and more after the jump.

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FloFab reported it weeks ago, and we just got confirmation that the original location of Soup Kitchen International (the spot on 55th just west of 8th Ave popularized by Seinfeld as the “Soup Nazi”) will reopen on Tuesday at Noon… and according to their website, they’ll be giving away free t-shirts on opening day. The Soup Man’s people offered us a VIP pass to skip the line for free soup (and the T-Shirt as well) but you know we don’t like to do that kind of thing… however, we’ll gladly let them give it to you! Want to win the pass and the shirt? Leave a comment with either your favorite S.K.I. soup (or whichever soup sounds the best to you). We’ll randomly select a winner today at 5pm, so they have time to mail you the prize before Tuesday.

Want to see the opening day soup menu? It’s after the jump…

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• I’m in the mood for a calzone, got a rec? [Midtown Eating]
• Cer Te is now serving a refreshing gazpacho [Midtown Eating]
• RW Recs: Aquavit = Good. Patroon = Meh [Midtown Eating]
• The red mashers at Tri Tip Grill are also awesome [Midtown Eating]

Fights between trucks is nothing new, but fighting with a cop? That’s kind of crazy. The rumors swirling around Midtown today is that on Tuesday an ice cream truck driver got into some kind of “altercation” with a police officer.  Nobody wanted to say exactly what happened, or who started it, but we’ve heard that the ice cream truck driver is now in the hospital- and has been fired from his job.  One thing is for sure, even though the driver wasn’t a licensed Mister Softee vendor (he drove one of the generic trucks) yesterday was a tough day for *all* ice cream vendors in Midtown.

Miss Softee didn’t want to speak on the record about any of this (after all, there’s a saying about vendor fight club) but she did want to point out how unfair it is that one bad driver could ruin it for all the good Mister Softee drivers, trying to follow the rules.

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Blondie is hanging at the Biryani Cart right now (on 46th and 6th), which is being filmed by Food Network Canada for a upcoming series on food carts. (And at Noon they were looking for people to eat on camera!)  Lunchtime is usually a little hectic at the Biriyani Cart, but it’s child’s play compared to what’s going on at the new Shake Shack over on 8th Ave. right now…

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Last month we brought you word that Taste of India had opened next to Carribean Kitchen in 1 Penn Plaza, replacing Bruce’s Burger. While some may lament the loss of a hamburger place, we all know there’s more than enough new burger places popping up in New York these days (ahem, Shake Shack). Some of you in the comments section mentioned that Taste of India is serviceable and it was worthy of investigation because there’s a shortage of Indian options around the Penn Station area. So investigate, I did.

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