Midtown Lunch

Photo courtesy of Robyn Lee/SENY

Back in January FeastNY gave us all a look at the 7 brand new seasonal sandwiches introduced by ‘wichcraft.  We especially liked the pork loin and kale and the new potato and leek fritatta sandwiches, and today Serious Eats: New York finally got around to weighing in. For those of you who don’t feel like clicking through the whole slideshow, we’ll just tell you… their favorite was the shrimp salad.

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 Nicholas, a former Midtown Lunch’er with some good recs for those he left behind on the west side.

Name: Nicholas

Age: 23

Occupation: Usher at the Angelika Film Center

Where in Midtown do you Work?: Now downtown, but used to be in Midtown back when I had a “real” film job over on 45th between 9th and 10th

Favorite Kind of Food: Indian Lunch Buffet, Bubble Tea!

Least Favorite Kind of Food: Sushi (sorry, bros)

Favorite Place(s) to Eat Lunch in Midtown: Chicken “Taco” w/Mixed Vegetables from Good N’ Plenty to Go (Crazy good take-out run by two elderly theater-loving gay men and their all Latino crew on 43rd bet. 9th and 10th.) Cream of Tomato w/Chicken+Orzo Soup w/ Small Baby Spinach/Sundried Tomatoes Salad combo from Hale+Hearty Soups. Chicken Bulgur Wheat Platter w/ Tsatziki, Garlic Sauce, Tahini and Hot Sauce from Meze Grill (on 8th Ave. btw. 55+56th). Grilled Chicken Sandwich w/Mixed Greens, Red Pepper Sauce, Fries from Chicken Bar (guilty pleasure on 8th Ave. btw. 45+46th)

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Sapporo on 49th btw 6+7th holds a soft spot for me. This was THE very first place I had a good meal at when I first moved to the city (from Los Angeles.) I even remember walking down to Times Square to see Terminator 3 (I know I know after my meal there, and I’ve eaten there a few more times since then.  But every time I would get the ramen.  So when Chef Bill Telepan said he liked the cha-han last week and I saw that Amy preferred the tonkatsu curry rice dish over the ramen I realized I had never tried any of their rice dishes before.  Clearly I needed to change that.
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Happy Fat Tuesday! Or Shrove Tuesday or Mardi Gras…in any case today is the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday, which marks the beginning of Lent, a forty-day-long liturgical season of fasting and prayer before Easter. In many countries it’s tradition to eat pancakes or some sort of leavened fatty food (doughnuts etc) on Fat Tuesday because traditionally, all meat and dairy products were forbidden during Lent. Pancakes or doughnuts were a good way of using up the last of those meat, eggs and dairy pantry items. Whether you are preparing to observe Lent or not, here are some picks for where to get your Fat Tuesday on. Read more »

On Friday Fork in the Road posted their top 10 best vegetarian street food dishes, and almost half of them can be found right here in Midtown.  Among their faves was the beet and goat cheese taco from Mexicue, the masala dosa from the Sami Dosa Cart, the chosun bowl from Korilla BBQ, and #1… everything on the menu at Taim Mobile– who was also just named Best Food Truck in New York Magazine’s annual Best of New York issue.

Cupcake Stop Truck, the 2 year old food truck turned brick and mortar success story famously started by a law school grad who couldn’t get a law firm job during the recession, sent out this message via Facebook and Twitter late last night.  No other explanation has been given, and there has been radio silence from Lev (the owner).  Their website has diappeared, and the phone number at their new Greenwich Street location has been disconnected, but according to Grub Street their location in The Limelight is still open (although their phone # is disconnected as well.)

With no explanation, the theories are flowing… a bunch of Facebook commenters think it could be a hack job, but if that were true you’d think that at this point they would have issued a statement letting people know.  Another tipster thought maybe they got their money pulled out from under them?  Maybe Lev finally got that lawyer job?  Regardless of what the reason is, if it turns out to be a money issue we can only hope that will end the seemingly nonstop parade of puff pieces encouraging people to spend their life savings on opening a food truck.  (We’re looking at you Fox & Friends.)

As soon as we hear anything, we’ll let you know.

I’ve been wanting to try Big D’s Grub Truck ever since they came onto the scene back in January, but they tended to spend a good amount of time in Long Island City and Downtown. Downtown Lunch’s Andrea has checked them out a few times, noting that one should go for the pork or meat. When they were in Midtown last week, I saw on their Twitter that they were testing Chili Sesame Chicken and made my way over for some lunch.

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