Midtown Lunch

I happened to walk past the generic salad bar/deli, Tomato (52nd St between Lexington & 3rd Ave.), and noticed they’ve been shuttered by the DOH with a whopping 93 violation points. Although we’ve never tried to food here, our condolences go out to the lunchers who relied on this place for their sushi, sandwich, and salad needs as well as the people that risked food poisoning by actually eating here.

3rd Ave between 57th & 58th St is getting a couple of new lunch options this summer, and both seem to be a little more forward thinking than your average deli. On the east side of the street, a Mediterranean concept called “BarBanzo” will be opening soon. The google didn’t turn up anything definitive about this place, but it seems like their menu will likely focus on falafel. On the west side of 3rd Ave, Naked Pizza is a slightly more interesting opening. Founded in New Orleans shortly after Hurricane Katrina, and backed by investors Mark Cuban and Robert Kraft, the chain has expanded to over 25 locations across the US, as well as presence in Dubai.

They seem to have embraced the healthy, organic, sustainable, whole wheat pizza model (looks like Pizza by Certe will have some competition). They’re also big into the social media game, one article interestingly quoting the owners saying that, “Naked Pizza isn’t a pizza company, but a social media company that sells pizza”. So for the lunchers of Midtown East that have been craving more garbanzo beans, or eco-friendly, healthy, whole wheat, preservative-free, organic social media pizza, time to get excited.

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 Richard, a food truck loving retirement planner who loves spicy sandwiches.

Name: Richard

Occupation: Retirement Actuary

Where in Midtown do you Work?: Madison in the 40s

Favorite Kind of Food: I could never narrow it down to one specific kind, so here is the smorgasbord of my faves: sushi, spicy thai, burgers of all varieties, BBQ , smoked salmon, anything from a Midtown food truck, all things breakfast (can you say loaded omelettes along with some bacon and toast?), and simply trying a new cuisine or dish to see what else this city has to offer! Oh, and anything that I put Sriracha on…which is just about everything.

Least Favorite Kind of Food: Coconuts. They are hard to open for a reason – take the hint people.

Favorite Place(s) to Eat Lunch in Midtown: I love the food trucks around Midtown; top honors has to go to Taim Mobile. I didn’t even know that I liked falafel before having this truck and now I can’t get enough of their falafel sandwiches! Also Uncle Gussy’s has the best chicken/lamb over rice – even over the 53rd & 6th Halal guys. Some other places I love for lunch include Mexicue, Schnitzel & Things (chicken schnitz sandwich or cod schnitz platter), Eddie’s Pizza Truck (best bar pie), Jiannetto’s Pizza truck (best chicken parm sandwich), the Steak Truck (habanero steak sandwich ftw), and Frites N’ Meats for their burgers.

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Based on an ongoing forum discussion about cheese steaks in Midtown in the forums got my attention, and jogged my memory a bit. I recalled that Pizza by Certe had a menu item called the “Brooklyn Cheesesteak” ($8.50), which I’d been meaning to try. Try I did, and found that calling this thing a ‘cheese steak’ is a bit of a misnomer.

There’s cheese sure enough – gooey strands of mozzarella, which bind together tender strips of roasted peppers and tomato sauce. But there’s no actual steak in this sandwich. Instead, they use plump and fluffy meatballs, which turned out to be tremendously meaty, competently seasoned, and velvety smooth. It’s a tasty sandwich, but a cheese steak (in the traditional sense) it is not. Then again, with meatballs this good you don’t miss the steak.

Pizza by Certe, 132 East 56th St. (btw. Park+Lex)

Did you see the crazy late afternoon food truck news yesterday (seemingly ripped from Friday night’s episode of CSI: New York!?)  After serving up lunch yesterday on 46th btw. 6+7th, the Frites N Meats Truck exploded on the West Side Highway en route to serving dinner in Tribeca. It’s not entirely clear what caused the explosion (DNAinfo mentions something about the truck getting into an accident with a car, while the New York Daily News makes it sound like propane tanks on the truck spontaneously caught fire and exploded) but the two employees on the truck were taken to the hospital with “serious but not life threatening” injuries. The owner Hiassam checked in late last night with this update:

We can’t believe this happened, we are shocked…  My brother, Mohamed got banged up pretty good, he will be in the hospital for a short while, everyone else is ok.  But thank God it was not worse. If you publish anything, please Thank everyone for us, the fans, the twitter followers and especially the FDNY, NYPD and EMS. Please Thank them for us. Yes…the truck is destroyed but in the long run, everyone will be fine (it could have been worse.)

Obviously the truck will be off the streets indefinitely, and we wish Mohamed a speedy recovery.

Photo and tip courtesy of @cardamond

Nino’s isn’t the only sad news today… borek specialist Djerdan (on 38th btw. 7+8th) has closed, and is being replaced by a second location of Da Giulio. The Djerdan website confirms that the location has been taken over by new owners, but implies that you will still be able to get your borek on. Seems unlikely, though, looking at the menu from the original Da Giulio on Lex btw. 30+31st. Huge fans can still head out to one of Djerdan’s other locations in Astoria, Brooklyn, Jersey and, soon, the Bronx.

Terrible news from Lunch’er Chris about one of our oldest Midtown Lunches… “Nino’s on 46th btwn 5th and 6th burned down this weekend!!  Apparently early saturday they had a grease fire and the whole place went up.  There were only a few tables and everyone got out safely.  I just sat with the lady who owns it hugging her as she stood outside with the widows boarded up.  They were always the most friendly people and made you really feel at home.  Not to mention they had great pasta and sandwiches as well.  She says they plan to reopen, although not sure when.”

Related:
Nino’s Is a Hidden Chicken Parm Gem (Only To Me)

Freeloaders, tomorrow (Tuesday, April 12th) is this year’s Free Cone Day at Ben & Jerry’s. Details are the same as in years past–free cones are offered from noon until 8pm. Lines tend to be busiest at lunch and towards the end of the day but generally move quickly. According to their Scoop Shop search engine the Rock Center Concourse branch is participating as is the one on the 4th fl of Macy’s.

Speaking of Clusterfluffs, I noticed the other day when I walked by Ben & Jerry’s that in addition to the new Late Night Snack flavor they have another new one called Clusterfluff.

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If there’s anything worse than a gimmicky restaurant in Midtown, it must be a Midtown restaurant with an overabundance of gimmicks. 4Food (Madison btw. 40+41st) arrived on the scene last year with a semi-healthy (?) burger concept called (W)holeburgers featuring patties with holes in them, along with a multitude of creative sandwich toppings, an industrial chic look (complete with iPad stations), space age packaging, and an aggressive social networking strategy. None of that made me anxious to try it, but it was one of their other gimmicks that finally got me in the door, and convinced me to create a Midtown Lunch inspired burger – their Billboard-esque chart of customer burger creations.

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