Midtown Lunch

Yesterday Cer Te (on 55th btw. 5+6th) introduced their latest sandwich of the month, and it’s a doozy. Designed by Lunch’er “Jeffrey”, it’s called the “Deep In the Heart ‘Attack’ of Texas” and features (are you sitting down for this?) chicken fried steak, creamed gravy, and layer of mac and cheese sandwiched between two pieces of Texas toast.  The sandwich is $8.95 and will be available until August 12th (or until it kills somebody.)

Eater reported on Friday that the health-focused Canadian chain Freshii closed their one NYC location. I walked by later in the day and, sure enough, the place is vacant – no salad or brown rice in sight. The lime green infrastructure remains, but the Freshii marquee is gone, as is most of the furniture inside. Their website no longer lists a New York location and a sign outside indicates that it is in fact closed but promises to return at an unnamed hour. I’d be surprised if Freshii did indeed show up again in Midtown. Aside from the opening week when they gave away quite a bit of free food, I don’t think it did too much steady business. Just below Times Square, it was probably not recognizable enough for tourists and it seemed a little too generic for us Midtown Lunchers.

While on the quest to find a spot for a good cup of coffee (I know I could just walk into one of the many delis in the area for a cup of $1 coffee but once in awhile you want something better), I discovered Manhattan Espresso Cafe on 49th btw. Lex+3rd. After digging a little further, I realized that besides having coffee, pastries and donuts they have sandwiches as well. I decided to check this place out and see whats up.

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For years we’ve been telling people to look for the logo’d plastic yellow bags as a way of distinguishing the Famous Halal Guys on 53rd & 6th from would be imposters.  Well it looks like they’ve done us one better!  We received an email from Luncher Stacey last week, who received this lovely tote bag along with her order of street meat. It matches the yellow color of their shirts and is given out (usually at night) for big orders. They’ve actually had them for about a year (how did we not know this!?), but will now sell them for a dollar if you ask for them specifically. Not only is it a cheap, environmental way of bringing your food back to the office, but you’ll also be the envy of all your friends.

Food from El Guyaquileno Truck. Photo Courtesy of Jason Lam/Me So Hungry

• Navigating the menu at El Guayaquileno Truck [Me So Hungry]
• Earl of Sandwich plans to open in early August [DNAinfo]
• Bouchon Bakery’s tuna sandwich is very light [Ramen & Friends]
• You can’t use your Groupon at the Maoz on 8th Ave. [Tasty Eating]
• The spicy pork sando at Big D’s Grub Truck is gooood [Skinny Pig]
• Kelvin Slush one year in [Eater]
• Big Gay Ice Cream’s Bryan likes Royal Thai Cuisine 2 on 36th [Grub St]

If you like to eat, chances are you like to drink (read: a lot of you are freakin’ lushes), so I thought maybe it was time to introduce a happy hour column to the site. Every Friday afternoon our Happy Hour Correspondent “Mamacita” will post about a different bar in Midtown that fits the Midtown Lunch mentality: unhealthy food, not lame (unless it’s lame in a cool way), and most importantly… cheap.

A few months after I wrote that McCormick’s was one of the best food happy hours, our long time commenter Adam posted that:

“I went here tonight with a friend. The burger was fantastic for $3.95 (NOTE: Yes, it seems that they raised the price a buck, but it was still damn good). Best $4 burger I’ve ever had, and for $4 I will be back again. The burger was a perfect medium-rare, big, and juicy, and did I mention $4? This could easily become a bad habit. “

There is nothing wrong with a $4 burger, even Blarney Stone can’t beat that. I figured enough time had passed by that I should follow up on McCormick’s burger at the bar special and see what other changes had been made.

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Arepas are something I look forward to eating when I head downtown or when I find myself in Brooklyn or Queens. But I never think about eating them in Midtown. I suppose the reason is that the Venezuelan/Colombian specialities are not easily available in this neck of the woods. That is until Shachi’s Arepas To-Go opened a few weeks ago. The NY Times just reported the opening this week, but the guy working the counter told me they’ve been there for more than a month already. How did we miss this? I guess it was slightly confusing because it seems this is the sister restaurant to one that recently closed in Williamsburg. And the website and Yelp reviews make it sound like this is a sit-down restaurant in Hell’s Kitchen that’s been around for years. Hm.

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