Midtown Lunch

Burger Joint’s grilled cheese. Photo courtesy of Laura Togut/SENY

• Is Burger Joint’s grilled cheese vegetarian if they cook it on the grill? [SENY]
• Speaking of the Burger Joint… Adam Roberts bids them a fond farewell [Amateur Gourmet]
• Rickshaw Dumpling reveals their food truck parking methods [NYT]
• Korea House’s small order of galbi is $10?  Nice. [Feisty Foodie]
• Check out the salads from Macaron Cafe [SENY]
• Tehuitzingo serves awesome tacos [Food in Mouth]
• Sake Bar Hagi serves tempura pizza!? [Slice]

Cirrosis, the final frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Happy Hour. Her ongoing mission: to explore strange old dives, to seek out sweet deals and new venues, to boldly go where no tourist has gone before!!

I’m Mamacita, your captain on this voyage and I’m looking for a first mate. No, not that type of mate you filthy pervs. We’re looking for someone to join this beer brigade as an additional HHR correspondent. Someone willing to storm those sudsy shores and report back with the best happy hours in Midtown. It won’t be easy, this is no job for the lily-livered, but I know one of you daring drunkards can man-up to the challenge.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it:

• Go to Bars!
• Drink (and maybe eat?)
• Take Blurry Photos
• Write a review that can give our readers a contact buzz

Interested in contributing to Midtown Lunch? Email editor@midtownlunch.com with why you think it should be you.

Just a few weeks ago, Andrea reported that a new Financier Patisserie opened on Fulton Street downtown – that makes 3 in the FiDi. Well, now we discovered (thanks to an email from Tom) that a new location looks to be opening at 245 Park Avenue. The storefront is on 47th Street in the same building as ‘Wichcraft, Oaxaca, and Yushi. There’s no official word on their website about this new location, but I think it’s pretty clear this will be their next (and fifth!) location in Midtown.

Ever since Mooncake Foods opened in my hood, it’s been a reliable Midotown lunch and dinner option – the food is fairly priced, filling, and while it won’t blow you away, it’s consistently tasty. As much as it may irk my ML overlord, Zach Brooks, I’ll push one of the healthier items on their menu, the tofu banh mi ($8).

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As we mentioned a few weeks ago, Beecher’s, Seattle’s Pike Market cheesemonger opened up an outpost on 20th Street and Broadway last month. It’s still on the new side, so today’s post is more of a look around at the place and what they offer.

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Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf isn’t the only west coast coffee spot coming soon to Midtown… Eater reported yesterday that signage for San Francisco’s Blue Bottle has gone up in Rock Center. Their Williamsburg location garners huge lines every day, and Coolhaus sells the stuff on their trucks, but obviously that is no substitute for a permanent location in the heart of Midtown lunching. Their Facebook page says they “have no idea when it’s going to open”, but Eater says it will be sometime this summer. Here’s hoping it will be in time for us to enjoy their amazing iced coffees in this ridiculously hot weather.

Blondie and Clay have shown us a bit of the sweet and savory sides of Paris Baguette, but on a day like today it’s all about their frozen treats. Read more »

Just because we’re afraid that fully legalizing food trucks might open the door to a corporatization of street food, doesn’t mean we don’t want to show support.  In fact it’s important that the government knows that for every complaint they receive about food trucks (likely from brick and mortar businesses), there are scores of consumers who love and support those same trucks. Doing this will help ensure that the city thinks twice about passing new laws to further restrict street vending, and will hopefully help to encourage them to be a little more lax about enforcing the laws that currently exist.

The New York City Food Truck Association has created a petition that does just that.  Show your support and sign it today!