Midtown Lunch

I can’t say I’ve had any interest in the 99¢ pizza trend. Cheap is good, tasting good is better. Still, I have to admit some morbid curiosity when passing the new 99¢ pizza shop that’s opened up in the old K! Pizzacone location. If I could try that abomination, how bad could this be? As I waited though, I glanced at the menu and saw a single other option on the menu: a Jamaican beef patty available with cheese and pizza toppings.

I hadn’t had one of those since my high school days when every pizza joint sold slices for a dollar. It’s greasy and spicy and cheesy, I had to try it out after all these years and see if it was actually any good.

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Today is National Holiday in Belgium, and to celebrate Wafels & Dinges will be giving out free tastings of their newest ice cream flavor, Belgian Madness. The ice cream is made with honey, lemon and Hoegaarden beer and while they’ve been serving it for a few weeks now, today is the official launch day. Plus between Noon and 1pm you can get a free cone of the stuff (or you can get it as a gratis topping on a waffle) at all their carts and trucks. The truck should be parked on 46th between 5th and 6th (if they don’t get shooed by the cops like last week) and they have a cart on 40th Street between 7th and 8th Avenue. Just be sure to check the ML Twitter Tracker before you head out.  (Photo courtesy of Blonde & Brownie)

Do you wonder what the ML contributors do when they’re not eating lunch in Midtown? (They’re actually pretty easy to stalk!)

The notorious foie gras doughnut at Do or Dine.

In light of the sweltering weather, Brian tracked down the most beautiful cone in the world and Blondie lunched on ice cream sandwiches from The Good Batch; Donny made himself a pretty delicious looking pork chop sandwich, Brownie checked out the new veggie pita on the Souvlaki Truck GR menu, Chris had Tibetan food in Queens and I had all sorts of good stuff at Bed-Stuy’s Do or Dine.

Around the ML Universe, Andrea had some great looking falafel, Jamie had home-style Polish food and Zach talked LA lunch options on KCRW’s Good Food (which you can listen to here).

Potbelly Sandwich Shop, the Chicago transplant whose first NYC location opened Downtown last month, opened their second location today on 44th btw. Lex+3rd and as expected the crowds are no joke despite some pretty nasty heat (they were giving out water to people in line, though).  It took me about 25 minutes from getting on line to leaving with sandwich in hand.  Glorified Subway?  Only time will tell.  Were you there?  What did you think?  Let us know in the comments…

Taste of Summer has returned for the next couple of days, giving us another chance to sample some of the best Rock Center has to offer. Last year, Chris stopped by and got an early taste of Bill’s Bar & Burgers. This year, you can get a taste of the new Rock Center concourse pizza place Harry’s, which is scheduled to open in the beginning of August. All of the Rock Center lunch spots are there: ‘wichcraft, Cucina & Co, AJ Maxwell’s, ML favorite Tri Tip, and even Manchu Wok with a $4.99 special. I would have loved if they were offering a nice little buffet, but logistics probably got in the way.

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For some reason Midtown east just isn’t blessed by the abundance of street meat carts like in Midtown west. It may just be where I work but so far I have only seen NY Biryani Express, XPL and this blue Halal cart on 46th & 3rd. Does anyone know the name of this cart? I couldn’t find their name.

One day I decided to check out Jerk Pan after spotting them a week earlier on Park Ave. Though once I got to the spot, they were nowhere to be found (I wonder if they were kicked out by the cops as well?) On my walk back to 3rd Ave, I saw the blue Halal cart and decided to give them a try.

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