Midtown Lunch

Anybody who has read this site for any length of time knows how much I love street carts and food trucks.  For 5+ years Midtown Lunch has celebrated, promoted, and advocated for the great street food in New York City.  But it might surprise some to discover that I don’t actually want to see food trucks (or any street food for that matter) fully legalized in Midtown. And you can read why in this op-ed I wrote for the New York Times.

• Pizza by Cer Te serves fried spaghetti balls!? [Midtown Eating]
• Carnegie John is back [Midtown Eating]
• The 2nd Ave. Bon Chon is supposed to open this month [Midtown Eating]
• Street Meat Palooza has been moved to the end of the summer [Miscellaneous]

1:45pm at the Hallo Berlin Cart, which returned to 54th & 5th yesterday

We’d say that’s a resounding “yes”.

It is with a heavy heart that I report that the endearingly eccentric Times Restaurant has finally shuttered, for what  appears to be for good. Walking by, I noticed a court order signed on 6/2/2011 commanding that the space be shutdown, with an ominous warning, “The department of buildings has determined that conditions in this premises are imminently perilous to life. Violators of this commissioner’s vacate order are subject to arrest.”

I’ll dearly miss this place, not that I’ve ever had the courage to actually eat there, but because they’ve always been a source of fun, slapstick content whenever we noticed another misguided effort to stay in business or another DOH smackdown. As we say farewell to the Times Restaurant, we’ve assembled a timeline of our favorite memories of the life and times of this restaurant after the jump.
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When I heard about Cer Te’s newest sandwich that debuted on Monday, I stopped on by to check it out-DOH scores be damned! For the record, I’ve been taking the DOH scores rather lightly. I’ve spied terrible things in some of the A or B restaurants, and Cer Te has never made me sick. The other day, there wasn’t a grade at all in their window-that’s a definite no-no if you’ve been scored. But onto the sandwich…

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Whenever I’m feeling low on lunchtime inspiration, I usually take a peek at the ML Twitter Tracker to see which of the trucks are around and if they’re packing any specials. Yesterday I noticed Eddie’s Pizza Truck was just a few blocks away and packing pulled pork pizza ($9 for a bar pie). Seeing as that’s a combination of two of my favorite dishes, I had to check it out. Read more »

In these brutally hot dog days of summer, there are few joys when walking through the concrete jungle of Midtown: Mister Softee trucks, air conditioned stores with their doors wide open, and now we can add Korilla BBQ to that list. Just last week, the guys started offering up the Korilla Kooler. It’s just $3 and is the perfect blend of watermelon juice and lemonade. It’s balanced beautifully – not too sweet, not too tart – it’s a mellow, refreshing elixir. They’re due to set up on 55th and Lexington today. If the temps stay as high as they have been (and assuming the cops don’t start in), I may wait in line again just for this. As always, check the ML Twitter Tracker before heading out.

Goat Curry from Purple Yam. Photo by Brownie.

It was Blondie’s birthday and she celebrated with an ice cream pie from Sylas & Maddy’s in Kansas, while Brownie and Brian H. both hit up the Purple Yam in Ditmas Park.  Chris H. found delicious momos from a Himalayan Cart in Jackson Heights, Clay scored seats at the chef’s table for a dinner at Lunetta, and Donny likes the dim sum at Nom Wah.

Elsewhere in the ML Universe… Andrea scored a tasty chicken parm hero from the All American Diner Truck in the FiDi, Jamie followed up her stint as a Vendy Awards judge with some mofongo in Northeast Philly, and I find delicious Poke Poke on Venice Beach.

It’s about time we’ve gotten some good news on the street food front!  A few months after Rolf Babiel died, the famous Hallo Berlin sausage cart disappeared from its spot on 54th and 5th Ave.  His brother Wolfgang tried to keep the cart up and running, but apparently there were some issues to work out with the legal owner of the cart and the permits, which we heard had expired.  Well… it only took a year and a half but it looks like everything has been resolved!  Lunch’er Alvy just sent along this photo from 54th, just West of 5th Ave. confirming that the cart is not only back, but Wolfgang is at the helm.  Walking to 9th Ave. for Hallo Berlin Express might have been a decent substitute, but nothing could ever truly replace a dictator’s special fried up on the original cart.  Welcome back!