Archive for August 2011

Contributor Stalking (The “Tortas and Traveling” Edition)

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

The Pepito Torta from La Esquina. Photo by Andrea.

Brian posted a new video of his bagel tour of New York, Brownie tried out Wooly’s Ice downtown, Chris provides a quick food guide to Flushing for tennis fans on Serious Eats, Blondie and Donny lunched together at M Wells and both blogged about the meal and I’ve been live-photoblogging my South America trip.

Elsewhere in the ML Universe… Jamie tells us about lunch items from Israel that Philly (and New York) could use, Andrea headed up to SoHo for a torta from La Esquina and Zach did New Yorkers proud by bitching about things he hates about LA (lunching).

Ippudo Midtown Opening on 51st St. in January: Back in February, Eater reported that Ippudo would be coming to Midtown West and yesterday Crain's reported the full scoop. The Japanese ramen chain will be taking over the old Rene Pujols space on 51st btw. 8+9th Ave. and will open in January. Totto Ramen, you've been warned. [via Fork in the Road]

You Don’t Win Friends With (Barbanzo’s Falafel) Salad

Bar Banzo

Since we first posted about Barbanzo (58th and 3rd), we’ve been tracking the opening with interest. Aside from Omar’s Kitchen and Bakery, there aren’t too many brick and mortar shops to get a civilized plate of falafel and hummus in upper Midtown East, a gap which Barbanzo could have potentially filled.
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The ML Twitter Tracker is Fixed: But sadly the food truck conditions in Midtown are still terrible. Papa Perrone is taking the week off, but Crisp on Wheels is on 51st btw. Mad+Park, Uncle Gussy is on 51st & Park, Sweetery is on 50th btw. 6+7th, and that's pretty much it as of the time of this posting. As always make sure you check the Twitter Tracker before heading out.

Naked Pizza Sheds Its Plywood; Opening Soon

Naked Pizza

Naked Pizza, the healthy, organic, sustainable, New Orleans based whole wheat pizza chain that we told you about back in April seems to finally be close to opening. I walked by their location on 3rd Ave between 57th & 58th St and noticed that they’re now hiring bicycle delivery personnel, and that the restaurant interior seems to be mostly in place. However, since their claim to fame is their social media savvy, I’m sure we’ll hear about their grand opening on twitter.

Burger Heaven Scales Back to Three Locations

Heavenly Burger 41st + Madison

It appears as if the Midtown burger explosion has finally taken its toll on Burger Heaven. Last week we got word that the Burger Heaven on Madison btw 54th+55th had shut down, and was going to become a Japanese restaurant (following in the footsteps of another recently shuttered location on the Upper East Side).  Then another commenter indicated that the one further down Madison, on 41st, had become “Heavenly Burger”.   It’s pretty much a Burger Heaven clone, but clearly it’s not owned by the same people (in fact, we were told by somebody at Burger Heaven that the Heavenly Burger location had “lost its lease”, even though it is clearly still open.) And then there were three.

ML Forums: Food Cart Spinach Pie

  • The spinach pie from the cart on 47th & Park is great [Midtown Eating]
  • Is the Taim Mobile truck ever coming back to Midtown? [Midtown Eating]
  • It doesn’t sound like Little Morocco is ever coming back [Midtown Eating]

Margon Closed For “Emergency Repairs”

photo-4

Sad Margon news from Lunch’er Ed today:

My coworker and I wanted some oxtail on Thursday from Margon. I had just been there the week before and got my fried chicken morsels on. So this past Thursday, we go there braving the rain (non-Irene related) and they had a sign on the door that said they were closed because of a power outage. What was weird to me was that they had newspapers covering all the windows as if they were renovating the inside. We thought no worries, we’ll just try again tomorrow. We settled for El Rey Del Sabor on 43rd. We go back Friday, and again it is closed. Not Happy. This time we settled on Sophie’s on 45th which was a decent substitute. So figuring, they are bleeding money, they HAVE to be open Monday.

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PROFILE: Midtown Lunch’er “Lee”

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 Lee, a social media strategist who is obsessed with nachos.

Name: Lee

Age: 26

Occupation: Social Media Strategist and also Founder of Nachos NY

Where in Midtown do you Work?: I work at Morpheus Media in the Chelsea area.

Favorite Kind of Food: Mexican, Indian, Thai, Burgers and Buffalo Chicken.

Least Favorite Kind of Food: Bad Sushi (my girlfriend’s parents own a delicious place), Seafood

Favorite Place(s) to Eat Lunch in Midtown: Double ShackBurger at Shake Shack, 3Bs Special Burger and Fresh Roast Turkey at Food Parc (on 30th btw. 6+7th), The Roast Pork sub at No. 7 Sub

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The Twitter Tracker is Broken: The ML Twitter Tracker isn't feeling well this morning, but we're working on getting it back up and running.  In the meantime, Red Hook Lobster is on 47th btw. Park+Lex, Coolhaus is on 38th & 6th, Big D's Grub Truck is on 53rd & Lex, Wafels & Dinges is on 52nd & 3rd, and Papa Perrone is on 55th btw. 5+6th.  But you'll want to check individual twitter accounts before heading out.