Midtown Lunch

We’re less than a week away from New York’s biggest street food event of the year, and the last piece of the puzzle is finally in place! Vendy Award Dessert finalists, Rookie finalists, and the New Jersey participants were all announced over the past few weeks, and earlier this morning NYT’s City Room blog posted the finalists for the ultimate prize- the 2011 Vendy Cup. And they are…

• The Eggstravaganza Cart – Mexican & American cart on 52nd & Park that specializes in mexican wraps and egg sandwiches.
• Chimichury El Malecon – Inwood vendor that has been selling Dominican hamburgers known as “chimis” for 25 years
• Souvlaki GR – Last year’s Rookie winner, this truck serves up Greek pita sandwiches downtown
• Tamales Guadalupe – Brooklyn tamale vendor
• Trini Paki Boys Halal Food – A Midtown Lunchmainstay, this cart has been parked on 43rd and 6th serving up street meat with an island twist for over 20 years
• Sam’s Falafel – A FiDi lunch legend, this was one of the first carts we covered on the Downtown section of Midtown Lunch
• Solber Pupusas – Now a 2 time Vendy Award finalists, this pupusa truck was nominated back in 2008 when it was known as Soler Dominican

We can’t help but feel especially excited for the Trini Paki Boys Cart, Eggstravaganza, and Sam’s Falafel, but a huge congrats to all the deserving finalists! This is going to be a great year, and a super tough decision for the judges. You’ll be able to read more about all the finalists on the Vendy Awards website, and while General Admission tickets are completely sold out there are a limited number of early admission and VIP tickets available (as well as sponsorship packages, which come with tickets.) The awards take place this Saturday, on Governor’s Island from 12:30-5pm.

In this week’s New York Magazine the Robs take note of how ubiquitous and eclectic falafel has become here in NYC, pointing out 12 different takes on the fried chickpea balls. Olympic Pita (on 38th btw. 5+6th) got singled out for its delicious laffa, Maoz got the nod for its DIY set up, and Taim for its different flavors. But we couldn’t help but notice that Crisp was left off the list entirely. Love ’em or hate ’em, how can you have a “unique falafels of NYC” list, and leave off the place that is responsible for these monstrosities! We’ll chalk it up to harmless oversight…

Thanks to Lunch’er Tom for sending in this great report…

Across the street from Taam Tov, and one floor down from El Rincon Del Sabor, there’s a new Glatt Kosher Uzbek restaurant on 47th (in the space where Dougie’s BBQ used to be.) It’s $2 cheaper than its neighbor, the staff outnumbers the patrons, and the kicker? Mukpatz!

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We reported just last week that the workers of Naked Pizza have officially descended on Midtown East. Even two days after opening, guys in green shirts holding signs, passing out menus, and screaming about the wholesomeness of this pizza could be discovered as far as two blocks away from the store. Their hawking must have worked because the tiny little take-out spot was jam packed when I arrived around 1:00pm the other day.

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Photo courtesy of Kathy YL Chan

• Check out Bouchon Bakery’s delicious looking peanut butter and strawberry parfait [SENY]
• The Applebees in Times Square takes in $13 million a year!!! [Gothamist]
• Katsuhama makes a really good version of tonkatsu [Restaurant Girl]
• Obao has a decent happy hour [Miss Menu]
• The crust is the best part of Petrossian’s apple turnover [SENY]
• The Flatiron branch of Schnipper’s opens next week [Eater]

Well some of you may or may not know that I love adding cranberries to burgers, so it she be no surprise that while walking by Cafe Hestia (3rd btw 43+44th) a sign for a $6 Thanksgiving sandwich caught my eye. Cafe Hestia looks like any other Pret A Manger or Cosi or Europa in Midtown. But besides sandwiches and salads they do serve ramen and bibimbap. But how did Thanksgiving taste in the middle of September? I wanted to find out…

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Every Friday our man UltraClay goes south of the ML boundaries in search of a delicious lunch. Sometimes it’s Murray Hill south or the Flatiron District, sometimes Gramercy and everything in between- but we just like to call it Flatiron Lunch.

The Limelight’s new incarnation of shopping destination and snacker’s paradise hasn’t quite worked out as well as I’d hoped. Grimaldi’s finally showed up, but the promise of pizza by the slice never materialized; the Limelight Grill, which served sausages, sandwiches and burgers made for a nice outdoor lunch at a decent price, but has since been replaced by Todd English’s Crossbar. Even most of the sweets stands that were inside have shut down. Still, I was in the neighborhood after dropping off film from my South America trip and decided to wander through to see what’s new inside. What I discovered was that Jezalin’s, the little gourmet deli inside is offering some lunchworthy options that either weren’t there before or I just never noticed.

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