Midtown Lunch

Perhaps clueing in on the successes of the Coolhaus Truck and ‘wichcraft ice cream sandwich kiosk, a new establishment called Smush (40th St. btw. 5th + 6th) is opening soon among the land of gourmet delis near Bryant Park. Fittingly, it calls itself The NY Deli of Desserts, and plans to sell speciality ice cream sandwiches with namesakes borrowed from savory sandwiches. According to their website, they’ll be selling sandwiches such as the “Chocolate Covered Struben”, the “Chocolate Patty Melt”, the “French Chip” and the “Sloppy Mo'”. They also have an option for customers to build their own sandwiches. If you would like to learn more, or if you’re interested in reading about the riveting story of Smush the Penguin from Icey Mount Smushmore, their website is very informative. Obviously the ML team will keep you updated on Smush as we learn more.

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

Veggie tempura at Hannosuke in Los Angeles. Wait, veggie?? Photo by Zach

Rachel made ceviche at home, Blondie and Brownie are excited for The Food Film Festival and Pig Island among other fall food events, Brian’s hot dog tour took him to the original Nathan’s Famous and I photographed a Japanese knife forging demo at Smorgasburg.

Elsewhere in the ML universe… Andrea reports on a special weekday New Amsterdam Market all day tomorrow, Zach finds tempura options for everyone to love at Hannosuke in Los Angeles and Jamie suggests taking a look at the Chinese menu at China King in Philadelphia.

If you work anywhere near 45th Street and 6th Ave this is likely the talk of your office right now… around 12:30pm today a Mercedes plowed onto the sidewalk, hitting Mister Khan’s halal cart. Thankfully a fire hydrant stopped the car before it could hit the fruit vendor.

Check that out, after the jump.

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East side lunchers rejoice! Whole Foods, which just might be the best generic deli in Midtown, is opening its East 57th street location tomorrow (btw. 2nd+3rd). If you’re a super-early riser, you’ll be interested to know they’re hosting a bread breaking ceremony at 8:30 a.m., serving breakfast refreshments while supplies last. Doors officially opening at 9 a.m. Although the grocery store is by no means a bargain, and you have to be extremely disciplined with their pay-by-the-pound prepared food options (we know how quickly that can add up!), you’re not going to find a better quality by-the-pound lunch anywhere.

Upon returning from lunch one afternoon, close to the trinity-turned-tetrad of Japanese places on 41st Btw. Mad. + 5th (Cafe Zaiya, Yagura, Mai Cuisine, and Sunrise Mart), I happened upon a sidewalk halal cart called Every Day Fresh Halal Food that appeared to be new. Could it be so? I did a bit of research and I couldn’t surface a thing. I went by to try them out a few days later, and found out they had indeed only been at this location for a short while… and something about their food seemed oddly familiar.

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For their 5th annual celebration, Wafels & Dinges will be parked on 49th and 3rd on Friday to celebrate National Waffle Day. Our favorite big yellow truck will host a series of events that will include wafel-decorating, blindfolded wafel-eating, and a bicycle track stand. The Master himself Thomas DeGeest will preside over the afternoon (12-1pm) and crown the truck’s biggest fans, Miss and Mister Wafel (who will both earn unlimited waffles for a year).

Most importantly for us freeloaders, they’re offering free wafels in exchange for original drawings depicting bicycle-powered waffle carts. And they’ll announce the winner of their Photo Contest, who will receive an all-expense paid trip to Belgium, courtesy of Brussels Airlines, and can be entered by clicking here.

I don’t know if you’ve paid any attention, because I hadn’t until now, but there really are a lot of T.G.I. Friday’s in Midtown. Sadly (or not!), the one in the heart of Times Square (46th & Broadway, just one block north of the temporarily-closed Planet Hollywood) has shuttered, leaving its giant arrow signs hanging. Literally! The tourists are going to be so confused. Here’s hoping for something more exciting! T.G.Indeed.

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 we get to see how the 1% live! Meet Jared, a lawyer who likes Num Pang but whose go-to lunches are a bit pricier than our average find.

Name: Jared

Age: 26

Occupation: Attorney

Where in Midtown do you work? 1350 Broadway, between 35th and 36th street

Favorite Kind of Food: Chinese

Least Favorite Kind of Food: Indian

Favorite Place(s) to Eat Lunch in Midtown: Skirt Steak Sandwich from Num Pang (on 41st btw. Lex+3rd) or Chicken Satays at Philippe (on 60th btw. Mad+Park)

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The confluence of tourist chow and the oft-spawning generic steam table deli comes to a crashing head on 34th St., especially this block right across from Penn Station. Make no mistake, it is a struggle for the good stuff to shine in this space, and the area has seen no real new changes for the positive lately. Still, Lunch Box Buffet has seen itself noted often by Midtown Lunch for having a Fay Da Bakery outpost, selling Chinese steamed and baked buns and cakes/pastries, and later for bringing forth a chef from Flushing to make good stuff happen with the noodle soup front. While the Fay Da supplied baked and steamed fare was ousted to be replaced by house-made Chinese bakery goods, the noodle soups remain. It behooves a look at both, especially on a humid, splatteringly rainy day.

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Our friends over at NYMag’s Grub Street recently unveiled a massive line-up of up-and-coming restaurant openings. While we’re looking forward to some exciting expansions and new additions to the NY food scene, we couldn’t help but be a little disappointed over the lack of new midtown restaurants. In fact, the only real Midtown Lunch worthy newcomer seems to be an outpost of South Korean dumpling chain, Daheen Wang Mandoo, which will serve their awesome and cheap steamed dumplings in K-town (32nd St & 5th Ave).

Other potential midtown lunch spots include a “retro soda shop” concept called The Skylight Shoppe at 50th & Madison, which will serve an oysters Rockefeller po’boy. Additionally, Laurent Tourondel, formerly of the BLT group, will be opening an upscale burger joint at 40th & 5th, and will be serving his signature burgers, kobe hot dogs, and boozy milkshakes. In brighter news, it looks like the new Midtown Ippudo is finally set to open in December.