Midtown Lunch

If you like to eat, chances are you like to drink (read: a lot of you are freakin’ lushes), so I thought maybe it was time to introduce a happy hour column to the site. Every week, our Happy Hour Correspondent posts about a different bar in Midtown that fits the Midtown Lunch mentality: unhealthy food, not lame (unless it’s lame in a cool way), and most importantly… cheap.

Whilst reading Grub Street earlier this week, I happened upon the name of a bar I hadn’t heard before. They covered an article about a hurricane benefit at The Three Monkeys (54th btw. Broadway and 8th), and although I wasn’t able to make it to the benefit, I thought I’d check it out since it hadn’t been featured in the Midtown Lunch happy hour column yet. It turns out The Three Monkeys (hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil, get it?) was once on Rivington Street in the Lower East Side. Yelp reviews for the newer Midtown location date back to early 2011, so it’s fairly new to Midtown.

I was hopeful as I approached. The bar has a decent deal on beer — the all day happy hour is $4 Yuengling and Lionhead drafts (16 oz) and there are also $6 wells.

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In 2010, Vic’s Bagel Bar was heralded as the Cold Stone Creamery of bagels with its sweet and savory mix-ins, and declared better than Ess A Bagel. But less than three years later, a Midtown Luncher reported that Vic’s appeared to be closed. When we went to check out the scene… the windows had indeed been covered by black trash bags. A delivery truck worker on the scene said he noticed the shop had been closed for at least a week. We were unable to reach the restaurant via phone, and their twitter feed showed little activity for the past few weeks.  This is just more bad news for the Midtown bagel scene, coming so soon after the closing of Times Square Hot Bagels. If anyone knows the inside scoop about Vic’s Bagel Bar, please let us know!

Every Friday we go 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.

Several months ago, I was excited to see an Ethiopian restaurant setting up shop in our neighborhood. While I know a few people who just can’t get behind Ethiopian food, I have had great experiences the few times I have tried it, and I am all for new cuisines in the area.

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Photo by Eater

The saga around Pete Wells’ takedown of Guy’s American Kitchen & Bar continues to be entertaining, huh? In case you’ve been living under a rock, here’s a recap of the goings-on since the paper hit stands on Wednesday. Guy was subsequently honored on late night TV when David Letterman dedicated his top ten list to “Discontinued Guy Fieri Menu Items.” Then, on Thursday, Guy Fieri defended his restaurant on Today, going so far as to accuse Wells of having an agenda. “I thought it was ridiculous. I mean, I’ve read reviews —- there’s good and there’s bad in the restaurant business, but that to me went so overboard, it really seemed like there was another agenda.”

Later in the day, it came out via The Braiser that The New York Times‘ ad sales department had hosted an event for clients at the restaurant the previous night. As in Wednesday. The same day the review hit the paper. Oops. But my favorite piece of coverage around this whole mishegas? Behold: Eater’s “The Worst Lines of Guy Fieri’s NYT Review, With Cats”. Genius.

Andrea reported a few weeks ago about a brand new cart that started appearing downtown before the hurricane. I’ve noticed on their Twitter feed that Toast Monster has now been hanging out in Midtown on 50th and 6th Avenue. At first I thought they might be specializing in Taiwanese milk toast, but a look at their small menu reveals different versions of toasted sandwiches. From sweet french toast sammiches to more savory options like Mac & Cheese with Sloppy Joe and Steak, Potatoes, and Gravy, I think this sounds potentially delicious! Anybody been by yet to check it out? No word yet on where they’re parked today, but you can check their Twitter feed to keep track.

Just in case that incessant Korean pop song wasn’t already eternally stuck in your brain, a new cart appeared recently to ensure that Gangnam Style never goes out of style. Thanks to an email from Luncher Tom, we learned about a new Korean cart serving bulgogi and BBQ chicken and pork platters on Madison and 35th Street 33rd Street? Not sure how extensive their menu is yet or if the workers will be doing the infamous dance while they serve the food. Has anybody tried it out yet?

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

The ceviche tasting flight at La Mar in Lima.

Blondie wants to eat all the brick chicken at Potlikker in Williamsburg, Brownie reverse engineered the recipe for Red Lobster cheesy biscuits, Brian counts the banana pudding at Magnolia Bakery as one of his favorite desserts in town, Rachel had sushi for dinner and I am looking forward to a ceviche brunch in Peru this weekend.

Elsewhere in the ML universe… Jamie found a place that makes kathi rolls in Philadelphia, Andrea had a massive pork cemita from Tacos El Idolo and Zach ate at 10 Korean restaurants in Los Angeles in 15 days.

Just a week before Hurricane Sandy hit, I was having one of those days where I was in the mood for something decadent. I just needed lobster. I knew Red Hook Lobster Pound was at the New York Public Library that day. And although I knew full well a lobster roll was over the Midtown Lunch price range… I did it anyway, and it was awesome. On a regular old lunch break in Bryant Park, I was instantly transported to Maine… but the lobster roll was actually better than what I’ve tried there! I became an instant fan. I had no idea that a few weeks later I would be writing a post to help get this truck back up on its feet.

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I don’t know of many spots in Midtown that offer grits at lunchtime, so Daisy’s Grits at the Bryant Park Holiday Shops may have the market cornered this winter with their many options of sweet, savory and cheesy grits. The menu is surprisingly vast and even surprising, and if you’re anything like me, you’re going to have a hard time making up your mind between cheese grits, Colombian chorizo, shrimp-n-grits, Cantonese spinach … I told you, the list is unexpected.
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We thought that our live blog of the very first lunch service at Guy’s American Bar & Grill (on 44th btw. 7+8th) was pretty great… but it pales in comparison to the treatment it received today as the New York Times’ weekly restaurant review. Pete Wells asks 50 (I counted) rhetorical questions of Guy Fieri in one of the most amazing and memorable reviews I’ve ever read. I couldn’t possibly do it justice by saying any more, so I simply encourage to read the masterpiece and share your favorite lines in the comments. Here are mine…

• Did panic grip your soul as you stared into the whirling hypno wheel of the menu, where adjectives and nouns spin in a crazy vortex?
• How did nachos, one of the hardest dishes in the American canon to mess up, turn out so deeply unlovable?
• And when we hear the words Donkey Sauce, which part of the donkey are we supposed to think about?
• Why did the toasted marshmallow taste like fish?
• Oh, and we never got our Vegas fries; would you mind telling the kitchen that we don’t need them?