Midtown Lunch

I was a big fan of Schnitzel & Things, so when its brick and mortar location just a block from my office shut down this year, I was pretty disappointed. My interest wasn’t too piqued when an advertisement for a Mediterranean restaurant appeared at the location a bit later. I’d expected they would sell food similar to what you can get at most carts in Midtown. So when Adana Grill (3rd Ave btw 45th+46th)finally opened, boasting a menu of Turkish grilled meat dishes, I was pleasantly surprised.

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In the spirit of the apocryphal “for sale: baby shoes, never worn” sad story, Lunch’er “Elise” has tipped us off to a Craigslist post of the entire contents of Spring Dumplings, enjoyed by many with great potential but forced out before their time. In addition to 130-year old reclaimed wood furnishings, there’s tons of restaurant supplies and fixtures if you wanted, say, a six-burner range or food holding wells. Cash only – check out the details if you want to bottom-feed off of a failed restaurant get some bargains.

Happy Birthday America.

Midtown loves its kati rolls. Amongst Indian food, few other dishes than the stalwart samosa, popular pakora, and killer kati rolls stand in the street-food pantheon. These things are the best eat-and-walk chow you can get on the subcontinent, I assert. Problem is, the southern chunk of midtown has been fairly kati roll-free. Serendipitously, Seamless’ “hey guys, look what’s new!” blast came out the other day showing a new spot that we hadn’t yet heard of: The Kati House (on 36th btw. 8+9th). On an otherwise unremarkable block housing an NYPD motor pool and generic dragon Chinese, could this be an addition to the hole-in-the-wall Indo-Pakistani in the area?
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After some serious grilling on the Fourth of July, you’ll need something sweet (and American) to pair with the fireworks. I’ve found just the thing: good old fashioned apple pie. Clay (behind the camera) and I visit Little Pie Company to sample three varieties of apple pie. And while stuffing my face, I learn a little something about this great country. Check out the video after the jump…

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Last week, Brian reported that Sweet Chili, the new food truck run by Lisa Fernandes, finalist of Top Chef Season 4 (Chicago), was parking at the loading dock of 777 3rd Avenue (at the corner of 48th and 3rd) every Monday. Since I’m pretty much at the loading dock of 777 3rd Avenue all the time now for the Mamu Thai Noodle Truck and the Old Traditional Polish Cuisine Truck, I knew the loading dock wouldn’t let me down with Sweet Chili!

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For a well-known cupcake chain looking to start serving lunch (not that a cupcake or two for lunch doesn’t sound sweet), a good way to bolster your lunchtime bonafides is to have a celebrity chef write your menu. That’s exactly what Crumbs did last week when it rolled out a lunch menu full of sandwiches, wraps, and salads devised by the acclaimed chef, David Burke. Slapping a chef’s name on something doesn’t guarantee it’ll be good however (see Guy Fieri’s American Kitchen and Bar), so I stopped by Crumbs to see how Crumbs’/Burke’s sandwiches stack up.

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Last November, we reported that Oms/b (on 45th Street between Lex and 3rd) had been replaced by a new Café Zaiya location. Now, that same location has changed again to become BentOn Café. After sleuthing around on the Internet, I found that the Café Zaiya and BentOn Café companies merged back in 2012, but I guess someone decided that the BentOn brand was better for this particular location?

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Fans of burgers with holes in the center, get excited. Gimmicky burger joint 4Food (Madison Ave. btw 40+41st) is advertising a free burger deal for a limited time. Okay, the burger isn’t entirely free – you have to buy a side and drink to get your freebie. Even for the hamburger purist, that’s still a pretty good deal.

4Food, 286 Madison Ave (btw 40+41st St)