Midtown Lunch

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.

This summer is turning out to be surprisingly busy for the Flatiron food scene. In addition to the events like Madison Square Eats and the upcoming Flatiron Chefs (only $160 – ouch!), there are some new restaurants opening up in what’s usually a pretty dead season. See the brand new, the sorta new, and the coming soon after the jump.

The Bongo Bros. Truck isn’t so new, but has been spotted a bit more regularly around the neighborhood recently. Somehow I only ever manage to come across them after I’ve eaten. They’re on Twitter, but sometimes forget to tweet their location for the day.

Eater reported that Beecher’s (900 Broadway), a Seattle cheese shop opened up last week. The cafe menu is full of seemingly reasonably priced items including a pound of Mac n Cheese for $9.50. I haven’t been there yet, but I’ll be sure to check it out very soon.

Madison Square News reports that the old Planet Thailand space on 24th Street is going to become Granduca, a pizzeria and trattoria. They also map out the other quality pizza in the area. I hadn’t realized how much there was! The list includes Eataly, Grimaldi’s, Maffei’s, Waldy’s, and, a new discovery for me, Zero Otto Nove on 21st. I’d seen the new branch of the Arthur Avenue restaurant in passing, but thought it was a bit fancy. Turns out that while the prices break the ML price limit it’s only by a few dollars. I might have to splurge for a calzone one of these days.

Walking down Fifth Avenue, I noticed this sign, tagged with a familiar logo. It appears that the fine folks of Mé Bar on 32nd Street will be launching a ‘gastropub’ of some sort. It’s unclear if this will include lunch service. No one wants to go on record with a prospective opening date, but word is that it’ll be sometime in the fall.

Strictly speaking, a happy hour doesn’t count as lunch, but it’s the last day before a long weekend, so forgive me for thinking ahead. It seems fancy pants Maialino over by Gramercy Park has added a new happy hour menu, which was beautifully highlighted on Serious Eats. On top of the tasty snack selection, beer and beer cocktails cost $5.