Midtown Lunch

Free Thursday Coffee & Biscotti Alert: Lunch'er Sara was kind enough to pass along this info: "I just read this in one of my industry email updates and thought I would pass it along. This Thursday (tomorrow morning) from 7-11 a.m., ladies dressed in "Starter Wife" attire (the new USA Show) will dispense free coffee, and branded biscotti... from seven wrapped hot dogs carts... in high-profile locations such as Penn Station, Grand Central, Rock Center, Herald Square, Union Square, Columbus Circle and Times Square."

Midtown: Very Dangerous Place to Be This Week: 6th Ave. btw. 42+44th was closed off yesterday after a giant glass panel fell to the street. A "vendor said he had to push his cart down the street after shards of glass fell into his food."  Did he say anything about picking the glass out of the food?!? This comes less than a week after two men robbed the Starbucks on 3rd Avenue near 41st Street. Of course, that was on a Sunday- so it doesn't really concern us.

Maybe Midtown Restaurants Aren’t That Dirty: State Senator Jeff Klein released his annual list of the top 12 dirtiest (and cleanest) restaurants in New York City and surprisingly not a single one of the dirty restaurants were located in Midtown.  Less surprising is the fact that we didn't have any of the cleanest places either, although Churrascaria Plataforma (on 49th btw. 8+9th) is just outside of the ML boundaries (and waaaaay out of the price range.)

The Belly Deli Has Returned: For those of you who are still willing to eat at generic delis with no redeeming qualities: "Just wanted to let you know, the Belly Deli is open again!  I guess they paid their taxes.   It is not my favorite place but I like their coffee and fried egg sandwich and they sell the carbonated Poland Spring water that is hard to find."

JURY DUTY LUNCH: Sucks to be me... or does it? Next week I have jury duty at the courthouse on Centre St. & Lafayette. Positives: It's close to Chinatown.  Negatives: I have freakin' jury duty.  Has anybody had to do this before?  Do you get a lunch break?  What's the deal, and where should I go?  Maybe I'll look through Daniel's "Downtown Lunch" posts...

Free Yogurt Alert: It pains me to even type this because so much of it goes against my principles- but that all gets trumped by Principle #1: Always Take Free Food. Rachel's Yogurt will be driving around Midtown today from 8am-2pm handing out free yogurts in flavors like "Pink Grapefruit Lychee, Peach Green Tea and Marionberry Guava." Not sure exactly where they'll be before 11 a.m., but if you work at the Time Inc. building it will be there from 11-11:45, Conde Nast from 12-1 and the Hearst bldg. from 1:15-2pm.

Inside Edition Uncovers Nose Picking at Midtown Cart!: Fun news just in from Gothamist: "Tomorrow night's episode of Inside Edition promises some pretty revolting video of street vendors doing all sorts of unsavory things with their hands while on the job. [A] vendor near Times Square, who while wearing gloves picked his nose, handled money, scratched himself and touched raw chicken right before preparing food and serving customers." I can't decide if I'm excited to find out which cart it is, or scared.

New York Times Bryant Park Food Recs: Bryant Park gets called a great place for a picnic in the Sunday New York Times Travel section, and 3 Midtown Lunches get recommended in the piece: Szechuan Gourmet (39th btw. 5+6th), Yagura (41st btw. Mad+5th), and Kati Roll (39th btw. 5+6th). God knows why, but Simply Pasta also gets recommended- over Le Pain Quotidien, Fashion Soup, 'wichcraft, and the Trini Paki Boys Cart.

Say Goodbye to the Mechanical Bull: It's not a Midtown lunch, but they serve lunch, and it's in Midtown... Johnny Utah's is being sued by a customer who got hurt when he was thrown off of their mechanical bull. Nice.

Fashion Week Eats: The tent has gone up in Bryant Park once again, and if you're attending Fashion Week (or are just looking to hang out and pick up models) the food recommendations I made for February's Fashion Week still apply. If you don't fall into either category above, you may want to stay away from Bryant Park today through next Friday.