Midtown Lunch

Dean & Deluca seems to be opening more of more of these new lunchtime take out spots. At the end of last year they opened the branch on 48th btw. 5+6th (right around the corner from another Dean & Deluca location) and now another has opened on 55th 56th btw. 6+7th. But this one is kind of different… they’re serving burgers! Kind of exciting, and they looked pretty good being grilled behind the counter. Unfortunately, they are all over $10 so I think I’ll just stick with the Burger Joint or Five Guys. But there is a menu of under $10 sandwiches and hot panini that look kind of appealing- and completely different than anything they have the other Midtown locations.

For those D&D fans who work in the southern part of Midtown, there is a big Dean & Deluca that will be opening on the ground floor of the New York Times Building (on 8th Ave. and 41st Street) but no word on when that will be happening.

From the NY Post: “Ray… the self-described ‘burger freak’ plans to open a hamburger joint in Midtown next year. ‘I’m going for a ’60s back-in-the-day Rat Pack-y kind of hangout, and I want the bar to be really central [and] the burgers to become a very social thing,’ says Ray. ‘I want people to come to the bar to see beautiful proper martinis being made and to enjoy some sliders while they’re doing business or sit in the dining room and have fine dining in ground form.'” Chance that a Rachel Ray burger joint in Times Square will be annointed a proper ‘Midtown Lunch’? Zilch. [via Eater]

Thanks to Lunch’er Mike for pointing out this deal.  Burger. Fries. Beer.  $10 at the House of Brews on the SW corner of 51st & 8th Ave.

“With tax and tip, it slightly breaks the ML price cap, but the burger was pretty big and delicious, and the beer was Checker Cab Blond Ale, which is at the very least better than Bud Light.  They sneakily charged another $1.50 for cheese, but it’s still a damn good deal, and they have pepper jack.” 

It’s about 5 feet outside Midtown Lunch range (on 51st just west of 8th), and sit down lunches at pubs aren’t really my thing, but if a place is willing to throw in a beer with lunch, and keep the price at $10, they deserve a mention.  House of Brews has a second location on 46th between 8+9th (but closer to 9th).

Are there any other deals like this?  Feel free to comment below…

As soon as I sat down for lunch at P.J. Clarke’s (on 3rd Ave. & 55th) and looked at the menu, I prayed that I wouldn’t bump into anybody I knew.  Looking around at all the blue button up shirts with ties I realized that probably wouldn’t be an issue. Is this how the other half lives?  Amazing.  If you get to go out to fancy work lunches like P.J. Clarke’s on a regular basis, consider yourself lucky.  I never go, unless I’m invited by pizza and hamburger king Adam Kuban.  He immediately pointed out that I could get a hamburger for $8.90 (under the $10 price range.)  No cheese though, and no fries either (of course.) Not really much of a deal, so P.J. Clarke’s gets disqualified from being an official Midtown Lunch. But that doesn’t mean I can’t tell you that the burger is pretty damn tasty (you may say the secret ingredient is salt.)

Read Adam’s full review on A Hamburger Today…

It’s been four months since the last new burger place opened in Midtown (crazy, right?) so you knew just by the law of averages we were due.  The winner… Burger 41, which appears to be taking over the Burger King that used to be across from Cafe Zaiya on 41st btw. Mad+5th.  What you see on their very Burger King’ish sign is all I know about this place, and from the look of the inside we’re still a ways away (unless they plan on keeping the Burger King menu, and set up.)

The Burger King graveyard, after the jump… Read more »

By now, if you’re a regular reader of this site then you have pretty much figured out my rules for what qualifies as a true Midtown Lunch.  The most important rule is probably the one about the meal costing under $10, but I fully admit that sometimes this rule isn’t always clear.  Does that mean with tax it has to be under $10?  How about drinks?  Or chips? Or french fries?  What part of the meal must be $10?  For example alot of people will email me and suggest a sit down restaurant with an $8.95 or $9.95 lunch special.  Sure technically, that could be considered a Midtown Lunch- but I tend to shy away from those places, unless they are doing something that you can’t get anywhere else in Midtown.  After all, once you add tax and tip and everything- it ends up being over $10, and not necessarily a great value.

On the other hand, when the bar menu loophole was discovered at Del Frisco’s I immediately blogged about it.  $9.95 got you high quality steak tips and mashed potatoes at a sit down restaurant, where lunch normally costs $40.  If busting into a super fancy steakhouse, dressed like a schmuck, and eating the cheapest (but totally filling) thing on the menu isn’t the epitome of Midtown Lunch’ish behaviour, then I don’t know what is.  They raised the price two weeks later.  To some, it may still be worth it- but it’s no longer a Midtown Lunch.  In the end, sometimes the whole price thing just comes down to a gut feeling.

So a few weeks back, my gut and I headed over to Beacon, an upscale (read: expensive) American restaurant on 56th btw. 5+6th to check out their “Burger Bar”- which has an under $10 loophole of their own.   Read more »

This amazingness is no more.

This is the part of my job I like the least… much like a cop telling a parent their kid is dead I have the unfortunate job of letting everyone know that Goodburger has discontinued selling breakfast.  This means no more breakfast burger over a bed of hash browns topped with an egg.  Goodburger now opens at 10am everyday, only serving their lunch menu.  I… promised… myself… I… wouldn’t… cry…

Goodburger… I begged you to have egg topped burgers added to your lunch menu, and this is how you respond?  Getting rid of them entirely?  It’s almost as much of a slap in the face as not being on your wall.  I resubmit my plea.  Please don’t let the egg topped burger go by the Midtown wayside.  It’s the only way you can distinguish yourself from the Five Guys/Burger Joint onslaught.  Pretty please with an egg on top?