Midtown Lunch

Following in the footsteps of Time Out New York’s Feed Blog…  Thrillist, Citysearch’s The Feedbag, and New York Magazine have all filed reports about this new La Cense Burger Truck coming to Midtown sometime in the next week later in the month.  With all this PR, I’m starting to wonder if this truck is about bringing tasty burgers to Midtown Lunchers or about raising brand awareness for La Cense’s Montana bred beef (after all, NYC is the biggest food media city in the country.) We’ll wait to see if they park outside of Conde Nast before issuing judgment.

A few other important tidbits of important info I didn’t mention in the first post… the burgers will be made entirely from grass fed beef, and will be served topped with carmelized onions on a sesame seed bun for $7. And if you were wondering exactly what Adam Perry Lang’s (from Daisy May’s BBQ) role in all of this is, he created the burger recipe and the method of preperation.  It definitely could be good…

After what happened yesterday we should probably get used to all these new trucks popping up in Midtown.  Today it’s the Le Gamin Truck, which has been parking everywhere *but* Midtown for the past month and a half. From Lunch’er Jason: “Walking to work today I spotted a truck I’ve never seen before. I believe it was ‘Le Gamin’. They listed sandwiches and other savory items for sale with a physical address somewhere on MacDougal. They were parked at the NE corner of 47th/Lex.” Merguez sandwiches, croque monsieurs, and frites?  I’ll take it! Not sure if they’ll last at this spot, or what their long term plan is, but you can follow them on… you guessed it… twitter.

Photo and menu info courtesy of Serious Eats: New York.

The Wall Street Journal becomes the latest publication to report on the new mobile food trend sweeping the nation. It covers much of the same ground- like twitter and how much cheaper it is for trained Chefs to open a truck than a brick and mortar restaurant. But it also spends a little bit of time talking about the obstacles, including a topic that Midtown Lunch has covered extensively: cart on cart intimidation.

“Another major hazard of the business, newcomers say, is hostility—and even threats—from the competition. Mr. Lao [from the Rickshaw Dumpling Truck] says his entry into the industry was marked by threats and sabotage by other vendors, who parked their carts right in front of his sales window.”

In related news, the NYPost reports this morning that a criminal complaint has been filed over threats directed by a Mr. Softee truck at a Good Humor man in Queens. That sounds familiar.

Related:
At Lunch Now: Rickshaw Dumpling Truck Take Two
Halal Vendors Chase Happy Well Being Cart Back Downtown
Rafiqi’s Tries To Intimidate New Mexican Cart From 49th Street
The Treats Truck Will Try Her Luck at 45th St. Today

This is kind of exciting.  The Famous Halal Guys’ daytime cart on the SE corner of 53rd St and 6th Ave (who won last year’s Street Meat Palooza) have added kofta kebabs to their menu.  I had already had lunch by the time I walked by and spotted this beautiful sight on the grill, so I didn’t get a chance to sample.  But you better believe that a chicken/kofta over rice combo platter is in my immediate future (topped with white sauce and hot sauce of course.) No word on whether the nighttime cart (on the SW corner), or their other daytime cart (on the SW corner of 53rd and 7th) is also serving the item.

Related:
Debunking the Myths of 53rd & 6th, the Most Famous Halal Intersection in New York City
Are Lunchers Finally Getting the Message About the Halal Carts on 53rd & 6th?

A brand new sweets truck just hit Midtown, and is giving away free samples for the next couple of hours on 55th btw 5+6th. . They’re not selling anything just yet, but their menu includes croissants, cookies, cake, muffins, and quiche. They’re affiliated with One Girl Cookies in Brooklyn, and will carry some of their items, plus a host of homemade recipes. Plus about 20% of the stuff will be baked right on the truck.

They hope to be in this spot every single day (but you know how that goes.) More details to come when they launch their website and twitter (of course) in the next couple of days (and I’ll post a photo of the menu here once I get home.). They’re still testing eveything out right now (this is their very first day) but if you want a free sample, now is the time. Freeloaders engage.

Check out a photo of the menu after the jump…

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After a few months of being out of commission, Wafels and Dinges hit the road again a few weeks ago with a brand new, tricked out truck.  To celebrate, they gave away free wafels on Thursday… so naturally I was there to wait on line and get my bit of free waffle goodness. The new truck is quite a sight to behold, with a giant lit up menu and newly installed speakers that pump 50s music from Sirius/XM satellite radio onto the street.  If you’re really lucky, they’ll throw on the kind of annoying/kind of amazing “Waffle Song” while you’re waiting on line.  It’s really loud, and I’m guessing at some point it’s going to get them kicked out of at least one of their regular spots.  After15 minutes of hanging out, and listening to music, I thought for sure the guys serving the waffles were going to jump on top of the truck and start singing and dancing.

For free waffle hour, you got a half portion of whichever kind of wafel you wanted (brussels or liege) topped with two dinges (I went with banana and chocolate.)  Delicious.  Of course, the fact that it was free helped tremendously.  I’ve never actually done a proper post about the Wafels and Dinges Truck, which spends a few days a week in Midtown.  As you may or may not know, they not only sell waffles with sweet toppings but they also have savory waffle topped with BBQ pork and cole slaw that’s perfect for lunchtime. I posted about this when they introduced it back in October, but never actually got to try it for myself.

Well, as long as I was there…

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Yesterday our Downtown Lunch correspondent Daniel Krieger spotted a Vinny Vincenz Pizza Truck parked near the South Street Seaport.  Apparently they’re testing out the spot for a month to see if they can make it work.  Daniel will have a full report tomorrow in his weekly Downtown Lunch column… but in the meantime if Midtown Lunchers are looking to check it out, another Vinny Vincenz truck was spotted today on 40th btw. B’way+6th.  (They’re everywhere!!!)  Not sure what the deal is, or whether or not that spot is permanent.  Sadly Mr. Vincenz is not on the twitter yet.

According to Slice overlord Adam Kuban it’s not his favorite pizza from a truck, but it’s good  it’s “worth going to” and “about as good as you’re going to get” from a truck (which in general is not his favorite type of pizza.)  Check out Slice’s complete coverage of Vinny Vincenz here.

Been getting a lot of emails about the new cupcake truck launching in NYC tomorrow.  No sign of Midtown on their preview schedule– but the truck was started by a couple of NYU New York Law School grads who couldn’t get lawyer jobs, so I’m guessing they’ll want to flaunt their new business in the faces of those that spurned them. In other words, it’s only a matter of time before they start parking outside Midtown law firms. UPDATE: SENY is reporting that they plan on parking in the Herald Square area from 9am to 5pm.

Believe or not I had actually never eaten at the super famous Tony “The Dragon” Dragonas cart on Madison & 62nd until last week.  I am very familiar with his disciple, Carnegie John (on 56th and 7th), but have never made it up to see the man himself.  I know it’s just a few blocks out of bounds, but there’s something about the UES that repels me- and if I do find myself up anywhere near that area, I usually eat at the original El Rey del Sabor Cart (on 60th and 3rd).

Anyway, a doctor’s appt. brought me right past the Dragon’s popular cart last week during lunch, and again those words popped into my head (like they have so many times before when faced with something delicious)…  “how could I not?”

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