Midtown Lunch

On Thursday from 11am to 3pm, Yorganic, a new frozen yogurt place in the same basement food court as Pampano Taqueria, and the new Sophie’s Cuban (which had their own free food day a month ago), will be giving out free servings of their frozen yogurt. 

As you know, we’ve been burned by offers of “free yogurt” before, so I confirmed with the owner- it’s a 5oz serving of yogurt with one topping.  (I don’t know if that’s alot, but i’m pretty sure it’s more than a thimble full.)  As you can see from the flier above, they’ll have another free yogurt day on May 27th from 11am to 3pm, exclusively for the tenants of the building- but it’s unclear exactly how they are going to differentiate from the average freeloaders (check building IDs perhaps?)  Might be worth a shot on the 27th if you work in the building next door- but if you don’t want to chance it, tomorrow is the day.

Thanks to Gracenotes NYC for the orginal heads up…

UPDATE: Plus I totally forgot to mention that our Downtown Lunch Correspondent Daniel Krieger took some sweet ass yogurt photos, and forwarded them along (did we mention he does weddings too?).  Check out the yogurt w/ topping porn, after the jump   Read more »

Haagen Dazs is introducing their new Vanilla Honey Bee Ice Cream with “Free Flavor Day”, which means, today from 4-8pm you can go into any participating location and get a free scoop of the new flavor.  But don’t go running out to your nearest Haagen Dazs just yet… you may remember from last year, when they did this same promotion, it is only “participating” locations, so many of the Midtown franchises that sell Haagen Dazs will not have the new flavor, or be offering any sort of free Ice Cream.  Don’t be fooled by the “Find a Location Near You” link on the Haagen Dazs website.  Not all of those locations are participating.

We take our free stuff very seriously here at Midtown Lunch, and have tracked down confirmation one way or the other, from three of the Midtown Haagen Dazs locations.  The list is after the jump…  Read more »

Due to its non-Midtown location, I haven’t been able to use this blog as an excuse to sample the much written about Dessert Truck. (In case you thought this site was started to help you people find lunch, its true purpose was to allow me to eat gross and fattening lunches, and be able to say “It’s for work!”). Well, that is about to change this summer. Right now, the Dessert Truck spends Tuesday-Sunday nights on University Place & 8th St., but once the weather gets warmer, Co-owner Chris Chen told me they are hoping to park the truck during the day in… wait for it… wait for it… Midtown!

They haven’t decided on a location yet (and from the struggle the Treats Truck had, I’m guessing it won’t be easy), but I assured them that no matter where the truck was parked, they would be welcomed with open mouths by the Midtown Lunch’ing faithful. I also used this bit of news as an excuse to sample four of their creations (Gianduja Pot de Creme, Vanilla Creme Brulee, Chocolate Bread Pudding, and the Milk Chocolate w/ Peanut Butter). All were outstanding, and for just $5 a pop, a pretty amazing bargain for desserts that would normally cost $10 in a restaurant. For a really great round-up of the truck’s offerings, check out this post by Robyn Lee on Ed Levine Eats.

The sad thing is, I didn’t have to wait this long for the Midtown Lunch-Dessert Truck connection. The truck rents kitchen space right above Daisy May’s BBQ on 11th Ave. & 46th St., home base of the Daisy May’s BBQ Cart on 50th btw. 6+7th- a bonafied Midtown Lunch!

For those of you keeping score at home:

• Treats Truck – Midtown Lunch’ing favorite! Here at least 3 days a week
• Waffles Truck – Coming soon!
• Dessert Truck – Coming soon as well!

Stay tuned for more details… and if you have any news to report, email it to zach@midtownlunch.com

If you love food sold from trucks (and quite frankly, why wouldn’t you?), then you probably have heard of, or seen, the Wafels & Dinges Truck.  Dispensing 2 kind of waffles (brussels & liege), and all sort of toppings (dinges), the bright yellow truck has taken the city by storm, parking in the Flatiron District in the morning (Park btw. 26+27th), and by NYU in the afternoons.  Sadly there has been no waffel action for Midtown, and we have had to look on in jealousy.  But that’s all about to change…  

Midtown Lunch has learned that Augustin’s Waffles, a New Jersey company that specializes in liege waffles from Belgium, will be starting up their own Waffle Truck in the next 4 to 5 weeks.  You may recognize that name from last week’s “Wafflegate”, the scandal that hit the blogs when Eater discovered that pre made Augustin’s Waffles were being passed off as homemade, by Waffles & Dinges, at the Fort Greene Flea Market.

As they make the transition from supplier to competitor, Augustin’s Waffles are actually already available in Midtown… Read more »

Tomorrow (Tuesday) is another Ben & Jerry’s Free Cone Day! Lines are long, but they usually move fast, and free ice cream is always worth it. There are 3 participating locations in Midtown to get your free scoop:

• Rockefeller Center Concourse, Enter at 6th btw. 49+50th (and go downstairs)
• 8th Ave. btw. 42+43rd
• Macy’s, 34th btw. B’way+7th (4th Floor)

It’s easy to forget about the TONY Eat Out Awards when you’re being featured on NYC TV!  Besides showing off all of the amazing treats they have to offer, the owner Kim reveals that the Treats Truck peanut butter sandwich cookie is actually gluten free.  This is amazing news for anybody who has celiac disease, an allergy to a certain gluten protein found in anything made with wheat.   She also told me today that not only does she plan on introducing more gluten free treats very soon, but she will also have flourless treats, for Passover, starting on Friday.  The Treats Truck will be on 38th & 5th tomorrow (Thursday) from Noon to 4pm.  For more details go to www.treatstruck.com or call 212-691-5226.

The Garment District is quickly becoming my favorite little corner of Midtown Lunch’ing.  And while I admit that most of the places I love might be considered “weird” (or gross) to the average lunch crowd (strange chinese food, Spanish food in a freight elevator), the newly opened Macaron Cafe might change all of that.  A few weeks ago my friend Nosher from www.nycnosh.com told me about the little French cafe on 36th btw. B’way+7th, and yesterday we headed over to check out their nice selection of sandwiches and amazing macarons (the little French cookies that look like mini colored hamburgers- not be confused with macaroons).

Some French porn, and a link to Nosher’s extensive review, after the jump… Read more »

This awesomeness popped up on the corner of 3rd Ave. & 43rd St.  What exactly is Crisp you ask?  No info on their website, but we get two clues:  “Fast fresh food that syncs your taste with your conscience.”  And, “It’s not what you think.  It’s better.”  Hmm… that’s interesting.  So it’s not an organic version of a generic salad bar/Midtown deli?  It’s better.  Can’t wait…

Just around the corner, on 43rd btw. Lex+3rd, the first Manhattan location of Camille’s Sidewalk Cafe has opened up, a chain with most of its locations in California, Oklahoma, Texas & Florida.  With a menu of fancy wraps, salads, pizzas and panini, I was slightly intrigued by their Bangkok Thai Wrap, until I saw that they add water chesnuts (meh), and provolone (huh?).  Oh well.

Blue Pig says goodbye, while Pinkberry says hello, after the jump… Read more »