Midtown Lunch

When Quality Meats (58th btw 5+6th) offered up ice cream sundaes last summer, I never did get the chance to try out the fantastic looking creations. So when Brian reported that they’d come back for another month, you bet I made my way over. In the past week, I’ve managed to stop by twice, trying two different sundaes. Now I know what you’re thinking.  This has already been covered!  Why are you writing about this again?  Well… if you have any sort of decadent sweet tooth, you NEED to get over there before time runs out next Wednesday. These things are that good.

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A few weeks back, Eddie’s Pizza Truck and Cart began carrying some dessert…  chocolate chip cookies supposedly being baked fresh on the truck. The day I stopped by the cart, they were not freshly baked, but wrapped in plastic but that being said, the cookie wasn’t a complete let-down. The massive, chewy cookie tasted fresher than most packaged cookies and there wasn’t any chemical preservative aftertaste. My only big gripe was how few chocolate chips were involved. I love the cookie itself, but chocolate chips are what should make a chocolate chip cookie. But considering how big the cookie is for only $2, I suppose I can overlook the lesser amount of chips for an otherwise nice dessert.

The truck can be found on 46th at 6th today. As always, check their Twitter (@EddiesPizzaNY) or the ML Twitter Tracker before heading out.

Last summer, Quality Steaks transformed their charcuterie bar into a Willy Wonka-esque ice cream cake bar. Well, they’ve done it again and this year they’ve expanded the menu to include five different ice cream cakes, including one (the Monster Mash) from last year. The new options include a Strawberry Shortcake (with yuzu-yogurt icing), a Toasted Banana S’more, and a Chocolate Covered Grasshopper.

I sampled the Spicy Mexican Coffee ice cream cake with espresso ice cream, a spicy chocolate brownie cake, and an amazing cinnamon-tamarind icing. It was garnished with chocolate covered espresso beans and a mini churro. I was blown away by the intense flavors and it was too easy to get in touch with my birthday party crashing 12 year-old self. I came close to bingeing on the entire menu.

But, alas, these cakes are $8 each which is a good deal for the quality and size, but a little out of the price range for a Midtown lunch, especially considering this is dessert! However, these are dare I say it, a great alternative to a liquor-laced Happy Hour and you can wash it all down with one of their gourmet lemonades. They’ll be available at least through the end of August.

Quality Meats, 57 W 58th Street (btw. 5th and 6th Avenue), (212) 371-7777

Thanks to Mister Never for sending along this photo/tip… Artisanal, the cheese shop/bistro on the outskirts of the Midtown Lunching boundaries (32nd btw. Mad+Park) has just launched an cart in front of their restaurant serving hand made ice cream. A single scoop is $3 and they’ve got a chocolate featuring Mast Brother’s, and a sweet corn custard ice cream with blueberries that was described by the tipster as “AMAAAAAZING”.

Check out the full menu after the jump.

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Yesterday yielded a big win for Midtown ice cream fans… Steve’s Ice Cream open its doors on 42nd Street (between 5th+Mad). For those of you not familiar with Steve’s, it’s an ice cream brand that originated in Massachusetts with mix-in pioneer Steve Herrell, but is now based out of Long Island. They’re all-natural, use local ingredients, and definitely fall on the fancier side of ice cream. But yesterday, today, and maybe tomorrow (?), you don’t need to worry about the fancy price because “soft opening” translates to “free-loaders engage.”

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La Maison du Chocolat, the haute French chocolatier in Rockefeller Center, has served up some of the best ice cream in Midtown for years (apologies to Miss Softee!) The only problem is that the ice cream is only available during the summer months.  Well, June 21 has officially come and La Maison du Chocolat has made their ice cream available once again. I went into the shop the other day to scoop out the scene (pun intended), and it seems as if they’re doing things a little differently this year. The ice cream is still locally made using ingredients imported from France, but now they’re pre-packaging them. I don’t know if the older ladies who work in the Rock Center store have been getting weaker biceps or if this is a case of portion control. Now that they’re pre-packaged, it means no more samples and no more cones. And last year they charged $4 for a waffle cone and now you can only get a 4 ounce plastic cup for $4.50.

The limited flavors, which include a handful of fruit sorbets, are pretty standard. And I loved this ice cream last year, but with the new higher prices and unattractive serving style, La Maison du Chocolat may have officially taken the fun out of stopping in here for an afternoon ice cream fix.

When Oceana (49th btw 6+7th) opened their lobster cart last week, I was less interested in the lobster roll (too expensive!) and more interested in the cookie they’re serving! I stopped by the other day just in time to snag one- it turns out the cart closes up promptly at 2 o’clock. The “Smooshed” cookie ($2) is a mix of oatmeal cookie dough and chocolate-chocolate chip cookie dough smooshed together before baking. As a long-time fan of oatmeal chocolate-chip cookies, I figured this would be good.

The cookie is full of butter making it large in diameter, but thin from spreading. Even with the thin-ness, the cookie is chewy and quite toothsome from the oats. The chocolate dough isn’t very heavy on the cocoa or the chips leaving the oatmeal to be the prevalent flavor. Considering the size and price of the cookie, I’d say this is the perfect deal for an afternoon snack, or REALLY good for making into a ice cream sandwich!  It’s a little too late to score one of these today, but I know where I’ll be just before 2pm tomorrow.

After heading out of Keen’s the other day, I passed by the pizza shop on the corner and discovered a brand new snack option: A gelato stand up and running just in time for summer. I didn’t have a chance to try it out, but check out the price list after the jump.

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If you follow Momofuku Milkbar on Twitter, it does sort of seem like the original bakery in the East Village gets all the fun. They’re bigger (and they just expanded!) so they can carry more items. Perhaps the biggest rub (at least for me) was that the East Village soft serve menu rotates while the midtown location has been serving the same cereal milk and salty pistachio since they launched. This week however, that’s all about to change. According to Eater “the soft serve flavors will rotate at all of the Milk Bars at the same time, once every three months” and according to @momomilkbar they now have blackberry/kaffir lime soft serve. Can’t wait to try it out. Early adopters, let us know what you think in the comments.

Ma Peche and Milk Bar, 15 W. 56th St. btw 5th+6th Ave, 212-555-1212