Midtown Lunch

99 Cent Fresh Pizza seems to be taking it from all sides these days.  First, 2 Bros Pizza opens one block away from their “flagship” location behind Port Authority, and now this.  It seems as if another 99 Cent Pizza place is opening on Lexington btw. 45+46th. (just two blocks away from the 99 Cent Fresh Pizza on 43rd.)  But here’s the kicker, apparently the owner of the new spot is a disgruntled former employee of 99CFP.  And to add insult to injury, he’s never opened a pizza place before- so after securing the lease, when back to the owners of 99CFP for help.  (Are you following all this?)  Part of me thinks that we can always use more $1 pizza in Midtown, but tell that to the now shuttered Prince Deli (which very well could have been put out of business by the arrival of 99 Cent Fresh Pizza on43rd.)  At least 2 Bros Pizza had something to offer (aka better pizza) when they opened one block away from the Port Authority 99CFP.  If this new location turns out to be a bad 99CFP ripoff- it might just end up going the way of the Prince.

Lunch’er Adam used the ML Forums to organize a meetup at Bombay Eats yesterday so lunchers could sample the various Indian pizzas being offered by Bombay Eats (on 52nd btw. 8+9th Ave.) See, despite my pleading they don’t offer their Indian food topped pies by the slice, only as an entire pizza. They’ll jury-rig a slice of saag pizza if you ask nicely, but if you want to try the real deal you have to order a whole fresh pie. Not a problem if you can get 8 lunchers together for lunch… which is exactly what happened yesterday. Lunch’er “Adam Prato” sent in this report:

Lamb Keema Pie. Photo courtesy of Jessica@Food Mayhem

We actually had a great turnout. At the start, 5 of us midtownlunchers (jessica@foodmayhem, wellerfan, stevenp, scottyelich, and I) showed up for the Indian Pizza outing. After some deliberation, we decided to order 2 18″ pies; stevenp had heard that the 14″ was too doughy, which was exactly my concern since the difference between most “medium” and “large” pies is how thin they stretch the same amount of dough. We went with the Lamb Keema and the Saag paneer. Shortly after ordering, 3 of my coworkers (all of Indian descent) had unexpectedly stumbled in after a meeting since I told them all about the “indian pizza” phenomenon. Though they were there for the buffet, we coerced them into the indian pizza. With the magic number of 8 people, we were able to order a 3rd pie! So we went with the Chicken Tikka.

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I’ve walked by Bombay Eats, the just out of bounds Indian restaurant on 52nd btw. 8+9th, a million times… but had only noticed this sign for the first time last week.  Indian pizza!?!  And not some strange Indian creation with some similarities to real pizza. This is real New York City pizza, with Indian toppings.  Tandoori chicken, minced lamb, chicken tikka, saag paneer (!?!)

I mean, how could I not right?

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If you are a big fan of the pizza at Cer té (yes,apparently it’s Cer té not Certe… who knew?) on 55th btw. 5+6th than you will be very excited to hear this news.  The owners of Cer té have taken over the former Quizno’s on 56th Street (btw. Park+Lex) and will be turning it into the city’s first “green” pizzeria.  What does that mean? The building will be LEED-certified, food will be delivered by foot or via hybrid truck, all supplies will be purchased locally, and the pizza boxes, utensils and paper goods will be made from recyclable materials.

But what about the food???

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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.

It looks like the short lived Empanada Joe’s (on 8th Ave. btw. 43+44th) is becoming a place called Roma Pizza.  If the look of the sign is any indication, I’m guessing this will be just another generic 8th Ave. New York City fast food pizza place (aka for the tourists.)  I guess only time will tell.

If you like to eat, chances are you like to drink (read: a lot of you are freakin’ lushes), so I thought maybe it was time to introduce a happy hour column to the site. Every week, our Happy Hour Correspondent “Mamacita” will post about a different bar in Midtown that fits the Midtown Lunch mentality: unhealthy food, not lame (unless it’s lame in a cool way), and most importantly… cheap. This week, the Happy Hour Post is good enough to double as a regular Midtown Lunch post. And quite frankly, what better way to kick off Memorial Day Weekend with a lunch of pizza and takeout beer in a soda cup!

There are almost more Pronto Pizzas in Midtown than there are generic delis. If you are in the mood for dodgy free street sushi you can go to the one on 55th St. If you are yearning to bite down on a terrible looking gyro, then head to one of the two Prontos on 48th (I don’t know what the other one is good for.) But if cheep-ass beer and pizza in an … umm … “unpretentious” atmosphere is what you’re looking for, than the 41st Street Pronto is the dive for you!

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I requested it yesterday, and Adam Kuban has answered the challenge… ladies and gentleman, the cheap slice showdown between 99 Cent Fresh Pizza and its new neighbor 2 Bros. It’s as amazing as I imagined it would be when I issued the challenge. The winner as declared by SLICE: 2 Bros. (Didn’t I say the same thing? Maybe I do know something about pizza!) He also clears up the whole “do you have to pay tax” issue, but I think his findings only apply to the 9th Ave. location, not the one near Grand Central.  [Slice]

As promised by Grub Street last week, 2 Bros. Pizza opened today in the just out of bounds Hell’s Kitchen location of 9th Ave. & 40th Street. I don’t know if I’d normally trek to 9th Ave. for $1 pizza (oh, who am I kidding of course I would). 2 Bros. Pizza is already a well know dollar-a-slice mainstay in the East Village, and clearly they are looking to challenge 99 Cent Fresh Pizza’s domination of Midtown (they have two locations, one just one blocks away on 9th Ave. and 41st.) If today is any indication, they’re going to do pretty well…

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I don’t know if 33rd Street and 5th Ave. is technically considered Koreatown, but if it is- than the Little Italy Pizza situated on that corner is the best pizza in Koreatown. I found it very difficult to travel down to that neck of the Midtown Lunch’ing woods for something other than bi bim bap and bulgogi, but after reading Ultraclay’s report on Little Italy Pizza- I knew I’d eventually have to give it a try.

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