The bazaar opens at. 11:00 and runs until 8pm tonight. And it will be open from 11-6pm tomorrow and 1pm until 5pm on Sunday. Besides Swedish handicrafts they’ll have Swedish pastries, Christmas platters “with, among others a meatballs and gravlax” as well as Glögg (aka Swedish Mulled wine) and gingerbread.

While today will undoubtedly be busy, the rest of the year the church is a pleasant and welcoming spot for a simple and cheap midtown lunch.

After you ring the bell, you’re buzzed into a large open room. There are a number of tables for sitting and reading or enjoying some lunch and a little kitchen in the back.

In recent months they have started posting a menu (in both Swedish and English). The selection is limited mainly to various simple open faced sandwiches, sold for $2.50. If they have leftover sandwiches from the day before in the fridge they’ll sell them to you for $1. You can also get a glass of lingonberry juice for $1 (how Swedish is that?!).

Swedish cheese sandwich

Fish and egg sandwich on brown bread

Ham sandwich

While I won’t pass up an open faced sandwich, their homemade cinnamon buns ($2) topped with crunchy sugar crystals make for a great dessert or snack.  If you love cinnamon rolls these are worth the trip alone.

Church of Sweden, 5 East 48th Street btw 5th and Madison. (212) 832-8443

Who doesn’t like a good old fashioned Scandinavian kickoff to the holiday season? The Norwegian Seaman’s Church (on 52nd btw. 1 + 2nd) annual Christmas fair begins today and runs through Saturday 11/19, noon to 6pm each day. According to their website:

Visit our Christmas Fair to buy Norwegian handcrafts, nisser, knitwear, jewelry, Norwegian fashion items, decorations, ornaments, table cloths and much, much more!

Large selection of Norwegian food.
Cafeteria w/Smorgasbord.
Raffle tickets for several beautiful items.

If you’ve been, let us know in the comments!

The Norwegian Seaman’s Church, 317 E. 52nd St (btw. 1+2nd), (212) 319-0370

It’s looking like the new AQ Kafe on Broadway btw. 58th and Central Park won’t be a second location of Marcus Samuelsson’s casual Scandinavian eatery… it will be the only location.  The original AQ Cafe in the Scandinavia House on Park btw. 37+38th is gone, replaced with the more expensive Smorgas Chef.  If the menu from their three other New York City locations (one is in Midtown East on 49th and 2nd Ave.) is any indication, this is not an improvement for Midtown Lunch’ers.  Well, at least we have the new AQ Kafe coming soon… but that is probably little consolation for the swedish meatball lovers in Midtown south.  Thanks to Lunch’er Wayne for passing along the photo.

Zagat Buzz has more intel on the second outpost of AQ Cafe, on Broadway between 58th St. and Columbus Circle. “The sign outside spells the restaurant’s name as “Kafé” (rather than original’s “cafe”), and the otherwise similar menu presents one glaring omission: the popular Nordic Cuban sandwich.” The glaring omission we noticed on the menu? The prices. Does not bode well, considering the original AQ Cafe on Park Ave. btw. 37+38th is already teetering on the edge of being outside the Midtown Lunch price range.

We’re also wondering what this will mean for FIKA Swedish Espresso bar, our current Scandinavian fave in the northern reaches of Midtown. It doesn’t get mentioned too often on the site, and is a little pricey, but they deserve credit for serving swedish meatballs in sandwich form (an item also on the AQ Kafe menu.) Walked by today and they were pretty packed, but it will be interesting to see how they fare once the M. Samuelsson train rolls north.

The most famous in Midtown is ‘wichcraft, Tom Colicchio’s upscale sandwich shop which opened its first location in Bryant Park a few years ago- and now has 4 stores in Midtown (with a 5th coming soon to Herald Square).  David Burke also has Burke in a Box in Bloomingdales, which is best described as “cheaper”, but not exactly cheap.  And of course there is Matt Kenney’s FreeFoods NYC.  (The latter pair, both too pricey to be considered Midtown Lunch’es.)  But by far, the best deal in Midtown for chef obsessed eaters is AQ Cafe, a downscale cafe in the Scandinavian House from Aquavit’s Marcus Samuelsson.  And the best part is, it falls in the Midtown Lunch price range.

What they’ve got and a +/- after the jump…

If you pay attention to the comments here on Midtown Lunch, AQ Cafe pops up every so often as a recommendation- but for the most part it’s relatively obscure.  For some reason, people either don’t know it’s there- or just don’t think of it as a real lunchtime option.  But Swedish meatballs, a famous chef, and everything on the menu under $10 make it one of my favorite places for a “nice” lunch in Midtown.

The first time I ever went, I had the Gravlax Club- a much better than I expected sandwich with smoked salmon and avocado served on a hearty (and tasty) 7 Grain bread.  It came with potato salad, and pickles and felt worth every bit of the $8.25 I spent on it.  (Every good Jewish boy knows that lox is expensive!)

I love Swedish meatballs (you may say the secret ingredient is lingonberries), and while AQ Cafe’s version is tasty- it doesn’t replace my dream of one day having an Ikea in Midtown.  $9.50 makes it pretty close to being outside of the Midtown Lunch price range, but it tasted good- and they give you enough mashed potatoes to make up for the fact that there are only 5 meatballs.

For true lovers of Scandinavian food though, there is only one option- and that is the Smorgasbord.  Served cold, your $9 gets you a taste of everything, including two kinds of smoked salmon, 3 different pickled herrings, a couple small potatoes, a piece of cheese, a small scoop of shrimp salad, and two meatballs with lingonberries.  I love smoked and pickled fish, but even I had trouble finishing all the herring- which is certainly an acquired taste.  It comes with bread, crackers and sour cream too, making it incredibly filling (and satisfying for those of us who are into variety).

Not down with the smoked fishes and hot plates?  There are four other sandwiches that look pretty damn good, including an open faced roast beef with horseradish and a “Nordic Cuban”, featuring Swedish ham.  They also have soups and a few salads in addition to three other hot dishes.  Amazingly though, despite the pedigree of the place, nothing on the menu is over $10, making it a true Midtown Lunch, and the perfect place for those of us looking for slightly more upscale food, without have to pay through the nose.

THE +

• We can’t afford to eat at Aquavit, so this is the next best thing
• Marcus Samuelsson’s food for under $10
• It has a nice sit down cafe, but you order at the counter- so there is no tipping to drive the price of the lunch up
• High quality Scandinavian food, served on nice plates, during lunch in Midtown for under $10.  Amazing.
• Did I mention everything is under $10???

THE – (What somebody who doesn’t like this place would say)

• The seating area fills up during lunchtime, so you may have to take your food to go.
• The hot plates teeter close to being outside the Midtown Lunch price range
• The gravy on the Swedish meatballs may be too creamy for some
• It’s not Ikea
• I hate smoked and pickled fishes
• The sandwiches are a little too small for the price
• Not always the most filling lunch, depending on what you order

AQ Cafe inside the Scandinavian House, 58 Park Ave. btw. 37+38th, 212-847-9745

Eating in Translation has got the scoop on what looks like the place to be in Midtown Lunch’ing today!  It’s a little out of bounds (52nd btw. 1+2nd), but when you’re talking Norwegian food, made and served by Scandinavian church ladies… I’m there.

The Norwegian Seamen’s Church is having their annual Christmas Fair this weekend, and it starts today at Noon- which means if you work on the East side of Midtown, and were hoping to find a Christmas Fair with Norwegian food to spend your lunch hour at today, your wish has come true.  The official website makes claims of a “Cafeteria w/Smorgasbord” (and who doesn’t love a smorgasbord???)  Not exactly sure what food they’re going to have, but I’m guessing pickled herring will be making an appearance.

If this fair is any good (which, how could it not be?), I may have to check out their famous $17 all you can eat Norwegian buffet, offered every Wednesday at the Church from September through May. 

There are actually three Scandinavian Church fairs this weekend, and if you can’t make it to the Seaman’s Church today, Eating in Translation is doing a Scandinavian Church Fair Crawl tomorrow starting at Noon.

Norwegian Seaman’s Church, 317 East 52nd St, (btw. 1+2nd Ave.)