Midtown Lunch

If you were following Eater’s Burger Week last week, you may recall that Midtown Lunch favorite, Social Eatz, pulled off a fairly shocking if not controversial win as the “Nation’s Best Burger”. As a gesture of gratitude to their customers and fans that helped them achieve the land-slide victory, Social Eatz will pour you a complementary cocktail for every Bibimbap Burger that you order.

The promotion starts today (just in time for Cinco de Mayo!), and will last for the entire month of May, and is only good for the promotional cocktail (no beer/wine) and for dine-in customers only. So for anyone that’s looking for a spot for a liquid lunch (or dinner for that matter), now’s your chance to try the Nation’s Best Burger with a side of free booze.

Yesterday was the start of the 5 week long free food giveaway from the “Taste of Korea” food truck. Their 1st stop was at Bryant Park and lucky for me I happened to be having lunch at Bryant Park yesterday.  Luckily I spotted them early enough, because even though their Facebook page says they would be serving up freebies until 2pm, they closed the line around 1:15 yesterday.  After 20mins of standing in line I was handed a very nice looking bulgogi filet mignon silder with a side of kimchi. Finely sliced tasty warm filet mignon, buns toasted in butter, and the freshness and texture from the scallions and the slice of cucumber made a really good slider.

Today the truck will be at 52nd & 6th serving Danji’s spicy pork belly (the Serious Eats crew are fans of their spicy pork belly slider). Make sure to check their Facebook page or the ML Twitter Tracker for the truck’s schedule.

Time Out New York reports that Top Chef All Stars winner, Richard Blais will be slinging various pork dishes throughout the day Thursday at a promotional pop up cafe for the National Pork Board at 470 Park Ave. South off 32nd St. Freebies will be doled out at 10:30am, 2:30pm, 4:30pm and 6:30pm. At least it’s not a truck…

Freeloaders, tomorrow (Tuesday, April 12th) is this year’s Free Cone Day at Ben & Jerry’s. Details are the same as in years past–free cones are offered from noon until 8pm. Lines tend to be busiest at lunch and towards the end of the day but generally move quickly. According to their Scoop Shop search engine the Rock Center Concourse branch is participating as is the one on the 4th fl of Macy’s.

Speaking of Clusterfluffs, I noticed the other day when I walked by Ben & Jerry’s that in addition to the new Late Night Snack flavor they have another new one called Clusterfluff.

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Food truck as promotional gimmick sort of hacks us off, but you can’t go wrong with food from New Orleans. Grub Street reports that HBO is promoting a new season of Tremé today by handing out pralines, king cake, and Hubiq’s pie from a truck. The freebie madness begins at Columbus Circle at 10am, goes down to Bryant Park for 11:30am then makes its way down to Flatiron Lunch bounds with stops at Madison Square Park and Union Square in the late afternoon and evening.