Midtown Lunch

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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It’s been awhile since I’ve been to Fashion Soup, a really good take out place on 41st btw. 6th & Broadway featuring tasty soups homemade by its Eastern European owner (who also works in the store during the day.) Seeing as it’s Fashion Week, I thought I’d drop by and see what was going on. In addition to being curious about changes, I was also secretly interested in seeing if business changed considering the influx of fashionable peoples under tents, half an avenue away in Bryant Park.

What I found was a big surprise…  Read more »

While Pinkberry continues its quest for Frozen Yogurt World Domination (according to Eater, two more locations are opening soon in Midtown), blatant rip off Yogurberry quietly opened inside of the Cafe Duke on 41st & Broadway yesterday.

The menu, prices, and general concept are exactly the same.  As for taste, I don’t really know since I’ve never eaten at Pinkberry (and only ate the Yogurberry because they were giving away free samples).  My thoughts on the subject of the new Frozen Yogurt Craze are perfectly summed up 1 minute and 56 seconds into this amazing Gakwer Video.

Continuing our Fashion Week theme, I decided to give the full +/- treatment to a place I discovered on Friday, and mentioned briefly in yesterday’s post.  Walking back to work from taking pictures of ‘wichcraft for my Fashion Week guide to Midtown Lunch, I randomly stumbled upon this weird little soup place- and based on the name alone, and what was going on half a block away in Bryant Park, I figured I had to check it out.  As big and strange as NYC is, it really is a small world.  Coincidentally enough, I ran into a friend of mine from college who I’ve maybe seen twice in the past 7 years, who was picking up lunch in the weird soup place.. so I asked him if it was any good, and on his recommendation I decided to check it out.

Whatever pre-conceived notion you might have about a place called “Fashion Soup Corp” it’s definitely wrong.  There’s nothing about this place that is fashionable (unless you count the fashion magazines strewn around the counter for patrons to read).  It’s actually so bare bones, you wouldn’t be surprised to hear that they opened up just for Fashion Week attendees once a year (like those Halloween stores in the mall)… but that is not the case.  Fashion Soup has been on 41st St. btw. 6th & Broadway for years- and the brother and sister duo who run it make a delicious array of homemade soups, sandwiches, quesadillas and empanadas for a menu that changes every single day.

What I got, and the +/- after the jump…

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