Midtown Lunch

Madison Square Eats returns to Worth Square (more commonly known as the intersection of Broadway, 5th Avenue and 25th Street) this Friday. They’re planning a familiar month-long stint — May 4 through June 1.

According to a recent blog post, you can expect to find a lot of familiar food surrounding the brightly colored umbrellas, as well as some new additions: Antica Focacceria, Arancini Bros., Asiadog, Bar Suzette, Birch Coffee, Caffe Moak, Calexico, Eataly, Graffiti/Mehtaphor, Gravy, Hong Kong Street Cart, Hot Blondies Bakery, ililli, La Sonrísa, Macaron Parlour, Mayhem & Stout, Mexicue, Mighty Balls, Mile End, Momofuku Milk Bar, Nunu Chocolates, Quartino, Red Hook Lobster Pound, Resto, Roberta’s Pizza, Sigmund’s and Stuffed Artisan Cannolis.

Check out our Madison Square Eats post from last spring to find about Ilili’s kafta wraps, Momofuku’s compost cookies or Bar Suzette’s savory crepes. And, in last fall’s post we wrote about Sigmund’s pretzels, Hong Kong Cart and Graffiti/Mahtaphor’s burger. I’m kind of bummed Fatty Crab isn’t back, but I am personally excited for the Mighty Balls sliders, which I was a fan of at last year’s Grub Street Food Festival. Mark your calendars, my friends, Madison Square Eats is coming fast!

Every Friday we go south of the ML boundaries in search of a delicious lunch. Sometimes it’s Murray Hill south or the Flatiron District, sometimes Gramercy and everything in between- but we just like to call it Flatiron Lunch.

When Mexicue announced they would be serving some brand new menu items this week, I realized we had never officially reviewed their brick and mortar location on 7th Avenue. Clay got a first look during their soft opening back in July, but we thought it was now time to get an official taste of the food.

I’m a big fan of the flavors at the truck and was excited by the prospect of their newest dish: a Bullet Burrito. Anybody who scored these puppies for free on Monday knows that they’re basically mini-burritos. They’re promoting them as a way to eat more than one burrito with different fillings inside and not enter a serious food coma. I definitely like this concept.

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I was pretty excited when I saw the first reports of Mexicue bringing its Mexican/Barbecue fusion to the northwest edge of Flatiron Lunch bounds. The area, south of Penn Station and around FIT has precious little good or interesting food to draw lunchers so having a solid spot like Mexicue will be huge.

According to Fork in the Road they had their soft opening last night and the first day of lunch service is today starting at 11am!  Last week, they offered a preview of the new shop to friends and family as a test of the ordering system and we snuck in to get you a look.

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Filed under ‘Inevitable, but exciting nonetheless’, there’s good news for the Midtown lunchers located around Penn Station. Flo Fab reports that one of the front runners in the gourmet food truck trend, Mexicue, will be opening a brick and mortar location this summer at 345 7th Ave (between 29th & 30th St). Furthermore, the national chain that everyone loves to hate (but secretly loves), Panera will be opening on the same block, at 330 7th Ave. Looks like after all these years, StreetMeasOnsumer3008 will finally get his wish.  [New York Times; New York Post via Eater]

At Midtown Lunch HQ, we get a lot of press releases on a daily basis. The majority come from chain restaurants pushing deals, such as ‘buy one get one free burritos’, or ridiculous concepts that most Midtown lunchers would never visit. But every once in a while, a reputable restaurant or vendor will give us a heads up on a new menu item or special, such as when Mexicue emailed us with the subject line of “Burnt Ends Chili” special. I would do a disservice to burnt ends trying to describe them and summarily why we got so excited about this email – so check out Serious Eats’ excellent description of this dish and you’ll understand why we dropped everything and hustled over to Mexicue for a try.
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It’s been about 5 months since the launch of Mexicue, and I’ve watched the steady patter of positive and negative commentary since my original assessment, with interest. Noticing they recently came under the good graces of the New York Times, I decided it was time for a re-visit. During my previous write-up, I’d commented that the food doesn’t shy from big flavors, though the portions are restrained and the operations needed a good deal of improvement. As the old saying goes, practice makes perfect, and while these guys still have room for improvement, they’ve certainly come a long way.

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Last week the Mexicue Truck exploded onto the Midtown Lunch scene, causing mayhem on Thursday.  Today?  Much of the same.  They were on 40th and 6th today, and by 12:40 the line was 30 deep.  Total pandemonium.  The Green Taste Truck, parked around the corner (on 6th btw. 39+40th)?  Not so much.  No love for the green-vegetarian option?! I guess vegetarian trucks just aren’t all the rage (or maybe all the vegetarians were trying to taste Mexicue’s awesome looking beet taco.) You’d think at the least they’d at least get a bit of spillover…