Midtown Lunch

Thanks to Lunch’er “Nick” for passing along this one.  He was walking by Rock Center yesterday, where they were handing out flyers asking people to audition for a new show called “America’s Top Restaurant.  It’s from the producers of Top Chef, and the show is going to pay to turn somebody’s idea for a restaurant into a franchise. They’ll be at the NBC Experience store today (Friday) and tomorrow (Saturday) from 10am to 2pm scouting for people and apparently you don’t even have to cook or anything… you just have to have one good idea.  Maybe Lunch’er “Jim” will pitch his Thai food cart idea. What do you say Jim?! We’re behind you…  You can get more details about the auditions here.

I’m sure it sounded brilliant coming out of the mouth of some overpaid marketing consultant (“what better way to cure a post St. Paddy’s day hangover”) but a 7-9:30am free food alert!  What were you guys thinking?  Those who did manage to stumble into work on time today were treated to a delicious free breakfast (and virgin bloody mary) courtesy of Tabasco on 48th St., but according to neenabee there was absolutely no line (a stark contrast to the NBC free food trucks back in February.)  I wonder how the downtown location fared… they got a far better Noon time slot!

Some of you might have already heard that NYC’s Board of Health voted Tuesday to rate cleanliness in the city’s “25,648 food-service establishments” with a publicly posted letter grade. Grades range from A to D and while personally this news brings back memories of cramming for tests in High School, this isn’t really as controversial as foodies may want to dramatize it as. I was a kid in LA when restaurant grades were first introduced and after a year or two of getting used to it, their influence on the eating habits of the population reverted back to normal. Hell, even Zach made one of his first LA Eats a B-student lunch. Where would you stop eating at if they only got a B or C? I’ve got my eye on you Tads!

There have been a lot of changes here on Midtown Lunch over the past few months, and while most of you probably don’t care (“just tell me where the damn lunches are in Midtown!”) for those who do we’ve redesigned our “Contact” page to make things a little easier. Not sure who you should be emailing tips to? Or following on Twitter? Hopefully this page will answer all of your questions.

And while we’ve got you… here’s an updated list of RSS Feeds as well for all the sites and the forums.

Here we go again… was on my way to Oaxaca Grill and noticed this madness outside of the newly opened Mapo Tofu (on Lex btw. 39+40th). The restaurant claims there is no connection between them and Wu Liang Ye (the former tenant), but clearly the protesters disagree. This all stems from a lawsuit in which Wu Liang Ye employees claimed to be mistreated. We’re not sure who is right or wrong, but the cops have shown up.

Check out that photo after the jump…

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Ever since I started this blog (almost 4 years ago), friends and family have been telling me “You should expand!” “Branch out to other cities.” “Register a ton of ‘lunch’ domain names, and conquer the world!!!” And my thought was “Clearly you don’t read my blog. Or work in Midtown.” The site is called Midtown Lunch. It’s about lunch… in Midtown. It is what it is, and that’s why it’s so great. And even if I did want to expand, there’s one major problem: there is no place like Midtown. Seriously. We couldn’t have done this anywhere else. As much as we all like to joke and call it a wasteland, no city in the country has an area comparable to Midtown. Nowhere can you find so many people, crammed into such a small space, with so many lunch options. Despite all of its faults, Midtown is unique. Midtown is (dare I say) special.

The truth is, I never had any intention of turning this site into something bigger. Hell, I never intended it to be anything more than a hobby slash excuse to eat gross lunches every day. I started it for fun… a Midtown Lunch’er myself, eager to leave my co-workers to their boring turkey sandwiches while I went in search of something a bit more satisfying.

But clearly you guys had a different plan for me.

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So I wanted to let you guys know that the rumors are true. I am moving to Los Angeles at the end of the month. But don’t worry, Midtown Lunch as you know it isn’t going anywhere. Much more on that once everything is finalized… but the more pertinent news is that we’ll be expanding to cover Downtown and Philadelphia full time at the end of this week (with one familiar face.) And, in a move that should surprise nobody, starting next month I’ll begin eating my way through the amazing Los Angeles lunch and street food scene for your viewing pleasure. (Although I will say here and now, even in L.A., the no salad rule still stands!)

More on all of these new developments coming soon…

Don’t know if you’ve seen this on any other blogs, but the Wandering Foodie (who ate 24 meals in 24 hours in Boston last year) is spending the entire month of January eating every meal out in NYC and posting about it (kind of like the exact opposite of my friend Cathy’s blog.) In Midtown, he’s already been to Szechuan Gourmet (with Chubby Chinese Girl) and and the Burger Joint (with Behind the Burner), and on Wednesday I’m taking him out for some street meat. You can follow his journey at here.

…the very first Profiled Midtown Lunch’er ever (Harry from The Brooklyn Kitchen) is teaming up with butcher extraordinaire Tom Mylan to open a “a food dork megaplex [and butcher shop] on the north side of Williamsburg.” Brooklyn Based broke the news this morning, and the blogs went so crazy… I… well… felt a little left out, and wanted to show how excited I am for the news. They’re good friends of Midtown Lunch, and if you love good food (and meat), which I know you do, you should be as excited as I am. Can’t wait until the opening in October? Tom & the Crew will be hosting a bbq and campout at the Queens Farm this weekend. Smoked beer can chicken, cobbler, and all the Brooklyn Brewery beer you can drink, plus biscuits and gravy in the morning and a Van Halen coverband. How can you not?!? Ticket info is here. We now return to you to your regular scheduled programing… “Fat Man in Midtown Getting Fatter” followed by “Vendor Wars: The How to Caulk Large Concrete Fixtures Episode”.

Photo: Tom Mylan’s butchering class at the Brooklyn Kitchen