Midtown Lunch

I know some of you work on the outskirts of Midtown Lunch boundaries, and others of you don’t understand why I have boundaries at all (sorry, every man must know his limits), so this one is for you people.

Piece of Chicken, the little take out place that opened in the kitchen of Jezebel (now 5 Napkin Burger) on 45th btw. 8+9th, has re-opened after being closed by the Department of Health for an expired permit.  This is good news for anybody who likes $1 pieces of fried chicken, collard greens, and black eyed peas, mixed with $2.50 scoops of mac and cheese.  They’ve also started serving plate lunches, further solidifying its reputation as one of the few places to get decent soul food in Midtown (even if it is out of bounds.)

8 cent mac and cheese, and more crappy BBQ, after the jump…  Read more »

Big news out of the Midtown pizza front: Lazzara’s, the relatively old school sit down pizza place on 38th btw. 7+8th is getting a second location on 9th Ave. btw. 43+44th. Opened 23 years ago, the original Lazzara’s has been mentioned a few times on this site in the comments, usually when the discussion of best chicken parm is raised. Unlike the original, which is opened Monday through Friday and only until 9 p.m., the new location will be opened 24 hours, and according to Tony Lazzara will be standing room only, delivery and take out.  Slightly out of bounds for Midtown Lunch’ing purposes, the 9th Ave. location will hopefully lighten the lunchtime load on the original, which has some pretty long wait times between Noon and 2pm.  They expect the new place to be up and running in the next 2-3 months.

With so many cheap, order-at-a-counter-and-take-it-to-a-table pizza and chicken parm places in Midtown, Lazzara’s isn’t really a prototypical Midtown Lunch. But with food this fresh and good, and a fairly busy take out business, it’s tough to ignore. Check out what they’ve got, after the jump… Read more »

It’s just out of bounds for Midtown Lunch’ing purposes, but every time I walk by this place on 9th Ave. btw. 36+37th I always think of the Seinfeld episode where Jerry convinces Babu to turn his cafe into a Pakistani restaurant (it ends up failing).  The Soup Nazi was originally in Hell’s Kitchen, less than 20 blocks north, so it’s not beyond the realm of possibility that this is the place that inspired Seinfeld and Larry David as well!  Some more corroborating evidence: Cuisine of Pakistan has been opened for over 20 years, and before it was Pakistani food, it was a deli called Saul’s.  The episode, titled “The Cafe“, aired in 1991.

I don’t know if it’s worth venturing all the way out to 9th Ave. from Midtown for this place, but from the sounds of this write up on Umamimart maybe it is.  Plus they have kati rolls (although doesn’t everybody these days?)

Check out their kati roll “glamour shot” after the jump…  Read more »

I was so excited by the description of Shih Lee offered up by Profiled: Midtown Luncher “Kayoko” I asked her to join the slowly growing list of Midtown Lunch contributors, to write about the good places to eat in the out of bounds reaches of Midtown East (she works on 1st Ave. over by the U.N. building.  Kayoko has her own most excellent blog http://umamimart.blogspot.com/ but has agreed to pop over here every once in awhile to make everyone in Midtown proper (and now Donwtown) a little jealous every once in awhile.

To call where I work, off of 1st Ave near the UN building, “Out of Bounds” Midtown is an understatement. A TEN minute walk from Grand Central, just trying to navigate through the hoards of frantic workers and tourists in the station easily takes a few minutes every morning. Oh, the price we pay to work in the glorious east side of Manhattan’s Midtown.  And of course, as with all Midtown workerbees, there’s the great Midtown Lunch dilemma! My goal here is to try to make all you Midtown West and Downtown people wish you worked on the outskirts of the east side. WOOT! Let’s see if I could possibly top the bulgogi cart, or the banh mi jewelry shop (JEALOUS!) with Shih Lee, my personal favorite, at least one a week, East side lunch.  Read more »

Save Tony Video, courtesy of the Street Vendor Project

The New York Times has an article this morning about Tony “The Dragon” Dragonas, the famous street meat and burger vendor situated just outside the Midtown Lunch boundaries, on 62nd & Madison.  According to the Times, the 2005 Vendy Award winner “has 42 outstanding violations totaling $16,865” and “next month he is scheduled to appear before an administrative law judge, who will determine whether he can continue operating.”

Not mentioned in the newspaper article, but highlighted on the website of the Street Vendor Project, the organization who runs the annual Vendy awards, is Tony’s explanation for the fines:

Last year, the guy in the restaurant down the street started to complain about my smoke. I’ve never really had any problems with the Health Department, but the inspectors started coming every couple of weeks. Every time they came, they would give me 3,4, 5 or 6 tickets. Usually they cited me for the smoke. They also gave me tickets for not wearing my hat, being too close to the crosswalk, and other things. But never for selling bad food — nobody has ever gotten sick or complained about my food.

If “The Dragon” gets shut down, it will be a big blow to the city’s street meat conossieurs.  Get more information, and sign the petition to help save Tony at http://streetvendor.org/

Despite reports saying that Hallo Berlin Express (9th btw 50+51st) will not open until lunch tomorrow, they are saying everything is ready to go and it may open today sometime after 4pm. Anybody up for an afterwork beer and brat? If the answer is yes, check back here this afternoon, and I’ll confirm as soon as the first sausage comes off the line…