Midtown Lunch

I could barely contain my excitement yesterday, when I stumbled upon Gulluoglu– which opened on 52nd and 2nd Ave. last week.  Known mostly for their extensive selection of Turkish baklava, the first American branch of this popular Turkish chain opened on Coney Island Ave. in Brooklyn back in 2005, but this is their first Manhattan location.  Alot of what they sell is imported from Turkey, but I was surprised to find a good number of savory baked goods plus a menu of sandwiches and salads available.  Sadly I had already had lunch, but I could resist picking up a few things- and snapping a few photos of everything they had to offer.

Check it out after the jump…

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Lunch’er Adam used the ML Forums to organize a meetup at Bombay Eats yesterday so lunchers could sample the various Indian pizzas being offered by Bombay Eats (on 52nd btw. 8+9th Ave.) See, despite my pleading they don’t offer their Indian food topped pies by the slice, only as an entire pizza. They’ll jury-rig a slice of saag pizza if you ask nicely, but if you want to try the real deal you have to order a whole fresh pie. Not a problem if you can get 8 lunchers together for lunch… which is exactly what happened yesterday. Lunch’er “Adam Prato” sent in this report:

Lamb Keema Pie. Photo courtesy of Jessica@Food Mayhem

We actually had a great turnout. At the start, 5 of us midtownlunchers (jessica@foodmayhem, wellerfan, stevenp, scottyelich, and I) showed up for the Indian Pizza outing. After some deliberation, we decided to order 2 18″ pies; stevenp had heard that the 14″ was too doughy, which was exactly my concern since the difference between most “medium” and “large” pies is how thin they stretch the same amount of dough. We went with the Lamb Keema and the Saag paneer. Shortly after ordering, 3 of my coworkers (all of Indian descent) had unexpectedly stumbled in after a meeting since I told them all about the “indian pizza” phenomenon. Though they were there for the buffet, we coerced them into the indian pizza. With the magic number of 8 people, we were able to order a 3rd pie! So we went with the Chicken Tikka.

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Knowing how much I love the all-you-can-eat buffet, Serious Eats grand poobah Ed Levine IM’d pretty soon after he and the SENY crew discovered El Ranchito del Agave- the brand new Mexican restaurant on 9th Ave. btw. 36+37th that features a lunch buffet.  He knew I’d be excited (I’m very serious about my all you can eat buffets), but cautioned that he might have finally found an all you can eat buffet that even I couldn’t get behind 100%.  Ed found the taquitos to be dry, and the mole too sweet- but the rest of the crew seemed to like it enough in their review… and it’s only $8!  How could it be bad!? (After all you are talking to a guy who has willingly eaten at an all you can eat Chinese buffet in the back woods of Tennessee.)

What I’m trying to say is my standards for all you can eat buffets are far lower than Ed’s, so I rushed out 9th to check this one out.

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…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

My quest to find a real gyro sandwich in Midtown never takes a vacation. So when I spotted this sign on 34th btw. 8+9th in the window of Lezzette, my curiosity was piqued. Sure, it’s out of the technical Midtown Lunch boundaries. And Lezzette looks more like a generic Midtown deli, than an authentic Greek restaurant. But whatever. “Homemade Gyro”! How could I not?

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This photo isn’t actually from Midtown, it was taken just outside Madison Square Park in front of the Flatiron Building- but I had to post it.  Taj Ma Hot Dog!?!  How could I not? Yesterday was Indian pizza, and now this?  The guy who took the photo didn’t have any extra info, but my hunch is it’s got to be for a movie.  Or maybe Tabla is opening a hot dog stand? Who knows. Got any info?  Put it in the comments, or email it to zach@midtownlunch.com

UPDATE: East Village Idiot has the scoop… it’s a set for the TV show Ugly Betty.

Photo courtesy of JoseSPiano

Related:
Saag Paneer Pizza? Bombay Eats Has Got You Covered
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August is shaping up to be “Crazy New Chains” month.  After weeks of being all carts all the time, it looks like  Midtown has switched gears.  Last week it was the piada, and yesterday we heard about the middle eastern Chipotle, and the kolache.  But out of all of those, I think I’m most excited for this latest one… Barros Lucco: a new, Chilean quick service lunch spot taking over the old 99 Miles to Philly location on 52nd and 2nd.  That particular out of bounds location seems a tad bit cursed, since it has seen burgers, and philly cheesesteaks fail in succession.  But these are Chilean sandwiches!  Something you can’t get anywhere else in Midtown.

The menu will not only feature Chilean sandwiches, like the churrasco, and chacarero, but also the completo- a Chilean hot dog topped with mayo and mashed avocado.  The owner was born in Chile, and the Barros Luco website links to two posts I wrote about an actual Chilean completo and churrasco, so I have high hopes that this place will be bringing the real deal to Midtown. Want to see what they are supposed to look like?  Check it out after the jump.

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Photo courtesy of Roboppy

Manganaro’s (along with its unaffiliated next door neighbor Manganaro’s Hero Boy) has been mentioned a few times on the site as a great place (on 9th Ave. btw 37+38th) to get an Italian sandwich. And even though it’s never been officially reviewed (it’s out of bounds, and a lot of things will cost you more than $10), I’ve always considered it an honorary Midtown Lunch. Which is why this post caught my eye on Fork New York, a long dormant blog run by Profiled Lunch’er “Andre Mika”. He resurrected his blog this week specifically to rant about the “bitches” who run the 100+ year old Manganaro’s Grosseria. The story is worth reading in its entirety, but is essentially summed up at the end with this:

“So I guess the moral of the story is, unless you love being abused and crapped on by people who you are trying to give your money to, stay away from Manganaro Grosseria Italiano.”

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El Rey del Sabor has added a third cart to their Mexican food empire. They’ve been flirting with the just out of ML bounds location on 28th Street and 6th Ave. for months now, but made it a permanent spot a few weeks ago.  This should considered great news for lunchers in the southern part of Midtown.  Their other two carts are located on 60th & 3rd, and 49th & 3rd.