Midtown Lunch

Believe or not I had actually never eaten at the super famous Tony “The Dragon” Dragonas cart on Madison & 62nd until last week.  I am very familiar with his disciple, Carnegie John (on 56th and 7th), but have never made it up to see the man himself.  I know it’s just a few blocks out of bounds, but there’s something about the UES that repels me- and if I do find myself up anywhere near that area, I usually eat at the original El Rey del Sabor Cart (on 60th and 3rd).

Anyway, a doctor’s appt. brought me right past the Dragon’s popular cart last week during lunch, and again those words popped into my head (like they have so many times before when faced with something delicious)…  “how could I not?”

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Last week I got an email from Lunch’er Kyle asking me if I had tried the new chocolate corn bread muffins from Piece of Chicken, the just out of bounds soul food take out place on 45th btw. 8+9th Ave. where almost everything on the menu is $1 to $3.  Why no.  I haven’t tried the new choclate corn bread muffins, was my reply.  Clearly I needed to revisit Piece of Chicken, and see what was going on.

To be completely honest though, I had ulterior motives.  Chocolate corn bread muffins sounded pretty good, but what I really wanted to try was the fried chicken and waffle and fried chicken livers, two items on the Piece of Chicken menu which always seemed to be sold out every single time I stopped by for like two weeks straight last year.  Well, it’s been awhile- but I returned to Piece of Chicken a few days ago, and both items were available.

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“The Dude abides.”

For those who mourned the loss of Two Boots inside the Rock Center concourse, its replacement is finally opening in the next few weeks on 9th Ave. btw. 44+45th.  Sure, it’s outside the official Midtown Lunch boundaries, and most of you are probably closer to the Grand Central Terminal food court (which still has their Two Boots)- but this is a full Two Boots location, complete with artwork that has become a staple of all the non-food court Two Boots locations. (And as a fan of New Orleans, and the Big Lewbowski I most definitely approve.)

Your first look at the newly painted windows, is after the jump…

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There’s a big part of me that wants $5 curry from Go Go Curry today (today is their second anniversary), but there’s another part of me that knows today should be all about the Mexican food.  Even though people complain that there is no good Mexican food in New York City, we do have a decent number of options in Midtown.  There’s the two El Rey del Sabor carts (60th & 3rd, 49th & 3rd), Pampano Taqeria, a bunch of tamale options, and if you are willing to trek to 10th Ave., Tehuitzingo (btw. 47+48th) and Tulcingo del Valle (btw. 46+47th.)  Or, you can hit up Mamacita’s favorite Mexican spot: Las Poblanitas.

Our beloved Happy Hour correspondent has been trying to get me to go to Las Poblanitas for a years now (long before she started contributing to the site in an official capacity.)  Just out of bounds (on 38th btw. 8+9th), if you’ve ever walked by 38th & 8th during lunch before you have undoubtedly seen the guy holding the sign pointing you towards tacos, tamales, and burritos.  If you haven’t before, you would be wise to follow the arrow on that sign.

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“Why don’t you write about the places on 9th Ave.!?!” is a question I get a lot.  My reply is usually some form of “Well then I have to go to 2nd Ave., and 26th street, and 65th Street… and then it never ends.”  Essentially, you have to have boundaries or else it’s complete chaos.  And while there are people who work on the outskirts who will travel to 2nd Ave. or 9th Ave. for lunch, most Midtown Lunch’ers will not… unless there is something that is going to make everyone say “oh man… I need that now.” Like banh mi, or tacos, or thai food, or $1 fried chicken.  Or gyros (and Greek pastries!)

The age old gyro question came up again last week, when Profiled Lunch’er Harry asked if there was a real Greek gyro to be had in Midtown.  Street carts, chop their gyro up and fry it on the griddle, rather than allowing it to fully cook on the spit, Gyro II leaves a lot to be desired, and while Famous Chicken Place does a bang up job- we still don’t have a real deal Greek gyro in the ML boundaries.  Unless you are willing to travel to 9th Avenue. Uncle Nick’s and Posiedon Bakery were (enthusiastically) recommended in the comments… and when commenters speak, I listen. And boy am I glad I did.

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It looks like Province Chinese Canteen, the little Tribeca mantou shop that closed at the end of last year, will be reopening soon on 53rd Street btw. 2+3rd under the new name “Mantao Chinese Sandwiches”. I’m all for little Chinese sandwiches, although according to a comment on Yelp, the original owners “‘sold’ the business to a midtown buyer, are franchising it out, and are keeping a %age of the profits.”  Should be interesting (especially since some folks didn’t like the place that much to begin win.)  I guess we’ll just have to wait and see if it’s any good…

Photo courtesy of Writing With My Mouth Full. And thanks to Kathryn Yu for the tip!

As promised by Grub Street last week, 2 Bros. Pizza opened today in the just out of bounds Hell’s Kitchen location of 9th Ave. & 40th Street. I don’t know if I’d normally trek to 9th Ave. for $1 pizza (oh, who am I kidding of course I would). 2 Bros. Pizza is already a well know dollar-a-slice mainstay in the East Village, and clearly they are looking to challenge 99 Cent Fresh Pizza’s domination of Midtown (they have two locations, one just one blocks away on 9th Ave. and 41st.) If today is any indication, they’re going to do pretty well…

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Photo courtesy of lazysundae

I haven’t been back to the Bayan Cafe, the just out of bounds Filipino place on 45th btw. 2+3rd, since I wrote about it a few years ago.  The most recent comment, from Lunch’er Nancy, was negative (apparently the prices have gone up) but according to this update posted to the Midtown Lunch flickr pool by lazysundae, things are just as good as I remembered them:

For 7.95 you get all this food. Kinda worth it if you eat half and save the rest. Unfortunately it was so good I ate all of it and had a stomachache for the rest of the afternoon. The mess at the top left is mixed veggies – bitter melon (ampalaya), butternut squash, green beans, eggplant, tomatoes in a sauce made with pork and bagoong (salty shrimp paste). At the bottom left is a chicken dish made with bananas (saging) that tasted like sweet adobo. Chicken esposito or something – I asked the guy twice what it was and I still can’t remember!

Related:
Bayan Cafe… Filipino Food Worth Breaking the Rules For

I was pretty excited when Pinche Taqueria (with two well known locations downtown) announced they’d be serving food out of Mantra on 2nd Ave. and 52nd.  Well, almost two weeks have gone by and-despite promises of a “lunch service” that was supposed to start last Monday- nothing has happened.  I finally called Mantra yesterday and got a completely different story than the one they were peddling a week and a half ago.  Pinche doesn’t come in every day… in fact they have only been coming on Thursday through Sunday, and only for dinner.  Plus, there are no plans right now to open for lunch.  Lame.

Though, I’ve been hearing rumors that eventually the Mantra space will be converted into a full time Pinche Taqueria.  I guess we’ll just have to wait for that to happen before we get some lunchtime Pinche action.