Midtown Lunch

Pump Energy Food on 55th Street has undergone a lot of changes in the last year or so. In addition to a complete renovation back in January, they just changed their name to Dig Inn, which is a pretty lame pun and doesn’t really say much about the food or the atmosphere. This type of healthy food is rarely on Midtown Lunch’s radar, but Brownie visited it before the name change and, most recently, I found myself walking by one Friday afternoon so figured I’d check it out to see if anything was worthwhile.

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It’s been less than a year since I last checked on the Pump’s most recent renovation, but as of this week they’ve completed their transformation from the bodybuilder paradise of the 90s to a retro/seasonal/local marketplace. The Dionysus plate is long gone and the menu is “more streamlined” (aka less choices). Early adopters (and Pump vets–I’m looking at you Lunch’r Pigiron) let us know what you think in the comments.

Earlier this month we got the news that the midtown health food chain, The Pump, has finished renovating their West 55th Street location with a new look and a new local/seasonal menu. While the Pump has their fair share of detractors on ML, I’ve been an occasional customer for almost as many years as I’ve been Midtown Lunching. So I decided to check out the new look and new menu for the ML team.
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Confession time. I’ve been an occasional customer of The Pump for years (hides head in shame). I know there are a lot of haters out there, but for any of you fans who are probably also in hiding, the West 55th Street branch (btw 5th and 6th) reopened yesterday with a completely new look (no more muscle protein shops) and updates to the menu since Zach’s visit last year. Looks like the Dionysus plates have been replaced with dishes made with all local, seasonal and sustainable. I couldn’t care less about the new vintage look and antique bric-a-brac, but I am interested to see how the food stacks up. I’ll swing by soon to check it out. In the meantime, early adopters feel free to let us know what you think of the new Pump in the comments.

Is this too much Pump for one day? Or is it good to get it out of our system and never speak of it again? The Pump location in the food court on 3rd Ave. btw. 49+50th (with Sophie’s, Pampano, & the new Urban Lobster Shack) has closed. Makes sense now that they have their crazy new Chipotle-like location on 52nd btw. Lex+3rd.

I see a trend developing here.  A few months ago I was enticed by “chinese crunchy things” and “Thai peanut sauce” into trying something at Just Salad for the first time, and more recently Pump started offering their healthier version of “Rafiqi’s street meat”.  Like the Thai crunch wrap at Just Salad, it was enough to get me to enter a place that I would have never considered eating at before.  Clearly it’s a smart marketing strategy.  How else are they going to expand their business?  They already have the mindless, boring, Midtown masses eating their “healthy” less flavorful lunches (I don’t care what they say, fat=flavor people), so the only way to get to us (the real eaters) is to offer stuff like this.  And what can I say?  I couldn’t resist.

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