Midtown Lunch

In lieu of our regular review, we thought a partial list of open restaurants in Flatiron might be helpful.

Without power at my apartment and office, I relocated to the north. For those of you braver than I and still toughing it out in Flatiron, we thought you might appreciate a list of where to eat on Friday. Fingers crossed we get power back over the weekend.

Eater has been tracking restaurants that are open all around town since Sunday afternoon, and it put a smile on my face to see restaurants hosting sidewalk grill-outs to use up food before it spoiled. Check here for city-wide updates.

Arguably more important than food is the need to charge your cell phone. Mad Park News posted a list of places near the park to charge up as of October 31. They also posted the above photo of mass cell-charging at 7-Eleven on 5th Ave. I salute 7-Eleven for providing a place to charge phones.

If you are reading this, you might have enough battery to try your luck on seamless.com. But remember to follow Seamless’ Sandy Ordering Protocol, which requires calling the restaurant to double check that they are open and able to deliver.

Melt
Melt has been open with limited hours on Wednesday and Thursday with intermittent power and food outages. They are hoping to be open Friday but couldn’t confirm at press time. They hope to answer phones, so call 212.447.MELT (6358) to confirm.
55 West 26th street (between 6th Ave and Broadway), (212) 447-MELT (6358)

Hill Country
Hill Country will be open starting at noon, and they confirmed they will have a full menu on Friday.
30 West 26th Street (between 6th Avenue and Broadway), (212) 255-4544

Ace Hotel and NoMad Hotel
It also seems that just up Broadway, The Ace Hotel has opened The Breslin, John Dory Oyster Bar, No. 7 Sub, and Stumptown, in addition, to outlets for cell phone charging! And if you are interested in splurging over the ML budget to release some of your stress, NoMad is also open and serving.
Ace Hotel, 20 West 29th Street at Broadway, (212) 679-2222
NoMad Hotel, 1170 Broadway at West 28th Street, (212) 796-1500

Greetings from Midtown! I actually made it into work today, walking from the UES down to Midtown. Didn’t see any carts yet all the way down 6th Ave., not even coffee carts, until I reached 46th where Kim’s Aunt Cart is parked on 46th street, but on the opposite side of the street from their normal spot. Eddie’s Pizza Truck is also parked on 46th, and Park Italian is open (but the Pret next door is not). In Times Sq. the Nuchas Kiosk is back open in its regular spot, and Snack Box is open too but has moved south closer to the Rickshaw Kiosk. And, the Starbucks on 53rd & 6th is open but has a massive line down out the door.

On the Twitter… Glaze Teriyaki let us know that they’re open in Midtown today with limited delivery (but still closed in Union Sq., naturally), as is Minar, the Potbelly on 36th & 7th, and the Shake Shack on 8th Ave. And according to this Ma Peche, PJ Clarke’s, 5 Napkin Burger, and Schnipper’s Quality Kitchen are all open. Are you back at work today? Feel free to let us know about any other notable openings in the comments.

Out there in the Midtown Lunch readership, we hope that there are some of you who are involved in the restaurant industry (and if there are, can someone drop at least one food truck on 34th and 9th? Thanks in advance) and in this turbulent industry where something like 4 out of 5 new restaurants fail each year, there’s always room for improvement. Food Network is running an open casting call for restaurant owners and general managers to appear on a new TV show. Are you lamenting your fate and reading Midtown Lunch simultaneously? Reach out to Jessica Wendelborn (jwendelborn@magilla.tv) with your name, contact details, business name and location. They want to “help” with the assistance of a “well known celebrity restaurateur,” so you could end up with a famous British shouter as easily as Daniel Bouloud.

My unsolicited advice for your failing restaurant would be to retool it into a ramen shop or izakaya and Skycrane yourself over to 35th, but I’m sure that the Food Network viewership would love to see your suffering get turned around in a TV-friendly manner. Anyone gonna take them up on this? Feel free to spread the word!

In a move that might shock no one, Lily O’Brien’s (40th btw 5th+6th) shut its doors on Friday and, as you can see from this picture, its presence is quickly being erased (thanks Wayne!) Why do I say “shocks no one”? For starters, the infinitely-better Lady M is opening a few doors down (we’re patiently waiting here, Lady M, no rush!) and Lily O’Brien’s did have a few internal problems I was privy to. There is hope to still snag their treats, according to the signs in the window.

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Sorry it took so long but we finally took down the forums, which have been plagued with spam for the past few months. We were hoping to just fix the problem, but unfortunately the issue require us to make changes to the entire site which will take a bit longer. The good news is, when we relaunch the forums we’ll also be introducing some exciting improvements to Midtown Lunch as a whole… so you have that look forward to.  We’ve always been super proud of the community that we’ve built here at Midtown Lunch and are committed to having a place for you guys to exchange tips, organize meet ups and just mess around.  Rest assured we are working hard to fix the issue, and hope to have the forums back up and running (in addition to a lot of other exciting new changes) in no time.

For season three, Food Network’s Great Food Truck Race is featuring competitors who have dreams of opening a food truck (but don’t yet have a business). The winner, in addition to $50,000, gets to keep the truck. Sounds like a brilliant idea – anybody remember America’s Next Great Restaurant? But that means no familiar faces, like our friends from Korilla, who got involved in a bit of a controversy last year. One team is from Parsippany, NJ, so if by chance they win, maybe they’ll try their luck in the Big Apple. The show premieres Sunday at 10 p.m.

Last week I was excited to discover of Monsieur Singh’s Lassi Bars Cart selling frozen lassi, an Indian yogurt drink, on a stick in Union Square for $2 each. Apparently yesterday the cart was at 40th and Park and according to Facebook they had such an awesome day, that they’ll be back in that spot again today until 7pm. As with all mobile food, check before you go via Facebook page or twitter @monsieursingh.

Do you wonder what the ML contributors do when they’re not eating lunch in Midtown? (We’re actually pretty easy to stalk!)

Making Moustache Cookies at Butter + Love. Photo by Donny.

For his upcoming beer video, Brian interviewed Garrett Oliver at the Brooklyn Brewery, Donny has a new installment in his Foodaisance series at Butter + Love, Rachel lunched at Urban Lobster Shack, Blondie recapped Choice Streets, Brownie enjoyed the sheep’s milk dumplings at Kefi and I got a preview of Bed-Stuy’s newest bar.

Elsewhere in the ML universe… Zach launched a Food is the New Rock podcast, Jamie checked out a truck that serves hamburgers and banh mi sandwiches in Philly and Andrea reported on a sustainable food truck event called International Meats Local downtown at New Amsterdam Market this weekend.

On the ML Twitter Tracker today… Bob & Jo are on Vanderbilt btw. 45+46th, the Treats Truck are in an “old favorite” spot, Fishing Shrimp is on 48th & Park, Crisp on Wheels are on 53rd & Park, Eddie’s Pizza is on 46th btw 5+6th, Kimchi Truck is on 55th btw. 6+7th, Domo Taco is on 46th & Park, Phil’s Steaks is on 45th & Mad, Korilla is on 45th & 5th, Cinnamon Snail is on 55th & Broadway and donating 20% of their profits to Earth Share NY, and the Our Heroes Truck- which you can read all about on our Downtown site– is in Midtown today parked on 51st btw. Park+Madison.

We haven’t check in with Pure Thai (the winner of ML’s Reader’s Poll last year for Best Thai) since they were forced to change their name from Pure Thai Shophouse to Pure Thai Cookhouse. It’s been a favorite of Chris H.’s for a while now and I decided it was finally time to make the pilgrimage to Ninth Avenue for myself.  I came with a few friends so we were able to order more food and stay within our budgets. We started with two appetizers – both on their own are within ML price limit, but neither are large enough for a full meal.

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