Midtown Lunch

If you like to eat, chances are you like to drink (read: a lot of you are freakin’ lushes), so every week our Happy Hour Correspondent “Mamacita” will post about a different bar in Midtown that fits the Midtown Lunch mentality: unhealthy food, not lame (unless it’s lame in a cool way), and most importantly… cheap.

Our existence is fraught with great but nigh unanswerable questions. “What is the meaning of life?’ “Is there a God?” “Will Jennifer Aniston ever make a watchable movie?” And here at Midtown Lunch the question is: “Why the F*%@k do you need three Yum Yum storefronts in a row?” I mean, this ain’t no hot asian threesome. We’re talking basically some generic Thai food with a decent happy hour. Well, I was forced to delve deeper into this quandary when a coworker choose this place for an after work bite.

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• There’s a Pio Pio on 10th Ave, and they have an $8 lunch special [Eating]
• If you hate your co-workers, eat the brussel sprout sub at No.7 Sub [Eating]
• Au Bon Pain sucks more than it used to [Eating]
• The Cucina on 56th btw. 5+6th has closed [Eating]
• Anybody need tickets to Choice Eats tonight? [MISC]

Just in case the name “Mamacita” didn’t tip you off, I’m not Irish. My knowledge of St. Patrick boils down to two things. First, he rid Ireland of snakes. That’s right he had enough of those mutherf**in’ snakes on his mutherf**in’ island. So, he went all Samuel L. Jackson on a geographic scale! That’s pretty badass. Second, It’s a time for the millions of Irish expats and their descendants to celebrate their heritage and remember the motherland –preferably by getting stinking drunk. The Irish loom large in the history of this fine city so consider it your civic duty to raise a glass or five to the Emerald Isle.

This here concludes your history lesson now on to the boozing.

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This seems like wasting time at work weather, don’t you think?  We’ve got just the thing for those of you who like food and music… we all know Zach is incredibly fat, but what you may not know is he used to work in the music industry (at Sirius/XM on 48th and 6th to be exact.)  He left all that behind a few years ago to get fatter do Midtown Lunch full time, but has found a way to bring music back into his life… by combining it with food! (Naturally.)  Please give a warm welcome to Food is the New Rock, a brand new tumblr blog/time waster devoted to bands who love food, and chefs who love music.   Read it, like it on Facebook, follow it on Twitter, recommend it on Tumblr… or don’t.

Spotted this on yesterday’s ML Twitter Tracker but totally forgot to mention it… The Eggstravaganza Cart (on 52nd and Park) is going to be featured on the brunch/breakfast episode of Foodography w/Mo Rocca alongside Aquavit and Chinatown Brasserie.  How cool is that?  The episode airs this Sunday (1/23) at 9pm on the Cooking Channel.  [via Twitter]

Cooking up on Uncle Gussy’s Truck Today

Yesterday Taim Mobile sold out of their sabich by 1 o’clock, but they’re putting that bad boy on the back burner for a bit while they work on some other specials.  Today they’ll be on 40th and 6th with harissa falafel.  Also on the ML Twitter Tracker (which you’ll want to check before heading out, Papa Perrone has the flu and won’t be out today, but Rickshaw is on 50th with szechuan dumplings, Uncle Gussy’s is on 51st with pork chops, Joyride is on 52nd, Schnitzel & Things is on 52nd, Eddie’s Pizza is on 52nd, and Wafels & Dinges is on 46th with their new spicy maple sausage & gravy wafel we told you about on Tuesday

The Taim Mobile Truck is running a bit late this morning, but they’ll be on 51st btw. 6+7th and have told us they will be serving the sabich!!! Also on the ML Twitter Tracker today (which you’ll want to check for updates before heading out), Eddies Pizza is on 46th w/ Hawaiian pie, chicken and meatball parms, Eggstravaganza is serving a Mexican grilled cheese, Cupcake Stop is on 58th, Treats Truck is on 46th, and Rickshaw is on 50th. Finally, our condolences go out to the crew of the Sweetery Truck. Samira’s mom passed away yesterday so they won’t be on the streets today. Our thoughts go out to their whole family…

Some of the details for Village Voice’s Choice Eats (one of our favorite events of the year) have been announced and it looks like this year’s event is going to be a good one. Tickets don’t go on sale for another week, and only a few restaurants have been announced, but they’re going to have four food trucks all of which are Midtown Lunch faves (Joyride, Wafels & Dinges, Korilla BBQ and Taim Mobile.) Plus, there’s a special badge for Four Square users that will score you free stuff at the event. All you have to do is check in from 5 restaurants that have been or are going to be part of Choice Eats, and you score the badge (for Midtown that includes the food trucks listed above and Margon.) Tickets go on sale Wednesday, January 26th. Get all the details on their website.

Back in August Jeremiah posted about Cafe Niagara, the super unique Sri Lankan joint that took over Las Poblanitas (on 38th btw. 8+9th).  Sadly nobody seems to be going, and Lunch’er DC is afraid they are going to close.  From the forums:

Cafe Niagara is good. Good enough that I could go once a week. It’s cheap. It’s spicy. Great. Problem is I’ve been going twice a week, because it seems like it’s going to go out of business. No one’s ever in there. I took a coworker there today, and while he liked the food he said the place looked weird, like a sleeper cell/hotbed of food poisoning. Thing is, it DOES look weird. I can understand why someone wouldn’t go in. But the food is good. I haven’t felt ill once. But I don’t want to go twice a week. The best part about it is that it’s different. When you eat it twice a week different becomes the same.

Will you answer DC’s call? Sure, the weather sucks but if we don’t support little places like this on the outskirts of Midtown, who will? Don’t let this place become another Barros Luco…