Midtown Lunch

From Lunch’er “hightemp”: “I’ve been stalking the Macaron Cafe on 59th St [btw. Mad+Park] and am happy to report for us Midtown Northeasters that it is now officially open. The shop is much, much more elegant than the 36th st location. Definitely has a Paris boutique feel to go along with the new branding. They are only doing coffee, tea and Macs right now but the full lunch menu will be available starting on Monday. (And so far they are quoting the same prices as 36th st….we’ll see about that part though.)” Nice.

Related:
Macaron Cafe Brings a Bit of Paris to Midtown
Macaron Cafe To Open Second Location

God, I feel old- and it’s not just because I watched Twilight win everything at the MTV Movie Awards last night.  Midtown Lunch turns four years old today.  That’s right, it was four years ago today the very first post went up on this site (it feels more like 40, right?) What started off as an excuse for one fat guy to eat gross lunches near his office in Midtown, is now being used by almost 10 people as an excuse to eat gross lunches in Midtown, Downtown NYC, Philadelphia and Los Angeles.  So, after thousands of lunches, 3 Street Meat Paloozas, and zero cases of food poisoning (knock on wood!) we just wanted to say a quick thanks to all of you guys…  here’s to four more years!

We’d be lying if we said we weren’t a tiny bit worried for our boss’ health. Last week on Midtown Lunch: Los Angeles Zach agreed to eat at any and every strip mall cheap Chinese food place between Downtown L.A. and Santa Monica. If you thought Yips (or that weird Chinese food steam table in the back of Sushi Osaka) is bad, you should see some of the spots on the West Coast. Godspeed sir…

As more and more “new school” trucks started hitting the streets over the past few years there was a lot of talk about Old School vs. New School vendor clashes. Well, more recently is seems like we’ve been hearing about a lot more fights between Old-New-School trucks and New-New-School trucks. The latest battle took place on Monday between two well known Midtown trucks, over a shared Downtown spot… and yesterday Frites N Meats (one of the trucks involved) took to their blog to vent about it:

We, at Frites’N’Meats, are pretty much live and let live people. We have no interest in interfering with others, disrespecting others or foisting our beliefs or ways of doing things on others. We believe that it’s not cool to go to a spot that a person has occupied every day for years and essentially force them out for your benefit, but we do not think that just because you occupy a certain spot one day a week that you somehow “own” that spot the other days that you’re not there…I know that sounds a little confusing, so let me provide an example without using names.

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Despite an early rush of Midtown Lunch’ers, things have calmed down a bit at the newly opened Pizza by Cer Te (on 56th btw. Park+Lex).  Got the regular slice and the pomodoro baker. Regular slice is AWESOME: slices of mozzarella, sauce is a little sweet, but not annoying so, little basil leaves, chewy crust, and $2.50! Bakers are flat Sicialians with a suce cheese switchup! Yes, cheese below the sauce, call the trend police! I loved every bite!

Early reports have been mostly positive, with the only complaints being about service (it’s their first day) and price (it’s not cheap.)  One important thing to note, just like Cer Te the place is small and there is no seating. Full report coming soon.  See what everybody is saying, and add your own comments, here>>

This is great…  the NY Post did an article about the longest food lines in New York City and the daytime halal cart on 53rd and 6th made the list. If you think the line at 1pm is long, you should see the line after 8pm once the real cart shows up!  As longtime ML readers know, the cart on the SW corner during the day is different than the the “famous” cart that parks on that corner at night.  To get the “famous” halal food during lunchtime, you have to go to the SE Corner of 53rd and 6th, the SW corner of 53rd and 7th, or the NW corner of 52nd and 7th. The food on the SW corner during the day isn’t bad (they came in 6th at Street Meat Palooza 2), it’s just obvious that a lot of those people in line think they’re eating at the famous night time cart.

The line on the SE corner has gotten a lot bigger over the past year, and we thought that word was finally getting out… but clearly not everybody has gotten the memo!

Related:
Are Lunchers Finally Getting the Message About the Halal Carts on 53rd & 6th?
Debunking the Myths of 53rd & 6th, the Most Famous Halal Intersection in New York City

We haven’t gotten too many reports from the three Midtown KFC locations, but the newly opened Tri Tip Grill in the Rock Center Concourse seems like the place to be today.  From Lunch’er “skainich”

Very tasty sandwich! Although the wait was a bit long, I think we waited 10 minutes in the first line, and then 20 minutes with a beeper. The sandwich was very flavorful, and I think the original sandwich is the way to go. Almost made me forget about how necessary it is for us to get a Chik-fil-A in midtown, almost.

According to Brownie, the line has been out the door most of the day but they’re easing the pain with (delicious) free samples of steak! Lunch’er Richard hit the place up before the lunch rush.  His “big buck with roadhouse onions” is after the jump…

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