Midtown Lunch

Midtown workers shouldn’t have all the fun, so to even the score, I’ve brought on Daniel Krieger as an official Downtown Lunch Correspondent to write up some of the tasty stuff you can get in the lower half of Manhattan. He’s a great photographer (ensuring good food porn), but more importantly he is a lover of cheap, unique and delicious eats (or as I like to call it- Midtown Lunch’ish food.) This week Daniel hits up the brand new Farinella, which from his description of $3 slices of potato pizza, and small sandwiches for $7, sounds almost like the Downtown version of Sullivan St. Bakery (if Jim Lahey was an Italian hip hop artist.)

“What have I done to deserve this flavorless pizza????” (Said in my butchered Marlon Brando voice). That’s what I used to ask when sampling most downtown pizza joints. There wasn’t really a decent spot for a slice until Farinella, a new Italian bakery/pizzeria, opened this past Monday. I checked in on opening day with high expectations and was not disappointed.

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First the banh mi cart, and now this: Dim sum style “sticky rice stuffed into fried boneless chicken wings” at the Rainbow Cafe in Chinatown. Are you kidding me? Does anybody know if you can get this somewhere in Midtown? Mr. Krieger, I may have to make a special trip downtown to try this one with you. [Serious Eats: New York]

Midtown workers shouldn’t have all the fun, so to even the score, I’ve brought on Daniel Krieger as an official Downtown Lunch Correspondent to write up some of the tasty stuff you can get in the lower half of Manhattan. He’s a great photographer (ensuring good food porn), but more importantly he is a lover of cheap, unique and delicious eats (or as I like to call it- Midtown Lunch’ish food.)

After spotting the story on Cheap Ass Foods yesterday morning, Zachypoo emailed me frantically to check out the new banh mi cart on the corner of St. Johns and Water street. So I knew I had to scope out the situation ASAP. Clearly we weren’t the only ones who saw the post, because the line was really damn long! Fuggging BLOGS!! I wanted my banh mi NOW! But I had to wait… and wait I did.

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Cheap Ass Food breaks the big Downtown Lunch news: a $5 banh mi cart started parking in the financial district this week (on Water & John). Obviously our Friday Downtown Lunch correspondent Daniel Krieger will check this out and report back… but more importantly, where’s our Midtown banh mi cart! Boi Sandwich (on 3rd btw. 44+45th) is fine, and the out of bounds Baoguette is really excellent, but $5 vietnamese sandwiches from a cart is another animal entirely. Waaaah! (That was me crying/whining by the way.)

Photo courtesy of Cheap Ass Food

Midtown workers shouldn’t have all the fun, so to even the score, I’ve brought on Daniel Krieger as an official Downtown Lunch Correspondent to write up some of the tasty stuff you can get in the lower half of Manhattan. He’s a great photographer (ensuring good food porn), but more importantly he is a lover of cheap, unique and delicious eats (or as I like to call it- Midtown Lunch’ish food.)

“Boychick! Come here bubbalah! What can I get you? Oh that’s it? Come on that’s not enough for a hungry growing boy like you!”

Ahhhhhhhh I wish that’s how they greeted me when I stepped up to order my lunch at Leo’s bagels, but alas it was your typical anywhere in NYC lunch line of, “who’s next?” My granny gran was no where to be found behind the counter. I expected someone with an attitude, especially since I already had seen a menu which proclaimed Leo’s to be “Bagels with Chutzpah”.

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Midtown workers shouldn’t have all the fun, so to even the score, I’ve brought on Daniel Krieger as an official Downtown Lunch Correspondent to write up some of the tasty stuff you can get in the lower half of Manhattan. He’s a great photographer (ensuring good food porn), but more importantly he is a lover of cheap, unique and delicious eats (or as I like to call it- Midtown Lunch’ish food.)

About a month ago I was at a party in Brooklyn (represent!) and a guest from the East Village picked up a huge bag of empanadas from the East Village location of Ruben’s Empanadas. I was skeptical at first thinking they were going to taste more like fast food empanadas (aka Hot Pockets), but figured I would give them a shot. After warming them up in the oven we added them to our impromptu dinner party and I tried two different kinds. I particularly remember the spinach and tofu one with whole wheat crust. It was a perfect blend of a crunchy/doughy crust and had a nice heavy mixture of spinach and tofu on the inside. Damn they were good.

I’m always hesitant when a restaurant claims “authentic” or “original” or “best”

I remembered all this after the Empanada Joe hooplah earlier this week and decided to head out to one of Ruben’s six downtown locations for lunch.

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