Midtown Lunch

As is customary here on Midtown Lunch, every Tuesday we’ll profile a different lunch’er and get their recommendations for places to eat in Downtown NYC. This week, we have fellow food blogger Katie who is trying to kick her anti-seafood habit and has a short, but solid, list of favorite lunches.

Name: Katie Ett

Occupation: Officially, I’m a facility coordinator, but I’m a full-time blogger in my heart.  (I have three blogs, and that’s not even close to all of them.)

Where you work: A software company as far downtown as you can get without actually being in the water.

Age: 28

Favorite Kinds of Food: On the high end, really mundane ingredients done so well they surprise me. On the low end, all of the terrible chain restaurants from my hometown in Ohio that you can only find in Times Square here.

Least Favorite Foods: Tomatoes.  And all seafood, although I’ve been trying to get over that so my boyfriend will take me to Per Se as a reward.

Favorite Lunches Downtown: Tabasco chicken from Water Street Deli (get it with a side of baked ziti!) on Water (btw. Broad & Moore), roast pork and plantains from Sophie’s Cuban (Multiple Locations), and zeppoles from The Grotto on New St. (btw. Exchange Pl. & Beaver) for dessert every day.

The “go-to” lunch place you and your co-workers eat at too often: Flavors on Whitehall St., just because it’s right out our back door.  At least they sell chocolate pudding and the best Oreo brownies you can imagine.
Places downtown you discovered thanks to Midtown Lunch: Big Al’s Chicago Style Pizza on Thames St. (btw. Broadway & Church), which really does have as many toppings as y’all claimed.  Little Lad’s Basket on Broadway (btw. Cedar & Pine), which I’m still too scared to try but am happy to know exists just because it sounds so trippy.  The Schnitzel & Things truck, because where else am I gonna get beets downtown?

Dream job location, purely for lunch purposes, and why: The Lower East Side, so it doesn’t take 12 subway transfers to get to The Meatball Shop on Stanton (btw. Allen & Orchard) because even their side salad is delicious, people. And I know it’s obvious, but I could have the Madison Square Park Shake Shack every day for real.

Anything you’d like to ask the downtown Midtown Lunch readers?: When will there ever be cheap Mexican near Battery Park? The lack of it hurts me daily.

I don’t really see the Mexican food situation getting any better downtown unless more carts come down here. There’s always the Gloria’s Mexican Food cart by the Chase building on Nassau St. (btw. Liberty & Cedar), which I know is a bit of a hike. And there’s Tajin on Greenwich (btw. Edgar & Rector) and the Choza Taqueria kiosk if you’re up for delivery. Other than that it’s pretty much Chipotle and bad deli “burritos.” And as always, if you would like to be next week’s Profiled Lunch’er (or know somebody you’d like to nominate), email us at downtownnyc@midtownlunch.com.