Midtown Lunch

Since we (OK, I) don’t do a happy hour segment on the site, I don’t go to very many of the drinking establishments downtown. This is kind of a shame since we have some very dirty and very classy places that are probably serving good food. A few of these bars do lunch specials that fall in the ML price range and I also kind of forget about them unless I happen to repeatedly walk by a signboard advertising a decent lunch special and then actually go check it out. This was how I ended up at Jim Brady’s on Maiden Lane (btw. William & Gold). The bar specials had called out to me too many times to resist. Read more »

Anyone who works in the vicinity of Wall St. is probably familiar with the Hot Soup Cart that’s parked on the corner of Pearl. Chris had tried two of the soups there last winter and was smitten enough with the offerings to change his opinion about soup. My first trip to the cart when it was down on Broad St. was not quite such a success. But hey, I’m all about second chances so I headed back to the cart the other day when I wasn’t feeling so hot to see if I had just caught them on a bad day the first time. Read more »

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 John who is asking for your help in locating a long lost friend. And he has probably the most interesting answer to “favorite kinds of food” I’ve ever seen.

Name: John Frost

Occupation: City government

Where you work: 55 Water St.

Age: 37

Favorite Kinds of Food: I’ll eat pretty much anything in moderation. There was a guy on NPR a few weeks back lamenting the fact that there are no restaurants in New York that serve sparrows. I concur. There needs to be a place in town where I can order up a big plate of delicious roasted sparrows. Preferably near my office so I can eat sparrows for lunch. I like the idea of eating birds so small you can chew up the bones as if they were soft-shell crabs.

Least Favorite Foods: Things that are overly viscous or have a gummy texture. Most anything that would be served at a fancy Chinese banquet falls into this category: shark fin soup, geoduck, sea cucumber, bird’s nest soup, and on and on. Course after course of obscenely expensive, inedible bowls of snot with rubbery bits. Thankfully, they usually throw a couple of whole ducks or chickens on the table at some point… load up on those and the steamed bok choy. Read more »