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 Pola and Brian who took part in the Tribeca Cheap Eats Chowdown, in which they each were given $50 and tasked with finding healthy, cheap and filling lunches for five days. You can see the results of that challenge here, and find out what they normally eat below.

Names: Pola Avrasin and  Brian Singh

Occupations: Analyst (Pola) and business analyst (Brian) at Luminary Labs

Where you work: Franklin St. btw. Hudson and Greenwich

Ages: 21 (Pola), 24 (Brian)

Favorite Kinds of Food: Pola – Having been born in Russia I love pelmeni, harcho soup and pickled watermelon (Google them!). I also love all things raw  – carpaccio, tartare, sashimi, ceviche, salads, etc.

Brian – Chinese (almost everything), Japanese (sushi, ramen), Moroccan (falafel, kebab, tagines), Mediterranean (stuffed grape leaves, lamb) and meat in general – it’s a guilty pleasure

Least Favorite Foods: Pola – Anything that includes peanut butter, is heavily fried or “burn your mouth” spicy; Brian – Greasy or bland foods.

Favorite Lunches Downtown: Pola – Locanda Verde for a special occasion or celebrity sighting. For everyday- Yorganic, Columbine, aka, Clementine on W. Broadway (nr. White), Peace and Love Cafe on Greenwich (at N. Moore) and Baba Ghanouge on Church (btw. Chambers & Reade) (Pola)

Brian – Tamarind’s lunch special for special occasions, Pecan Fine Foods on Franklin (at W. Broadway) a satisfying sandwich & soup combo , Clementine (formerly, Columbine) for something off the beaten path (Brian).

The “go-to” lunch place you and your co-workers eat at too often: Whole Foods on Greenwich (at Warren) and “The Wich” (‘wichcraft) on Greenwich (at Beach)

Places you discovered thanks to Midtown Lunch: Downtown: Pola – Food trucks! Favorites: Korilla BBQ and Taim Mobile

Brian – Mimi’s Cafe on Church (btw. Chambers & Reade)! Great tasting food, good organic choices, and still healthy.

Dream job location, purely for lunch purposes, and why: Pola – Luckily our offices are now downtown! Tribeca is actually my favorite NYC food location- love the variety of options here! Outside of the U.S. I’d love for Luminary Labs to open an office  smack in the middle of the Old Spitalfields Market in London- delicious fresh foods and the best vanilla scone I have ever had.

Brian: Tribeca – tons of top notch food options with great lunch specials. Tribeca is a great area to walk around and get to know and has great variety for a small area. Best of all, even at lunch it’s rarely ever that congested where you have to sacrifice quality or taste for time. Another pick: Jemaa el-Fna, Morocco’s largest square. There are tons of great food options, all sorts of meat grilled right in front of you, tons of spices, freshly-squeezed juices, amazing teas, interesting shopping and live entertainment!  Would make an interesting place to have an entertaining lunch break all while eating great food.

Anything you’d like to ask the Midtown Lunch: Downtown readers?: Pola – More of a request to take on the $50 for 5 healthy lunches challenge as Brian and I did in Tribeca. Would love to see the meals Midtown Lunch readers come up with in other neighborhoods that are cheap and healthy. I discovered that imposing the $50 for 5 healthy lunches limit pushed us to uncover the best food choices around!

Brian – I’d actually love to hear where their dream job location would be, purely for lunch purposes.

I think the $50 for 5 lunch challenge could definitely be done . Off the top of my head I can think of the 99% Vegetarian Food Cart along with Little Lad’s Basket and maybe something from Chickpea. What would you guys eat if you were taking this challenge? And my dream job location for lunch purposes is Bangkok, hands down. 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 downtown@midtownlunch.com.