Midtown Lunch

I never made it to Battery Park City to check out Samantha’s which was apparently a bastion of good, authentic Italian food. They shuttered, and in its place Benvenuti opened. Pictures of all their fresh pasta and other various Italian goods caught my attention, as did the fact that they were really proud of their Sicilian pizza. So I resolved to trek across the West Side Highway (and through a bunch of construction sites) for my lunch and I wasn’t disappointed.

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A few weeks ago it looked like the location of Sushi by Bento Nouveau at Broadway & Cortlandt St. was closed for good, but then it reopened after a couple of days. When I walked by during lunch yesterday the gates were down once again and all it took was a peek inside to show it was absolutely demolished. The above note taped to the door offers the explanation that they’re renovating until February 23, and directs you to their other location in the Financial District down at the bottom of Broadway by Bowling Green. I’ve never actually eaten the sushi, but I used to have a slight addiction to their cheap udon soup, so I consider it good news that they’re not closing for good.

We are short on non-Starbucks coffee options in the lower part of Tribeca and most of the Financial District, so the news yesterday that the Aroma Espresso Bar at Church & Barclay would be opening at 10 a.m. today was more than welcome. I’m not sure if this location will have the same sandwiches and breakfast items with a Middle Eastern bent (the chain’s based in Israel), but the menu online looks pretty great with shakshuka and a halumi sandwich represented. If any of you stop in today, let us know what the scoop is in the comments.

Last Friday I had my mind all set on a nice, healthy lunch to try to purge the plates of fatty pork and street cart fare I’d eaten earlier in the week. That all went down the drain when I saw the Real Good Truck was parking in the Financial District that day, and I’d been wanting to check out their weird waffle sandwiches since the truck launched at the beginning of January. Donny ate their beefwich sandwich soon after they hit the streets and wasn’t overly impressed by the deliciousness-to-price ratio that I often find to be the downfall of the new-school trucks. Their fryer is now operational, so I headed over with the fried chicken waffle in mind. Read more »

There’s a string of cheap places to eat on Church St. that included Pakistan Tea House, Taco House, and their neighbor Mike’s Papaya on the corner at Reade St. Well, apparently we’re down a hot dog and drunk food purveyor as Lunch’er Dan wrote in to tell us that the gate’s been down for a couple of days (as you can see from the picture he snapped). They weren’t shuttered by the Department of Health, so it’s a little bit of a mystery why they’re closed. I never ate there but I’m sure those not wanting to eat at the Paki Tea House perhaps turned to Mike’s for lunch in a hurry. If’ it’s truly closed, it better not become a Subway (or a nail salon).