Midtown Lunch

Here’s some big news before a long weekend – the Street Vendor Project (the organization behind the Vendy Awards) is putting together a Pushcart Market on Park Place btw. B’way+Church Streets Friday, June 11th from 10am to 6pm. The event will bring together vendors from all over the city in a way that’s never been done before (no tube socks at this street fair!) The cross-borough food line up is mind boggling (if you wanted to, you could easily get breakfast, lunch and dinner there!) and it includes Vendy nominees and a Midtown street food legend.

Check out the temporary list of vendors, after the jump…

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It’s a rare day that I venture into any mainstream fast food restaurant in the city, because why eat a Big Mac when I can have free reign over the fixin’s bar at Maoz or a banh mi from Baoguette? After passing by the Checkers on Chambers St. (btw. Broadway & Church) one too many times, I finally decided to get lunch from there and eat in the nearby City Hall Park. I stuck with the basics at this somewhat shiny new place, and I was not disappointed. Industrial beef patties after the jump!  Read more »

Pizza is something I am no expert on, but some days my body wants something greasy and carb-filled. One such day, I headed over to Little Italy Pizza on a weird, deserted-feeling block of Park Place (between Broadway and Church). It came highly recommended by lunch’er adamprato‘s mom, who threw down the gauntlet in response to a review about nearby Portobello’s Pizzeria & Sicilian Kitchen by saying she had tried all of the pizza places near where she works, and “all but one suck.” That “one” was Little Italy, and I had to investigate. Read more »

We take recommendations very seriously here. So when Lunch’er brownbaglunch commented on my write-up of Ruchi and recommended Bangal Curry on Church Street as a good Indian alternative, I was excited to try it as soon as I could get over there. I wasn’t disappointed.

Thank you, brownbaglunch. I haven’t had much chance yet to give Church Street the exploration it deserves, but I was happy to start with such a winner. The food at Bangal Curry is very good, and you get a ton of it for $5. I’m tempted to end this post right there because, really, what else does a Midtown Lunch’er need to see?

Mouthwatering photos, that’s what. You’ll find plenty of them after the jump.

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I like exploring downtown to find promising places to eat, but I always prefer to follow a good lead. I was absolutely starving at 11:30AM on Friday, and so I followed Lunch’er Matt’s suggestion and my stomach’s desire for a hearty meal down to Kosher Luncheonette on the corner of Fulton Street and Cliff Street.

Matt recommended the falafel, so I got myself one of those, but as I was voracious – and so that I could give you guys a better sense of what Kosher Luncheonette has to offer – I also got a kasha knish and a bowl of tomato rice soup.

That morning I think I could have gnawed on a shoe and been happy, but even in that state I could recognize that Kosher Luncheonette’s food was not only far better than a shoe but was really good on its own right. My falafel was good, but the other food was even better, and I’ll be heading back to Kosher Luncheonette regularly for my lunchtime Jewish comfort food needs.

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Sound the funeral dirge; Express BBQ (27 Park Place @ Church St.), downtown’s go-to spot for barbecue (at least when Picnick Smoked isn’t around), appears to be shuttered for good.  This news comes to us courtesy of Lunch’er Andy who noticed something wasn’t quite right when he came off the E train this morning.  And Kevin only just took a closer look at this place! In Andy’s own words, “Sad day when downtown BBQ loses a venue.”  Amen to that.  I guess we’re back on the hunt for mo’ betta’ BBQ again.

No, no, you’re at the right place! This isn’t Midtown Lunch: Philadelphia, I promise, though after Jamie’s video about how to eat soup dumplings, it doesn’t look like such a bad place to be.  Which is why I’ve chased down a little corner of Philly and taken a closer look. Carl’s Steaks has been on the collective ML radar for awhile now, Zach having reviewed it back in the day up in Midtown, but for some reason the Downtown outpost has eluded us. But not anymore. Last week I went in, shook hands with Carl himself, and took a big, greasy bite out of Philly.

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