Midtown Lunch

In what seems like a new record for the shortest amount of time it takes a new lunch place to go from papered up windows to serving food, the Lenny’s sandwich shop on Water St. (btw. Coenties & Broad) was open for business yesterday when I walked by, and full of people. This joins the location on John St., and according to the Lenny’s Web site, there’s another shop coming to Battery Park City. Unless someone can tip me in the direction of an awesome sandwich to be had at Lenny’s, I’ll probably pass on eating there, but it’s clear they probably won’t be hurting for business.

The weird rollercoaster ride that It’s A Pizza on John St. (btw. Broadway & Nassau) was on seems to finally be over, as the place has been closed for a week, the inside has been gutted and there’s a marshal’s order of eviction on the window. I waited to post anything because the place has closed down at least two other times, once in January for failing a Department of Health inspection and then in May for operating without a permit. I know a lot of you loved their pizza (and I loved their pasta), but the constant construction on that stretch of the street for the past couple of years likely did them no favors. As one Lunch’er who wrote in to alert me to the closure noted, it’s best to just head down the street to Cafe 41 for a $1 slice to soothe your sadness.

There is no limit to the love for a good plate of biryani from a cart, apparently, as several new carts have popped up all over the Financial District lately. One of the latest, NY Express Biryani, made the ballsy move to set up shop right across the street from the Biryani House Cart on William St. (at John). As the weeks went by, I saw the line grow at NY Express and decided it was time to check it out. The menu is fairly broad, including kati rolls, biryani, the usual meats over rice and falafel, and because I’m indecisive I opted to start with the dish the cart is named after.

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While heading to lunch yesterday I spotted a brightly-hued new cart at the corner of Pearl St. & Hanover Sq. It’s called The Squeeze, and serves fancy juices (my eyes glazed over after I saw the $8.95 price tag), along with something called “living lattes” and some raw vegan breakfast and lunch items including sandwiches, salads and some sort of hot dog involving kimchi. Click through to see how many food forms cashews can take!

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Yet another chain will be making inroads in NYC, with Roti Mediterranean Grill planning to open at Maiden Lane & Pearl St. in January of 2013. There are already locations in Chicago and Washington D.C., and guess what? It’s a build-your-own lunch model involving pita, laffa, salad or rice with various meats, vegetables and sauce options a few pre-configured options. This isn’t too surprising since the chain was started by a former Chipotle chairman. They hope to open 10 to 12 new locations in NYC in the next couple of years and the Financial District seems to be a starting point for ambitious chains with Potbelly and others like GRK and Hot Clay Oven having similar ambitions. I don’t know, I guess this is better than getting another salad place, but what do you Lunch’ers think of getting another build your own lunch chain?

Whenever a craving for something tasty and vegetarian hits, the usual suspects flow into my brain, namely any number of carts serving great falafel. Sometimes I want more than fried chickpea orbs, and the other day I decided to revisit Pita Express on Ann St. (btw. Nassau & B’way) because I remembered I’d had a phenomenal chicken pita sandwich there last year and had vowed to go back to try the delicious array of Israeli salads and dips behind glass at the counter. The glatt kosher restaurant wasn’t as busy as normal but that may have been because it was Friday heading into a long weekend. I ended up ordering a vegetarian sampler platter and despite telling myself I wouldn’t be able to eat everything and still function after lunch, I did anyway and it was worth it.

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Sometimes I get a premonition when I walk into a place that looks like it hasn’t been renovated in 20 years that they’re going to feed me good food. This happened at Rockwell’s last week. The handful of times I’ve walked past the deli on Broad St. (at Water), I’ve made a mental note that they have a $5.95 burger, fries and soda deal advertised in the window but never got around to actually trying it. A craving for greasy food hit so I finally went to see what $6 gets you. The answer: A fair amount of food, a surprisingly decent burger (that you definitely need to customize) and mediocre fries.

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