Midtown Lunch

The lineup of quick service restaurants is about to grown on Fulton St. with something called GRK Fresh Greek opening between William and Nassau streets. This joins Crisp, Chipotle Five Guys, Financier and Hale & Hearty and is across the street from Texas Rotisserie & Grill. They have a Web site that simply says “coming soon,” a Facebook page and freshly-minted Twitter account, which says they’re bringing us “a new take on classic Greek food” in “fresh flavors like you’ve never tasted.” Guess  we’ll just have to wait and see when the paper comes down and a menu materializes. Let’s all hope it’s something equal to or better than the generally awesome Pita Press over on Cedar St.

GRK Fresh Greek, Fulton St. btw. William & Nassau

The growing cluster of biryani and kati roll carts at Broadway & Liberty was the only mobile source of these items until Biryani House launched a second location on William St. That left those of you in the other parts of the Financial District at a loss or at least stuck with regular chicken or lamb over rice options. Indian Biryani Delights perhaps sensed a need for some spiced meats in one of these holes and opened a month or so ago on Water St. btw. Maiden & Pine right next to the A-Pou’s Taste cart. Judging by the line and speed of service from the two young guys working the cart, you Luncher’s have been keeping them busy. It turns out that they’re serving some top notch Indian-spiced street meat and rice. Read more »

Word on the street, aka Twitter, is that Blue Spoon Coffee’s second location is opening Monday on William St. (at Platt). They’ve had a location on Chambers St. for a while, serving Intelligentsia coffee, breakfast items and hot and cold sandwiches and soup come lunch time. The location in the Financial District will eventually have a full menu, but for now we’ll have to settle for fancy coffee and baked goods. You can see the sandwich menu from the Tribeca location after the jump for an idea of what to expect.

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Apologies for once again writing about a food offering at Duane Reade, but after a surprisingly strong showing from the sushi counter at the Wall St. flagship I figured some people are viewing this drug store chain as a viable lunch option. They are slowly overtaking the Financial District with a giant new store opening on Broadway btw. Wall & Pine in part of the space that used to house Borders. A step inside immediately shows they’re really pushing the food here with a build-your-own salad bar, coffee bar and frozen yogurt/freezee station. I assumed the fro-yo was by-the-pound like most other places but to my surprise when I went to pay I discovered it was a set price for the two different sizes. This, of course, means you can and should cram as much into that cup as possible while still being able to get the lid on, which I tried to do yesterday.

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A stroll down Fulton St. yesterday showed a bunch of construction on the street and some scaffolding on the sidewalks. Spotted amid this mess was papered up plywood emblazoned with cupcakes, and lo and behold Baked By Melissa is bringing its confections to the block between Dutch and William streets. We already have Crumbs in the Financial District, and this new cupcake shop is just up the street from a Financier, but I’m betting people (aka, tourists) will be seduced by the tiny cupcakes Baked by Melissa offers, even if they are kind of a rip off.

Are you one of those rabid fans of Potbelly Sandwich Shop‘s sandwiches? Do you like free lunches? Well, then you might want to RSVP for the oven warming at the new location on Broad St. (at Stone) which is giving you a free sandwich, chips and drink ahead of the opening. You can get the free stuff between 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m., or just wait until the shop actually opens which will actually cost you something.