Midtown Lunch

I feel like there’s a shortage of good, greasy Chinese food in the Financial District.  The only one ever covered here on Midtown Lunch: Downtown NYC was Yip’s, written up by my partner in crime Kevin.  And with Chinatown so close, there probably isn’t much of a need for a lot of these kinds of restaurants, but that doesn’t make the walk or subway ride up to Chinatown any more enjoyable.  Sometimes you want Chinese food and you want it now.  That’s when I head to Win Won.

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As Zach pointed out to me, I’ve been on a bit of a hoity-toity binge lately. Pricey burgers, fancy cafes. I’m worried I’m going to start losing some Lunch’er cred soon. Fortunately, Chris has been keeping us on the right track with tasty pizza and cart food, and I promise to do some real bargain-hunting for next week.

In the meantime, though I returned to Swich the other day and found a cheap and wonderful surprise tucked away on the Sides section of their menu: For $2.50 you can get a heaping container of israeli couscous with herbs and cranberries. It’s not big enough to be lunch on its own, but it’s the perfect thing when that bacon-jalapeno slice doesn’t quite sate you.

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Thinking about writing this post, I spent a long time trying to come up with some excuses for the prices at Zaitzeff on the corner of Nassau and John: They use high-quality beef, they make all the sandwiches and fries to order, they’re sitting on prime real estate, etc. But I realized that the fact that I want to excuse them might just be endorsement enough.

I love this place. I wish I could get a burger and fries and a drink for my $10, but I can’t. I still love it. I also–and I’d loved to be proven wrong–can’t find a better burger in the area.

The meat they use is terrific, a burger ordered medium rare is actually cooked medium rare, and the fries–even though they’ll put your lunch well over $10– are awesome in both their regular and sweet potato varieties. We could argue until the cows come home (to be grilled) about whether this burger is “worth” the price, but I for one keep going back. Quod est demonstrandum, if you ask me.

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Today was going to mark Midtown Lunch: Downtown NYC’s first foray into Chinatown, but for that occasion we wanted to make it special.  At first we thought flowers or balloons, but that seemed so cliche.  Then we thought about getting you a kitten, but buying someone an unexpected pet is never a good idea in NYC.  Finally, we decided on the perfect surprise, something we knew would make your eyes light up and maybe even cause you to shed a tear of joy.  Unfortunately, the surprise isn’t quite ready.  But it will be.  And soon.

In the mean time, let me take you on a little stroll down New Street to the aptly named Grotto.  Located in the basement at 69 New Street, the restaurant is fairly dungeon-esque with no windows, no natural light to speak of, but thankfully a pretty good ventilation system.  Not that you’ll want to inhale anything other than the heavenly aromas emanating from the ovens.  These guys are taking pizza to unseen levels as far as New York pizza is concerned, with spicy buffalo chicken, chicken parm, and bacon jalapeno pizzas.

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A few weeks ago, I announced a continuing mission of mine while writing for this site: to find the best street meat downtown.  This week, the journey continues.  But first, I want to thank everyone who posted street meat recommendations last time around.  With the launch of this new site, the focus is going to be all on you Downtowners and great new places for you to eat.  As much as I feel I have to share with you, I know I’m gonna miss more spots than I nail.  So please, if at any time in my tenure here you’ve got an awesome place you think people should know about, just shout it out. Let me know what you’re thinking and I’ll do my best to get it done.

With that being said, on the sage advice of one chris6sigma, I took the fight back to the streets this week and went to check out Adel’s located on the corner of Maiden Lane and Front Street.

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Seth – fellow downtowner, lunch enthusiast, trusted advisor, and soon-to-be profile subject – made a really good point to me recently about midtown vs. downtown lunching: While midtown has the advantage in quantity, variety, and value of eats, downtown has some really terrific and beautiful places to dine.

More on this in general soon, but one place that’s just a nice place to sit and eat is Perle Restaurant and Wine Bar on Pearl Street near Broad. Much of the menu is over $10 and not Lunch’er fare, but I wandered in the other day and found a very tasty Croque Monsiuer for $8.

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