Midtown Lunch

Midtown workers shouldn’t have all the fun, so to even the score, I’ve brought on Daniel Krieger as an official Downtown Lunch Correspondent to write up some of the tasty stuff you can get in the lower half of Manhattan. He’s a great photographer (ensuring good food porn), but more importantly he is a lover of cheap, unique and delicious eats (or as I like to call it- Midtown Lunch’ish food.)

About a month ago I was at a party in Brooklyn (represent!) and a guest from the East Village picked up a huge bag of empanadas from the East Village location of Ruben’s Empanadas. I was skeptical at first thinking they were going to taste more like fast food empanadas (aka Hot Pockets), but figured I would give them a shot. After warming them up in the oven we added them to our impromptu dinner party and I tried two different kinds. I particularly remember the spinach and tofu one with whole wheat crust. It was a perfect blend of a crunchy/doughy crust and had a nice heavy mixture of spinach and tofu on the inside. Damn they were good.

I’m always hesitant when a restaurant claims “authentic” or “original” or “best”

I remembered all this after the Empanada Joe hooplah earlier this week and decided to head out to one of Ruben’s six downtown locations for lunch.

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Midtown workers shouldn’t have all the fun, so to even the score, I’ve brought on Daniel Krieger as an official Downtown Lunch Correspondent to write up some of the tasty stuff you can get in the lower half of Manhattan. He’s a great photographer (ensuring good food porn), but more importantly he is a lover of cheap, unique and delicious eats (or as I like to call it- Midtown Lunch’ish food.)

BurgerBurger is located at 77 Pearl street, amid a row of quick lunch spots for the downtown worker bees. At first glance I thought it might be a bit expensive for Midtown Lunch because I was staring at the special of the day, the Aussie, served every Tuesday. There’s a different special 7 days a week, which includes fries (or salad), and a soda. At 11.99 it’s a bit steep but if you’re just looking for a cheeseburger and fries we’re only talking $8.50.

Despite the price, I had to try the Aussie because I’ve never had one before. Between a gently toasted brioche bun they stack and squeeze a mound of toppings on each other. First there’s a 6oz angus patty topped with lettuce, tomato, a thick slab of roasted beet, and a fried egg for good measure, all slathered in a special sauce.

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Midtown workers shouldn’t have all the fun, so to even the score, I’ve brought on Daniel Krieger as an official Downtown Lunch Correspondent to write up some of the tasty stuff you can get in the lower half of Manhattan. He’s a great photographer (ensuring good food porn), but more importantly he is a lover of cheap, unique and delicious eats (or as I like to call it- Midtown Lunch’ish food.)

Call me a Midtown Lunch infidel, but I’ve never been a huge advocate of street meat. I’ve been burned too many times eating lunch at a cart, only to have my stomach sounding like a garbage truck rumbling down the West Side Highway a few hours later.

But I’m a Midtown Luncher now (well, a Downtown version of one anyway), and so with a heavy heart (all those burgers have an effect on the arteries) I set out to find my own local street meat peddler…and boy, did I ever find one.

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Midtown workers shouldn’t have all the fun, so to even the score, I’ve brought on Daniel Krieger as an official Downtown Lunch Correspondent to write up some of the tasty stuff you can get in the lower half of Manhattan. He’s a great photographer (insuring good food porn), but more importantly he is a lover of cheap, unique and delicious eats (or as I like to call it- Midtown Lunch’ish food.)

Downtown at Liberty park you can find a pretty nice selection of fancy food for lunch these days. Meridith’s Bread has a stand where you can buy a $7 quiche.  Red Jacket Orchards and Migliorelli’s Farm both have plenty of good looking food as well. But when you want your lunch to be less than a gallon of gas (who would have thought we’d ever say that?) try Sam’s falafel. When I checked it out earlier this week the line was about 8 people deep. Everyone on line who had eaten there before said it was the best they’d had downtown, so I knew I had to wait it out. The line went surprisingly fast thanks to owner Yasser’s 3 man assembly line (although his name isn’t Sam he says people call him that and he likes it.)  Read more »