Midtown Lunch

When the paper came down from the windows of the new Aroma Espresso Bar at Church & Barclay, I was surprised by how nice and gigantic it looked inside. We in lower Manhattan are often subjected to tiny Starbucks locations or the superior but still tiny Financier shops. And the upper-tier, non-chain coffee shops in Tribeca are mostly tiny and have little for lunch that’s going to fill you up for $10 or less. When I looked at Aroma’s menu, I noticed that all of their sandwiches were less than $10 and even some of the salads clocked in under than amount. I’ve had their coffee at other locations and found it to be solid. Could this be a chain that this site can get behind?

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It took me about four trips to the website of My Belly’s Playlist to figure out what exactly this was. The 10 sandwiches on offer sounded really good and once I discovered through my digging that they were all $10 I got even more interested. But how could I procure one of these delicious beasts? It seemed that delivery was the only option and when co-founder/partner Bo Kim e-mailed later in the week, that was indeed the case. It’s operated out of the Yorganic store at Hanover Sq. & Broad, but you can’t actually order any of the sandwiches while walking in there. Clearly I was going to have to get lazy and let my fingers order up some lunch.

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The Eddie’s Pizza Truck has been roaming the streets for a while serving its bar pies with toppings like pulled pork with Maker’s Mark carmelized onions. A while ago they added some sandwiches to the menu and after a mostly positive report on the porchetta variety from Blondie, I decided that someday when I was feeling indecisive come lunch time I’d go back for something that wasn’t pizza. That day happened earlier this week when it was rainy and disgusting and walking more than a few blocks for lunch was out of the question and it just so happened Eddie’s Pizza was parked on Water St. Read more »

The novelty of grilled cheese from a mobile unit isn’t relegated to one truck, but now there are three of these things roaming the streets. Gorilla Cheese hit downtown back in May, drawing both lines and outrage at how much their small sandwiches cost. A while ago, Milk Truck started parking at Wall and William streets on Tuesdays and Fridays and in Soho one day a week. There’s also the Morris Grilled Cheese truck which parks in Brooklyn and other parts of Manhattan. If you’re not tired of reading about the multiple kinds of fancy grilled cheese yet, click through for a look at the sandwich I tried that involves the words “champagne pickled” and “Wisconsin gruyere.”

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I’m not really sure why I’m on such a sandwich kick this week, but bear with me! It seems like many of the new trucks and shops opening downtown seem to involve meats (or cheese) crammed between two pieces of bread. The Our Heros truck materialized on Wall St. in late December selling Italian-American sandwiches, salads and soup. It doesn’t sound too exciting on paper, but an endorsement from Midtown contributor Brian piqued my interest and when I heard the distinctly New York accent coming from the guy working at the truck I felt safe in my lunch choice.

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Forgive me lunchers, for I have eaten at a generic deli. I felt a little dirty walking into Stir Cafe at the bottom of Broadway (btw. Whitehall & Exchange Pl.), as most of my lunches come from carts, trucks or places that don’t have a make-your-own salad station. My reason for being here was that a friend tipped me off that Stir has legit roast pork sandwiches (or a platter if you want to spend $10), and since most generic delis only serve a pathetic attempt at a Cubano, I decided to check it out. Fatty pork on pork action straight ahead.

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The world can always use another good sandwich shop, and if that shop also sells churros then I think we can all get behind that. La Churreria, next door to parent restaurant Socarrat Paella Bar on Mulberry (btw. Prince & Houston), opened on Monday after some delays, and I happened to get there about an hour after they unlocked the door. There are three different kinds of sandwiches: Breakfast varieties on a roll ($6), bikinis which are toasted on regular bread and comes in four triangular sections ($6), and the larger bocatas ($9.50) on baguette which was the category I ordered from.

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