Midtown Lunch

I know many of you who work in the far reaches of Soho or the upper part of Tribeca by the Holland Tunnel probably frequent Mooncake Foods on Watts (btw. Thompson & 6th Ave.) because there’s not much else in the area other than a couple of Latin luncheonettes and some street meat carts. I however, had never made it there for lunch despite hearing nothing but good things about its food. The other day I was looking for an excuse to leave the Financial District for lunch, and what do you know, the Vietnamese pork meatball hero ($8) at Mooncake called my name.

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When the Duane Reade flagship store opened its fancy-pants doors on Wall St. (btw. Nassau & William) I marveled at the fact that they had guys making sushi rolls a short stroll away from the pharmacy. Also on offer is a juice bar and various grab-and-go items as diverse as quinoa salad and Fat Witch brownies. The other day when the parade for the Giants made working in the Financial District something akin to hell, I didn’t want to have to walk far for lunch, and that’s when I decided to check out the sushi rolls sold by a drug store.

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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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I don’t know when you can tell if the NYC truck scene has reached saturation of a certain kind of food, but I feel the BBQ meats in taco and slider form is almost there. A couple of weeks ago, Mike ‘N’ Willie’s truck entered the fray, following in the footsteps of Mexicue and Korilla BBQ. I know that nearly all of us love a good taco or BBQ stuffed in a bun, but how are we to know which truck to spend our hard earned money at? I headed over to Mike N Willie’s when they parked in the FiDi the other day to check out their abbreviated menu.

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I’ve got to say I’m a little jealous of some of the new food options in Battery Park City, and now we all have more reason since the World Financial Center’s getting a food truck court. As we’ve all noticed, food trucks have been getting hassled in Midtown, and also in Soho and the Financial District so this will give them a place to park without fear of getting ticketed or asked to leave in the middle of lunch service. Brookfield Office Properties teamed up with the NYC Food Truck Association to make this happen, along with the Battery Park City Authority. And the best part? Trucks will be there from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on weekdays through 2013. See a list of those participating after the jump. UPDATE: The schedule for next week’s up!   Read more »

I never made it to Battery Park City to check out Samantha’s which was apparently a bastion of good, authentic Italian food. They shuttered, and in its place Benvenuti opened. Pictures of all their fresh pasta and other various Italian goods caught my attention, as did the fact that they were really proud of their Sicilian pizza. So I resolved to trek across the West Side Highway (and through a bunch of construction sites) for my lunch and I wasn’t disappointed.

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Last Friday I had my mind all set on a nice, healthy lunch to try to purge the plates of fatty pork and street cart fare I’d eaten earlier in the week. That all went down the drain when I saw the Real Good Truck was parking in the Financial District that day, and I’d been wanting to check out their weird waffle sandwiches since the truck launched at the beginning of January. Donny ate their beefwich sandwich soon after they hit the streets and wasn’t overly impressed by the deliciousness-to-price ratio that I often find to be the downfall of the new-school trucks. Their fryer is now operational, so I headed over with the fried chicken waffle in mind. Read more »