Midtown Lunch

I don’t know how excited you all will get about food court Earl’s Court opening in the Financial District, but at least it has a decent bakery and milk shake bar! The big space will have seven eateries, which were outlined in a previous post, and I can’t say I will be first in line to try any of them, but I am thankful that none of them is a Subway. You can expect a full report later in the week on whether this is any different than eating at an airport.

If you were on Twitter yesterday you may have spotted the sort of vague post above from the Papa Perrone truck about opening a brick and mortar on Water St. Well, Papa Perrone himself confirmed in an e-mail that this is happening in a couple of months when they open at 36 Water St. (nr. Coenties Slip). There were a bunch of empty storefronts on that stretch of street, one of which was just filled by OBAO Noodles & BBQ, and it sounds like the Papa Perrone collaboration is working on a design at the moment. Word is they’re also thinking of putting the Rutgers grease truck special on the menu, but nothing’s nailed down at the moment.

This just in…it looks like the OBAO Noodles & BBQ (or was that Rhong Tiam?) at Water & Coenties Slip opened for lunch today after signage went up a little more than a month ago. Lunch’er Deep sent in the above photo and reported that it was busy, and also that they’re cash only until Friday. It looks like the pho is less than $10 but everything else like the BBQ and “traditional dishes” hovers at that mark or above. You can expect a report in the near future, but if any of you ate there today let us know your impressions in the comments.

Do you remember when signage first went up for Earl’s Court on John St. (at Gold)? No? Well, that could be because it was back in February and it’s now the end of October. Lunch’er Doug wrote in late last week to say he talked to a worker who said they’re opening on Oct. 31. Sure enough, when I walked by there are signs up saying just that. According to their Web site, it will be a food court with seven different vendors including another branch of the Earl of Sandwich chain which already has locations in midtown (and seemed to get favorable reviews). Click through for an interior shot and the list of restaurants that will be inside. Read more »

When I walked by the new location of Baoguette on Nassau St. (btw. John & Fulton) this morning the shutters were up and it looked like they were putting the finishing touches on before lunch service. Unless there’s some seating space upstairs or past the counter that I couldn’t see from the door, it looks like lunchers will once again be relegated to eating at counters along the wall and front window although the interior is definitely nicer than the old location on Maiden Lane.

Last week it became official that the Baoguette on Maiden Lane would be moving to a new location around the corner at 75 Nassau St. (btw. John & Fulton). Yesterday we got word from Michael Bao himself that the new shop will open on Monday meaning the old one will be closing. The Nassau St. location still had paper over the windows when I walked by so it’s unclear if this space will be any better (or have real seats maybe?)  than the old one.

Good news for those of you anxiously awaiting the opening of Kortako, the Korean taco shop on Nassau (btw. John & Fulton) from the BonChon on John people. Lunch’er Kino passed along a tidbit that the place is expected to be open by the end of October (confirmed by their Web site) and if you eat at the FiDi BonChon they’ll give you a 50% off coupon for your first visit to Kortako. When I walked by significant progress had been made on the inside so fingers crossed that they can actually open on schedule. On a side note, with this, Nicky’s Vietnamese Sandwiches and the new location of Baoguette, Nassau St. is becoming quite the cheap Asian eats corridor.