Midtown Lunch

As is customary here on Midtown Lunch, every Tuesday we’ll profile a different lunch’er and get their recommendations for places to eat in Downtown NYC. This week, we have “Opchee” who likes man food, has eaten most of the good burger places in the Financial District and is in search of a place that serves breakfast for lunch.

Name: Opchee

Occupation: Legal (sometimes just barely)

Where you work: Around the One Chase Manhattan Plaza (building with the big ‘shroom in front) on William at Liberty

Age: Yes, I like age statements with my boeuf, whiskey, or cheese.  People? Not so much.

Favorite Kinds of Food: Man food, and protein shakes (whey, casein, egg, soy, etc.  Any kind of Muscle Milk).   Also some good Asian when the time is right.

Least Favorite Foods: Wraps.  Faux-Asian.  Worse yet, Asians who screw up Asian, like:  “You mean to tell me THIS is Pad Thai?” or “These xiaolongbao (Shanghai soup dumplings) have thicker skin than a cold-calling telemarketer.” Read more »

As is customary here on Midtown Lunch, every Tuesday we’ll profile a different lunch’er and get their recommendations for places to eat in Downtown NYC. This week, we have Alyson Waller, who is the citizen judge at this year’s Vendy Awards on Governor’s Island Sept. 25. (Have you bought your tickets yet?). She works in Soho but travels to out-of-bounds downtown lunch spots in Greenwich Village and has a dislike of a certain cheese.

Name: Alyson Waller

Occupation: Architect

Where you work: Spring and Hudson

Age: 27

Favorite Kinds of Food: Fresh pasta, Thai, pizza, burgers, garlic, cheese (see below), bacon, crusty baguettes, artichokes, red velvet cupcakes.

Least Favorite Foods: Beets, raw tomatoes, bananas, goat cheese, anything with a lot of mayo.

Favorite Lunches Downtown: Murray’s Cheese on Bleecker (btw. 6th & 7th Ave.) for cheesy sandwiches, Birdbath Bakery (Multiple Locations) for the chicken cilantro sandwich, 508 Restaurant on Greenwich (at Spring) for the burger with free beer special they used to have, Little Italy (the deli, not the neighborhood) on Varick St. (at King) for a chicken parm hero, The NYC Cravings food truck for pork sauce, Chipotle (Multiple Locations) for a steak burrito, Puffy’s Tavern on Hudson (at Harrison) for good sandwiches made better with free beer, Spunto on Carmine (at 7th Ave. South) for thin crust pizza. Sweet Revenge on Carmine (btw. Bedford & Bleecker) for cupcakes, and Jacques Torres (Multiple Locations) for warm chocolate chip cookies.

The “go-to” lunch place you and your co-workers eat at too often: Ear Inn on Spring St. (btw. Greenwich & Washington) is definitely our go-to place for a sit down lunch. It’s right down the street from our office, has good food at a decent price and you can draw on the tables. Read more »

As is customary here on Midtown Lunch, every Tuesday we’ll profile a different lunch’er and get their recommendations for places to eat in Downtown NYC. This week we have lunch’er Deep who works pretty far south but hits a wide swath of downtown in his list of dislikes reads like the Midtown Lunch hand book. He’s looking for some help in the sandwich department.

Name: Deep, dbdtron

Occupation: Graphic Designer/Illustrator

Where you work: One New York Plaza. It doesn’t get more south on Manhattan than here…

Age: 34

Favorite Kinds of Food: Anything delicious. It can be fancy or street cart food, as long as it makes an impression.

Least Favorite Foods: All those delis that have the same food on every block. I saw one that called itself “Variety Cafe” the other day. Nothing could prevent me more from coming in the door, guys. Same goes for all the bars that are variations of the same thing.

Favorite Lunches Downtown: Alfanoose (kofta + fried onions = awesome) on Maiden Lane (btw. Broadway & Nassau), BonChon Chicken (spicy, duh) on John St. (btw. Cliff & Pearl), Adrienne’s Pizza Bar (le sigh) on Stone St. (btw. Old Slip & Broad), Locanda Verde (bank buster) on Greenwich St. (nr. N. Moore), Columbine (soups, whoopie pie) on W. Broadway (near White), Baoguette (catfish sandwich). Read more »

As is customary here on Midtown Lunch, every Tuesday we’ll profile a different lunch’er and get their recommendations for places to eat in Downtown NYC. This week, we have Julie who likes bargain sushi rolls, eats at a certain chain too much and mourns the loss of some fancy sandwiches.

Name: Julie

Occupation: Insurance

Where you work: Wall & William streets

Age: 32

Favorite Kinds of Food: I love all kinds of seafood, fresh Italian pasta dishes, and tacos made with fish or slow cooked beef or pork.

Least Favorite Foods: Chicken wings, bread and butter pickles.

Favorite Lunches Downtown: Niko Niko on Pearl (btw. Wall & Pine) for the $5 to $6 sushi roll packages, Adrienne’s Pizza Bar on Stone St. (nr. Hanover Sq.) for the old-fashioned pizza, which is arguably the best in NYC, Baoguette on Maiden Lane (btw. Nassau & Broadway) for the veguette or banh mi.

The “go-to” lunch places you and your co-workers eat at too often: Lemongrass Grill on William (at Maiden Lane) and Sophie’s Cuban (Multiple Locations) are up there. Tuesday is French onion soup day at Financier (Multiple Locations).  I still miss the fancy sandwiches at Mangia Wall Street, even though it closed years ago. Read more »

As is customary here on Midtown Lunch, every Tuesday we’ll profile a different lunch’er and get their recommendations for places to eat in Downtown NYC. This week, we have Amy who likes Thanksgiving dinner, but wouldn’t follow it up with a Cinnabon. She needs your help finding a Mexican standby downtown.

Name: Amy

Occupation: Accounts Manager

Where you work: Financial Square

Age: 32

Favorite Kinds of Food: Lamb shish kebab, lahmajoon (Armenian pizza), hummus, and Salad Oliveh are among my favorite Middle Eastern foods to eat.  I love Italian pasta dishes such as gnocchi with pesto and pasta Bolognese.  Although I enjoy sushi and usually order chirashi at a Japanese restaurant,  I would say my favorite Japanese dish is okonomiyaki from Otafuko on East 9th St. & 2nd Ave.  Korean barbecue and bibimbop are dishes I enjoy in K-Town.  Indian dishes such as saag paneer and chaat papri are also favorites of mine.   If I really had to do it, I think I could eat Thanksgiving dinner each night for a year straight.

Least Favorite Foods: Olives, sauerkraut, sausage made with fennel, raw tomatoes, and anything covered in cilantro.  I also do not like fast food and have a real aversion to any Cinnabon counter. Cinnabons look like big blobs of sticky calories  that would stick to me the rest of my life.  I have never tried one and never will since I learned they are also 813 calories a bun.  Gross! Read more »

As is customary here on Midtown Lunch, every Tuesday we’ll profile a different lunch’er and get their recommendations for places to eat in Downtown NYC. This week, we have Tom who works in the dead zone of the World Financial Center, but ventures over to the FiDi for some Caribbean and has a very short list of food dislikes.

Name: Tom

Occupation: Finance

Where you work: World Financial Center

Age: 24

Favorite Kinds of Food: Kind of everything, but some highlights are pork buns, moules frites, ramen, herring, cheeeeeeeese, bacon, and dessert pizza. What’s dessert pizza you ask? It’s when you go to an Italian place like Franny’s and eat a bunch of cured meats, pizza and pasta and when the server brings you the dessert menu, you ask for another pizza. I also like having ridiculous food parties for things that I would probably never make otherwise. This has included gypsy bacon and kimchi skewers, totchos, and waffles stuffed with cheese/bacon/fried apples/pancetta and topped with fried chicken/gravy/whipped mascarpone.

Least Favorite Foods: I try to like everything and if there’s something I don’t like, I figure I just haven’t tried hard enough. Bitter melon probably took the most effort, and it’s the one I’m still not sure about. Read more »

As is customary here on Midtown Lunch, every Tuesday we’ll profile a different lunch’er and get their recommendations for places to eat in Downtown NYC. This week, we have Kevin who has eaten at a lot of downtown’s finest lunch options, but is searching for a good, cheap burger.

Name: Kevin

Occupation: College intern

Where you work: Broadway and Beaver streets

Age: 23

Favorite Kinds of Food: I’m a sucker for Japanese bento boxes and sushi.  Banh mi sandwiches and Vietnamese food are also high on my list. I ate a lot of banh mi as a kid and I love the different varieties offered at banh mi sandwich shops today.

Least Favorite Foods: Unauthentic or heavily Americanized Chinese food masquerading as authentic Chinese food.  Also anything that’s overly greasy or contains globs of mayo (yes, I’m not a fan of mayo on nearly anything)

Favorite Lunches Downtown: I’ve recently taken a liking to Fuji Catering Service.  You can’t beat authentic, hand-made bento lunch boxes for about $7 delivered to your lobby.  Venturing outside the office, I fall back onto banh mi from Baoguette (Multiple Locations) and the Banh Mi Cart on John St. (at Water).  I also enjoy the occasional visits from the Schnitzel & Things (Multiple Locations) and Wafels & Dinges (Multiple Locations) trucks.  I really hope more midtown trucks and carts will consider venturing downtown a few times a month to bring some more variety to the area. Read more »