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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We are short on non-Starbucks coffee options in the lower part of Tribeca and most of the Financial District, so the news yesterday that the Aroma Espresso Bar at Church & Barclay would be opening at 10 a.m. today was more than welcome. I’m not sure if this location will have the same sandwiches and breakfast items with a Middle Eastern bent (the chain’s based in Israel), but the menu online looks pretty great with shakshuka and a halumi sandwich represented. If any of you stop in today, let us know what the scoop is in the comments.

There’s a string of cheap places to eat on Church St. that included Pakistan Tea House, Taco House, and their neighbor Mike’s Papaya on the corner at Reade St. Well, apparently we’re down a hot dog and drunk food purveyor as Lunch’er Dan wrote in to tell us that the gate’s been down for a couple of days (as you can see from the picture he snapped). They weren’t shuttered by the Department of Health, so it’s a little bit of a mystery why they’re closed. I never ate there but I’m sure those not wanting to eat at the Paki Tea House perhaps turned to Mike’s for lunch in a hurry. If’ it’s truly closed, it better not become a Subway (or a nail salon).

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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One of the highlights in my year-and-a-half as your guide through the lunches of downtown Manhattan was discovering a $7 all-you-can-eat buffet at the delightfully-named Sea World in the gross upper reaches of Church St. When word came Friday that the place had closed and was possibly being taken over by pizza shop Saluggi’s, I couldn’t stop a “Nooo!” from escaping my mouth. Read more »

I’m not quite sure why the stretch of Broadway bordering Tribeca is getting all of the $1 slice love, but those of us working elsewhere downtown are jealous. Roll and Go opened a location at Broadway & Franklin trafficking in pizza, gyro and breakfast sandwiches and last week Joey’s Pepperoni Pizza opened a block up the street at Broadway & White selling only slices and the odd Jamaican patty. I decided that cheap pizza was just what I needed for lunch and staged an impromptu matchup between the two places. One of them came out the clear winner, but you’ll have to click through to see what $2 worth of pizza looks and tastes like.

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Most people who know of Saluggi’s in the uppermost part of Tribeca on Church St. (btw. Canal & Lispenard) know it for pizza. A look at the menu online told me this maybe wasn’t the best place for a solo diner to go. When I got there I discovered they have a special of two slices and a soda for $6.50, but I already had my heart set on one of their sandwiches – particularly the sausage and broccoli rabe variety. Read more »