Midtown Lunch

Rumors of Pane Panelle‘s demise started swirling a couple of months ago after a comment that the restaurant on Church St. (at Walker) had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Well, it turns out they’re closed and the restaurant is already papered up and being transformed into something else. The sit-down restaurant Stuzzicheria had spawned the Pane Panelle sandwich and soup counter which mostly stuck to the $10 and under price cap but was a little lacking in the quantity/money spent ratio. Then the restaurant just changed its name to Pane Panelle and you had to go to the bar to order sandwiches which never got any larger or less expensive, although I did really like what they did with chickpeas and eggplant. Unless the new place has some sort of affordable lunch or sandwich options (doubtful), I guess we’ll have to settle for the less refined but no less delicious Italian sandwiches from Saluggi’s or Saluggi’s Sandwich Shoppe up the street.

There are a few things we Downtown Lunch’ers are still lacking in the food department, and for some reason the list is heavy on Southern food including fried chicken and barbeque. You can get fried chicken at several places, but good luck finding the trifecta of it being quick, costing less than $10, and actually being good. Popeye’s was the go-to place that hit all of those ideals, but the location on Fulton St. shuttered. Then there’s Bon Chon on John, but Korean fried chicken isn’t quite the same, and Cornerstone Grill on Greenwich St. in Tribeca is good, but kind of a hike for most of us and they don’t have seating. So what’s a fatty to do? Get thee to Dirty Bird To Go on Chambers St. (btw. W. Broadway & Greenwich). I’m not ashamed to say I ate a huge fried chicken dinner at my desk and got grease all over my keyboard because the chicken was so good I couldn’t put it down.

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I went to check out the new Dirty Bird To Go on Chambers St. when it was supposed to open on Monday, but alas, the windows were still papered up and it didn’t look close to serving fried chicken. (The opening has since been confirmed as indefinitely delayed). I surveyed my options nearby, and ended up at Birdbath Bakery on Church St. (at Thomas). I’d had an awesome chicken cilantro sandwich there soon after it opened and there were several other sandwiches that looked great, including a catfish variety, but then a turkey sandwich with potato chips and beer mustard caught my eye. I wasn’t entirely sure what beer mustard was, but it sounded promising.

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Yesterday was the opening of the rebranded Genji counter inside of Whole Foods Tribeca on Greenwich St. (at Warren) as a Dosateria and Lassi Bar in a first-ever collaboration with Cafe Spice. It turns out the restaurant is more of a split-space now with Japanese food still being made on one side and the rest of the space being used to make Indian dosas, uttapams and Bombay Frankies. You can also get a variety of lassis, or yogurt drinks, some sauces and salads and desserts like gulab jamun from a grab and go case. There were some people standing around to answer questions on ordering (and the ever popular “What’s a dosa?) and I got in the short line to procure some food. My take on what I was served, and why you may want to go vegetarian for lunch here, straight ahead.

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There’s a strip of Church St. in the lower part of Tribeca that’s chock full of cheap eats. Many of them are steam table Indian or those weird hybrid Chinese/Tex Mex hole in the walls but there’s also falafel and delightful independent places like Mimi’s Cafe. A place called Kool Bloo opened a year ago and terrible, intentional misspelling aside, I never got around to checking it out because it just seemed like a crappy overpriced generic deli and there are plenty of those around already. After Kool Bloo shuttered, Church Street Kitchen quickly opened serving deli sandwiches, fried chicken, burgers and well, basically everything from a generic deli. What brought me there was the reasonable prices and want of some comfort food. And I’d have to say, they delivered.

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One of my predecessors tried to eat at Taste of Tandoor on Church St. (btw. Warren & Chambers) back in 2009 and it did not go well. There were some words exchanged, and to make a short story even shorter, it ended with a review of Pakistan Tea House instead. Well, yesterday I was in need of a hearty lunch and decided to give T of T another shot to see if it was any better or worse than Bangal Curry or any of the other steam table Indian places in the lower part of Tribeca.

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Those of you who work near City Hall may already be familiar with Blue Spoon Coffee Co. which has had a location on Chambers St. (btw. Broadway & Church) for a few years serving good coffee and sandwiches, salad and soup come lunch time. The second location opened on William St. (at Platt) two weeks ago, and just started serving lunch with the same menu as the first shop. You might want to first go there for the fancy Intelligentsia coffee they’re brewing or for the various breakfast items like Balthazar pastries, bagels and oatmeal, but you also may be interested in the sandwiches which, instead of festering in a refrigerated case, are made to order.

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