Midtown Lunch

Now that’s a handsome sandwich. Courtesy of Serious Eats NY

• The prosciutto cotto, brie and grilled zucchini sandwich at Pepe Rosso To Go is good, but another sandwich in their roster is better. [Serious Eats NY]
• A mannequin of a small child beckons you into a Chinatown clothing boutique where ice cream and tea await. [Grub St.]
• Fro-yo and coffee purveyor Joyride made its first trip downtown and plans to be in Tribeca on Wednesdays. [Tribeca Citizen]
• Strawberry tarts are like the supermodels of the pastry world, and the one at Ceci Cela does not disappoint. [Lunch with Front Studio]
• Those behind the revamp to Pier 25 in Tribeca are on the hunt for snack vendors. Might I suggest a taco stand? [Eater NY]

I saw this too late in the day to alert everyone, but lunch’er Deep wrote in to say that he ate at the newish Mexicue truck when it was parked at Water & Broad yesterday and found out they’ll be at that location every Thursday. (You might want to check out their location on Twitter). Midtown has already weighed in on this Mexi-BBQ fusion and deemed most of it good despite the long lines and higher prices that have become a standard of this kind of truck. Find out what he had to say about the food after the jump. Read more »

I know this has nothing to do with lunch, but lunch’er Jason sent in a photo and intel that Zeytuna has a good happy hour deal going right now where you can get 2 beers for the price of 1 from 4 to 8 p.m. I’m guessing this is to get people to come in and try the outdoor cafe that’s now open until 9 p.m. instead of closing after lunchtime. When I walked by today, the menu wasn’t outside, maybe due to the rain, so I’m not sure how much their drinks cost. I didn’t even know that they served alcohol, but hey, now you can have a beer with your falafel platter.

A few days ago I asked if anyone had eaten at the All American Diner I & II Truck that’s been parked in front of the 1 State St. building for a while now.  I’ve spotted it a few times on my fruitless search for the mythical Picnick Smoked truck, and there always seems to be a small crowd out front, which is always a good sign. None of you ML lunch’ers seemed to know that it existed, so I figured I should take one for the team and go eat something from there. It’s not your normal breed of truck, meaning they don’t use Twitter or have a Web site telling you about them, and it’s run by a husband and wife team that seem like they would be running an actual Mom & Pop diner somewhere.

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I’ve been on the lookout for cheap sushi downtown that doesn’t come from a grocery store…or Duane Reade. So when I grabbed a menu from the gritty-looking Shinjuku  on Church St. (at Park Place), I got all kinds of excited to discover they had a lunch special that was pretty damn inexpensive at two rolls plus salad or soup for $7.25. Clearly this was worth investigating. Read more »

A friend who works in the Trump Building on Wall St. (btw. William & Broad) had passed this along a while ago and I ignored it, thinking it was another generic deli. A place called Milk St. Cafe, which is apparently a well-loved corporate caterer and cafe in Boston that makes everything from scratch, is opening a branch in the space where Mangia used to be. It’s not slated to open until early 2011, and until then there is a weird interactive ad for MasterCard in one of the windows in lieu of plain paper. The menu has vegetarian (and kosher) items in the form of pizza, sandwiches, quiche and some Middle Eastern stuff, but they also have fish.