Midtown Lunch

Midtown workers shouldn’t have all the fun, so to even the score, I’ve brought on Daniel Krieger as an official Downtown Lunch Correspondent to write up some of the tasty stuff you can get in the lower half of Manhattan. He’s a great photographer (ensuring good food porn), but more importantly he is a lover of cheap, unique and delicious eats (or as I like to call it- Midtown Lunch’ish food.) This week Daniel hits up the Downtown location of a place we are all familiar with in Midtown: Sophie’s Cuban.

Sometimes all ya gotta do is ask. I have to admit that I’ve been quite jealous the past month or so, watching all these great new sandwiches go through the pages of Midtown Lunch. That duck pastrami sandwich made me insanely jealous and then when I saw the Pernil with a Twist, I knew I had to do something. I called up the downtown location of Sophie’s Cuban and asked if they made it… to which they obviously had no clue because Downtown gets no love!

That was about to change.

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In other Downtown Lunch news, this came in earlier in the week from a tipster: “There’s a new pizza truck on Pine Street, off Broadway.  It’s called John-John Pizza (a small spinoff of its Staten Island pizzeria).  I tried their grandma slice today and was very pleased.  In particular, its crust was PERFECT and its sauce was delicious.”  Confirmed by another Dowtown Lunch’er, who also sent along the photo: “I work at 2 Broadway downtown and I noticed John Johns Pizza truck parked right outside on Broadway so I decided to stop by. I got a Thin Grandma’s Slice for $2.50 and it was awesome.  The crust was perfectly crunchy and the sauce with the sprinkled cheese was great.  They have a special for 2 slices and a can of soda for $5. Also they guy inside said that this would be their new spot Monday – Friday.”  Our man Daniel Krieger is on the case! (His actual review for today will be coming shortly…)

Midtown workers shouldn’t have all the fun, so to even the score, I’ve brought on Daniel Krieger as an official Downtown Lunch Correspondent to write up some of the tasty stuff you can get in the lower half of Manhattan. He’s a great photographer (ensuring good food porn), but more importantly he is a lover of cheap, unique and delicious eats (or as I like to call it- Midtown Lunch’ish food.)

The corner of Pearl and John Streets now offer two solid Downtown Lunch options for the hungry and cheap. The banh mi cart from two weeks ago was a nice find, but Backyard Chicken sits about 50 feet away, and could be the greatest hot spot for cheap lunch in NYC (ok, not really.)

At BC you’ll spend $6.50 for 1/4 chicken with two sides and a drink…and for an extra 50 cents you can get a third side. Basically for under 7 bucks you won’t be hungry until tomorrow, as the portions are quite generous.

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Midtown workers shouldn’t have all the fun, so to even the score, I’ve brought on Daniel Krieger as an official Downtown Lunch Correspondent to write up some of the tasty stuff you can get in the lower half of Manhattan. He’s a great photographer (ensuring good food porn), but more importantly he is a lover of cheap, unique and delicious eats (or as I like to call it- Midtown Lunch’ish food.)

Who doesn’t love having their noodles hand pulled? Wait… let me rephrase that. I love pulling my noodle! Shit wait, no that’s wrong again. For great hand pulled noodles check out Sheng Wang on Eldridge street (that’s better). I had lunch there after being told about it from the same friend who told me about Lan Zhou last summer, but she said that since discovering Sheng Wang, it’s her go-to HPNJ (hand pulled noodle joint).

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Midtown workers shouldn’t have all the fun, so to even the score, I’ve brought on Daniel Krieger as an official Downtown Lunch Correspondent to write up some of the tasty stuff you can get in the lower half of Manhattan. He’s a great photographer (ensuring good food porn), but more importantly he is a lover of cheap, unique and delicious eats (or as I like to call it- Midtown Lunch’ish food.) This week Daniel hits up the brand new Farinella, which from his description of $3 slices of potato pizza, and small sandwiches for $7, sounds almost like the Downtown version of Sullivan St. Bakery (if Jim Lahey was an Italian hip hop artist.)

“What have I done to deserve this flavorless pizza????” (Said in my butchered Marlon Brando voice). That’s what I used to ask when sampling most downtown pizza joints. There wasn’t really a decent spot for a slice until Farinella, a new Italian bakery/pizzeria, opened this past Monday. I checked in on opening day with high expectations and was not disappointed.

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First the banh mi cart, and now this: Dim sum style “sticky rice stuffed into fried boneless chicken wings” at the Rainbow Cafe in Chinatown. Are you kidding me? Does anybody know if you can get this somewhere in Midtown? Mr. Krieger, I may have to make a special trip downtown to try this one with you. [Serious Eats: New York]

Midtown workers shouldn’t have all the fun, so to even the score, I’ve brought on Daniel Krieger as an official Downtown Lunch Correspondent to write up some of the tasty stuff you can get in the lower half of Manhattan. He’s a great photographer (ensuring good food porn), but more importantly he is a lover of cheap, unique and delicious eats (or as I like to call it- Midtown Lunch’ish food.)

After spotting the story on Cheap Ass Foods yesterday morning, Zachypoo emailed me frantically to check out the new banh mi cart on the corner of St. Johns and Water street. So I knew I had to scope out the situation ASAP. Clearly we weren’t the only ones who saw the post, because the line was really damn long! Fuggging BLOGS!! I wanted my banh mi NOW! But I had to wait… and wait I did.

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