Midtown Lunch

As soon as I sat down for lunch at P.J. Clarke’s (on 3rd Ave. & 55th) and looked at the menu, I prayed that I wouldn’t bump into anybody I knew.  Looking around at all the blue button up shirts with ties I realized that probably wouldn’t be an issue. Is this how the other half lives?  Amazing.  If you get to go out to fancy work lunches like P.J. Clarke’s on a regular basis, consider yourself lucky.  I never go, unless I’m invited by pizza and hamburger king Adam Kuban.  He immediately pointed out that I could get a hamburger for $8.90 (under the $10 price range.)  No cheese though, and no fries either (of course.) Not really much of a deal, so P.J. Clarke’s gets disqualified from being an official Midtown Lunch. But that doesn’t mean I can’t tell you that the burger is pretty damn tasty (you may say the secret ingredient is salt.)

Read Adam’s full review on A Hamburger Today…

The date is set, and tickets are on sale, for the biggest food event of the year… the 2008 Vendy Awards.  It’s a street cart battle of epic proportions, and it all goes down October 18th at Tobacco Warehouse in Dumbo.  Tickets are more expensive this year ($80 in advance/$100 at the door) but all the money goes to The Street Vendor Project, a great organization that fights for the legal rights of vendors all over the city.  There are also donor packages available, with added perks, if your company would like to get involved.

Tickets are on sale now, and nominations are officially open- so head over to their website and represent for Midtown!  Last year Kwik Meal won the fan’s choice award, but this year I want Midtown to take home the whole thing! (There are fancy shirts for sale as well… very exciting.) The nominations close on September 7th, so don’t wait!

Related:
Street Meat Palooza: A 13 Cart Chicken/Lamb Over Rice Showdown
Dosa Man Wins, But Kwik Meal is the People’s Choice at the 2007 Vendy Awards

In October of last year it was reported that Obika would be opening one of their Italian mozzarella bars in the atrium on 56th Street and Madison Ave.  Plywood went up, and everyone in the upper right hand corner of Midtown has been waiting for the arrival of what could be a pretty cool place in an otherwise desolate part of Midtown east.  On Monday I stopped by to see if any progress had been made, sticking my camera through one of the holes at the bottom of the plywood.  My strange discovery, after the jump…  Read more »

Milant (on 39th btw. Lex+3rd) re-opened today, after a run in with the DOH and a complete “rennovation” of their kitchen. The refrigerator case that houses most of the sandwich ingredients was totally cleaned out, so they were only serving smoked turkey sandwiches today (I passed.)  I guess this is good news, considering that at one time Milant was my favorite sandwich in Midtown, but I can’t help but shake the feeling that something is still off with the place.  Questions still linger about the cleanliness, and the really old looking stuff they still have for sale in the windows and on a little shelf on the sidewalk doesn’t help. 

The guy behind the counter told me the fridge will be re-stocked tomorrow, and the full menu will be available, so Milant lovers should keep their fingers crossed.  If any super-fans go, let us know in the comments how it is…

Eater just posted a link to this amazing You Tube video for “The Food Cart Song” starring some well known (and not so well known) cart vendors in Midtown. Amyn from King Tut (on 50th & 6th), Muhammed from the famous cart on 53rd & 6th, and Andrea from the Jamaican Dutchy (on 51st & 7th) all make an appearance.  Oh, and they lip synch too.

Greatest… video… ever.

Ferris Bueller Likes Me 

OMG!  Did you know that when celebrities listen to you, it validates your opinion? I wonder if Sarah Jessica Parker & Matthew Broderick read Midtown Lunch? (They don’t, but they should.)  Two weeks ago the NY Observer spotted the couple outside of what they thought might have been Szechuan Gourmet, a popular Midtown Lunch spot given two stars by Frank Bruni in the New York Times.  Yesterday it was confirmed by US Weekly (yes, I read my wife’s copy of US Weekly):

During dinner with friends at Szechuan Gourmet, a low-key Chinese restaurant, the Sex and the City star [Parker] and her hubby [Broderick] noshed on braised beef, fish fillets, sliced pork belly and crispy fried lamb. “They were very nice,” owner Cheng Zhong Huang tells US. “It was their first time here, and they were having a good time.”

What are you talking about low key?  Clearly US Weekly has never been there at 1pm on a Wednesday.  Surprisingly this isn’t the first time Sarah Jessica Parker and Midtown Lunch have collided.  She told Grub St. last year that she loves street meat, and her favorite cart is on 55th & 6th Avenue. (Btw, nice ordering.)

From Eater: Today at the Merchant’s Gate at Columbus Circle: “From 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. the Do-Goodie crew from Greyston Bakery, the for-profit arm of the Yonkers-based Greyston Foundation, will be offering irresistible samples of their new Do-Goodie Brownie, along with coupons for a dollar off of two Do-Goodies, easily redeemed at the nearby Whole Foods at Time Warner Center.”

Free samples of brownies are kind of ok I guess, but the real free food excitement is happening tomorrow at Virgil’s… Read more »