Midtown Lunch

If you like to eat, chances are you like to drink (read: a lot of you are freakin’ lushes), so I thought maybe it was time to introduce a happy hour column to the site. Every Friday we’ll post about a different bar in Midtown that fits the Midtown Lunch mentality: unhealthy food, not lame (unless it’s lame in a cool way), and most importantly… cheap. For this week’s recommendation we turn to Profiled Midtown Lunch’er Kate who still seems to be turning in slightly blurry photos… although I suppose it’s just proof that she’s doing her job.

Traditional, with twist of the unusual, seems to be the running theme for Midtown Lunch happy hour. You know, bar (check). Bar stools (check). Weird Australian twist (why not). For this week’s Midtown Happy Hour, I grabbed my friend Matt (again), and we went to The Australian. I know what you’re thinking, because I thought it too… midtown theme bar, expensive drinks, bartenders in tank tops and pictures of Crocodile Dundee on the wall. Eek, but no. What we did find was a big beautiful bar with cheap drinks and tasty bites.

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I stopped into the Cosi on 48th btw. 5+6th to *ahem* “research” the free bread bowl and noticed something a little out of the ordinary… no line. On a Friday at 12:40. This place is usually packed. As you can see there are far less free samples in the bread bowl also! Although, I suppose if you have fewer customers, you don’t need to put out as much free bread? I guess they didn’t realize I was coming…

Afterwards, I walked by Moshe’s Falafel and the Biryani Cart and both had lines of 15+ people.

Chef Daisy… does any of this look familiar?

Chef Daisy Martinez gives New York Magazine’s Grub Street a list of all the food she’s eaten this week, and her list of Vendy Awards grub from last Saturday (where she was one of the judges who awarded the cup to the Calexico boys) has one glaring omission:

“I walked over to the Vendys and I had what everybody there had: those delicious little fresh tacos that those boys from Calexico were making, pupusas from Soler, and braised chicken, falafel, and I had a lamb wrap that was incredible. And I had some delicious organic vanilla ice cream and a chocolate bread pudding”

No mention of the biryani, chicken tikka masala, or the chicken kati rolls served by the Biryani Cart!  I’m going to give her the benefit of the doubt and say she must have just forgotten to include it in the list she submitted to Grub Street.  But truthfully, it would make much more sense that she didn’t even try it… because if she had, the Biryani Cart (which won the Peoples Choice Vote) would have definitely won the cup!

Related: Biryani Cart & Treats Truck Are People’s Choice At 2008 Vendy Awards

Lunch’er Jasmine snapped a photo (above left) of new signage that just went up on the New York Times Building for Schnipper’s Quality Kitchen, a new restaurant concept from the former* owners of Hale & Hearty. According to their website they’ll be serving burgers, salads, fries, sandwiches, fish tacos, mac and cheese, sloppy joe’s, milkshakes, beer and wine. I like sloppy joe’s! I like fish tacos! The website says the place will be opening on 41st and 8th Ave. in December… and that’s about it. No prices, so we’ll have to wait and see if this one falls under the official Midtown Lunch’ing domain.

* This was not included in the original post.  The Schnipper Brothers were the founders and former owners of Hale and Hearty, and this is their latest venture.  (They sold their interest of Hale & Hearty over 2 years ago.)

Free cupcake fail!  The new location of Crumbs on Madison Ave. btw. 52nd & 53rd is officially open for business… but, despite what was reported at the end of last week– they will *not* be giving away free full size cupcakes today, or tomorrow.  They will, however, be doing “agressive sampling” (in the words of the Manager) of little mini cupcakes.  They are almost out for today, but they will have more tomorrow.  (No guarantee though, on the free mini cupcakes.)

There is an official Grand Opening in the works which may or may not happen on November 6th, which may or may not include a 1000 free full sized cupcake giveaway- but none of that is confirmed.  I’ll keep you up to date…

This just in from a tipster: “Come to participating Ben & Jerry’s shops on November 4th from 5-8pm, show us you voted and you’ll get a free scoop of ice cream. Show us your “I Voted” sticker, a photo of you in front of your polling station, do the “I Voted dance” or just tell us you voted.”  A new president, and free ice cream- all on the same day.  It might be too much for me to handle.

Here is a list of Midtown Ben & Jerry’s locations (from the last free ice cream promotion they did)

The Bon Appetit Pop Up Cafe (on 57th btw. B’way+7th) opened at 11 a.m. this morning, and I was there first thing to see what they’ve got on tap this year (what can I say, I’m a fat bastard- and I clearly have nothing better to do with my time.) Basically Bon Appetit has set up what amounts to a temporary lunch spot, featuring sandwiches, salads, soups, and sweets from chefs like Mario Batali, Cat Cora, Tyler Florence, and John Besh (New Orleans represent!)

The food is expensive when compared to most of our favorite Midtown Lunch’ing spots, about average when compared to most higher end delis, and downright cheap if you want to compare it to the food served at most of these chef’s restaraunts (the ones who actually have restaurants, that is.) Either way, for those of us who slave away in lunchtime boredom, the pop up cafe is a nice once a year change of pace. Plus they have free food samples, free booze samples (?!?!), and demos with some of the famous chefs.

A look at the food after the jump… Read more »

A lot has gone on since we first posted the news that the Wafels & Dinges truck had added pulled pork as a waffle topping on their truck (which parks in Midtown during lunch a few days a week.) Serious Eats: New York weighed in first, and had good things say; and yesterday the truck sent out a press release saying the menu item was going to be added permanently to the menu. Blondie and Brownie like it too. But we did get one minor complaint from Lunch’er Jeff in the comments yesterday:

Ok, call us pioneers, a co-worker and I went for this today.. first ones there. Smart move cause even if the line was short, they make the waffles fresh, so a little bit of a wait for each order. Listen, I can go on and on with how fantastic this tasted.. the combination works!! It even folds into a taste-sensational sandwich as they instructed. Again, the BBQ sauce, the cool creamy slaw (still generic grade though), the soft meat, and the warm crusty waffle.. yum!! BUT I’m pissed!!

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Bon Appetit’s Pop Up Supper Club and Cafe is back, and opens tomorrow (Thursday) at 11 a.m. (on 57th btw. B’way+7th, in the old Hard Rock Cafe space.)  By day the “Supper Club” is essentially an upscale generic Midtown deli stocked with food made by famous chefs. If you went last year, you know what to expect- but for those who didn’t, here is the Midtown Lunch coverage from last year. 

There are things to complain about (“everything is slightly smaller and more expensive than it could be” “I would never eat food made by [insert chef name here]”) but in the end it’s pretty cool to have these new lunchtime food options, made by famous chefs, for under $10. The pop up supper club is open from October 23-31st (weekdays only) from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and will feature sandwiches, salads, soups, desserts, and daily specials made by Mario Batali, John Besh, Michael Psilakis, Pichet Ong, Charlie Trotter, and more. There will also be live demos from chefs like Cat Cora and Tyler Florence to name a few.

For complete details, including menus and schedules, go to http://www.basupperclubandcafe.com