Midtown Lunch

Thursday, waiting on line at the Wafels & Dinges Truck (on 45th btw. 6+7th)

• Pinkberry will be testing a new parfait at their Koreatown location [Eater]
• The best time to enjoy Schnipper’s Quality Kitchen is during Happy Hour [BLD Project]
• Not everybody found Kashmir Buffet to be as a sketchy as I did [Me So Hungry]
• There’s a good Cafe Metro in Brooklyn! (Oh wait, sorry.  It’s Metro Cafe.) [VV]
• The budae jjigae from Pocha 32 is enough to feed three or four people [Serious Eats New York]
• Sapporo gets upgraded to a “buy” [Blondie and Brownie]
• The only thing worse than getting your purse stolen, is when your purse is stolen with your Woorijip frequent eater card is inside [Fressagirl]
• Ever wondered what the inside of my fridge looks like?  [Umamimart]

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 week, our Happy Hour Correspondent “Mamacita” will 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.

After I wrote about Opal, a couple of commenters said that Metro 53 (a few blocks away) had a great happy hour. After having some strong 2 for 1 drinks at Opal I was excited to see if Metro could take on my liver and beat it in to submission. I was even more surprised to have showed up on “Detention Night: School is out but detention has just begun.” All the bartenders were dolled up in tiny pleated plaid skirts, curve hugging buttoned down shirts and the inevitable perky pigtails.

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The finals of the Go Go Curry Eating Championship are tomorrow (Saturday, May 30th) at 5pm.  Four semi professional eaters and a complete unknown will face off in a Japanese curry eating battle to the death of epic proportions(?)  I think the sign says it all (in more ways than one.) To say this is going to be the epitome of grossness would be the understatement of the year. Watch the carnage go down live on JustinTV.

I think I speak for everyone when I say Noooooooooooooooooo! The rumor is true, Olympic Pita (on 38th btw 5+6th) has become Baraca. I’m not going to panic just yet… from the look of the inside I’m guessing the lunchtime food will be exactly the same. But it’s just sad that my favorite place for falafel in Midtown thinks they have to resort to this ridiculousness to survive in the current economic climate.

I guess we’ll find out for sure about the food when they reopen on Monday (after Shavuot.)

Remember how I said I didn’t understand the whole banh mi backlash?  I take it back.  Chop’t, the salad chain with 3 locations in Midtown, has now introduced a banh mi cobb, featuring “Niman Ranch Pork alongside a blend of mesclun and cabbage, jalapenos, pickled carrots, cucumbers and a homemade chili-lime dressing.” Ok, now I’ll admit that maybe this has gone a bit too far.

If you are a big fan of the pizza at Cer té (yes,apparently it’s Cer té not Certe… who knew?) on 55th btw. 5+6th than you will be very excited to hear this news.  The owners of Cer té have taken over the former Quizno’s on 56th Street (btw. Park+Lex) and will be turning it into the city’s first “green” pizzeria.  What does that mean? The building will be LEED-certified, food will be delivered by foot or via hybrid truck, all supplies will be purchased locally, and the pizza boxes, utensils and paper goods will be made from recyclable materials.

But what about the food???

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Saw a terrible rumor on Twitter yesterday (at least I hope it’s a rumor!) “Olympic Pita (on 38th btw. 5+6th) in midtown has been taken over by a guy from Buddha Bar and is now Baraca, serving sushi for dinner.” Oh lord, please tell me this isn’t true.  I tried calling both the Midtown and Brooklyn locations of Olympic Pita yesterday afternoon and neither answered their phone.  Not a good sign. (Checked the calendar… it’s not April Fools Day.  Maybe it’s Sukhot or something?!? According to commenter “Susan” it is the Jewish holiday of Shavuot, so that would explain why they aren’t answering the phone.  But it still doesn’t explain away the twitter message above.)  Can anybody substantiate or refute this information? Please post it in the comments or email me.

Tina (aka The Wandering Eater) passed along this sad news yesterday: The Beard Papa counter inside Cafe Zaiya (on 41st btw. Mad+5th) will be closing up shop on the last day of May. This means that unless you want to be coming into Midtown over the weekend, today is the last day for a Cafe Zaiya beard papa. No word yet on if they are going to use the space to sell something else or open it up to make more room (it gets pretty crowded in there during lunchtime!)

Speaking of Cafe Zaiya, lunch’er “Linda” was kind enough to send along a photo of the CZ fried fish sandwich being discussed in the forums the other day. The sandwich, in all its cheese topped glory, is after the jump.

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Yesterday our Downtown Lunch correspondent Daniel Krieger spotted a Vinny Vincenz Pizza Truck parked near the South Street Seaport.  Apparently they’re testing out the spot for a month to see if they can make it work.  Daniel will have a full report tomorrow in his weekly Downtown Lunch column… but in the meantime if Midtown Lunchers are looking to check it out, another Vinny Vincenz truck was spotted today on 40th btw. B’way+6th.  (They’re everywhere!!!)  Not sure what the deal is, or whether or not that spot is permanent.  Sadly Mr. Vincenz is not on the twitter yet.

According to Slice overlord Adam Kuban it’s not his favorite pizza from a truck, but it’s good  it’s “worth going to” and “about as good as you’re going to get” from a truck (which in general is not his favorite type of pizza.)  Check out Slice’s complete coverage of Vinny Vincenz here.