Midtown Lunch

If you haven’t heard of Kogi BBQ, the twittering Korean taco truck from L.A., go educate yourself. Then come back here for the greatest news of all time. As you know from our giveaway last week, Kogi is in town for the Citymeals-on-Wheels “Global Street Food” benefit on Monday night. Well, so many Midtown Lunch’ers (who couldn’t afford the $450 for charity ticket price) called to say how bummed they were, that Kogi has decided to come to Midtown for one hour on Monday. From Noon to 1pm, they’ll be serving a limited number of kimchee quesadillas a few items TBD (but probably not tacos b/c there are too many ingredients) from inside the Dessert Truck, who plan on being parked in their normal location (on 55th just East of Lexington). Things like this can always change at the last second, so check the Dessert Truck twitter feed, or the Kogi BBQ twitter feed before heading out. See you there!  UPDATE: There will be 200 servings of a Dessert Truck/Kogi BBQ duo plate available, $4 each, with all proceeds going to benefit Citymeals-on-Wheels.

Baja Fresh doesn’t do it when your kid has already had a SF burrito in his hands
(or stared down the tacos at Las Poblanitas)

• Don’t tell me what’s in halal cart white sauce!  I don’t want to know.  [Diner’s Journal]
• Apparently Top Chefs were giving away ice cream in Midtown this week? [Grub Street]
• Guys: That dream you had of Lunch’er Jamie at Hooters, might not have been a dream [Fressagirl]
• Biryani Cart had a long line yesterday.  Biryani Cart’s Sandwich Land, not so much [BLD Project]
• A celeb chef is opening a pop up restaurant in Midtown this summer? [Grub Street]
• I learned this week that Myspace is the devil [Miami New Times]

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. This week she files a little mini-review of Black Sheep.

You know, sometimes you just end up in that late night bar. The one after you’ve had a few but still want to burn the midnight oil with friends before heading home. That’s when we found ourselves at Black Sheep: a pretty average Irish pub on the East side. It has cozy booths, art deco lighting, back-lit stained glass windows and a few big TV screens. On this particular late night the bartender decided to play the Victoria’s Secret runway show on the tube. It was a bit odd, but hey, to each her own. No one seemed to care and most were buried deep in their drinks or conversation.
Read more »

Lunch’er “PK” sends this description of what it was like to wait on line at XPL (on 48th & Park) yesterday: “It’s clear that the NYT article is bringing out people who would not normally come out. One guy was literally holding a copy of the dining section as he came up to the cart, checked the fruit cart right next to XPL to make sure that wasn’t the cart mentioned in the article, before getting in line. He asked what a falafel was and then got a falafel sandwich. One other guy asked “What cut of lamb is it?” which I almost laughed out loud at. Gyro meat is not exactly a niman ranch lamb shank.”  Awesome.

Related:
NYT Drives Huge Traffic to Midtown Carts Today

The Wall Street Journal becomes the latest publication to report on the new mobile food trend sweeping the nation. It covers much of the same ground- like twitter and how much cheaper it is for trained Chefs to open a truck than a brick and mortar restaurant. But it also spends a little bit of time talking about the obstacles, including a topic that Midtown Lunch has covered extensively: cart on cart intimidation.

“Another major hazard of the business, newcomers say, is hostility—and even threats—from the competition. Mr. Lao [from the Rickshaw Dumpling Truck] says his entry into the industry was marked by threats and sabotage by other vendors, who parked their carts right in front of his sales window.”

In related news, the NYPost reports this morning that a criminal complaint has been filed over threats directed by a Mr. Softee truck at a Good Humor man in Queens. That sounds familiar.

Related:
At Lunch Now: Rickshaw Dumpling Truck Take Two
Halal Vendors Chase Happy Well Being Cart Back Downtown
Rafiqi’s Tries To Intimidate New Mexican Cart From 49th Street
The Treats Truck Will Try Her Luck at 45th St. Today

I might have been mildly interested in this news if Baja Fresh hadn’t just opened on 3rd Ave, although I guess if you work near Penn Station you might be down: “I just randomly happened upon this today…. Inside of Penn Station a Moe’s Southwest Grill is set to open — I’d say by Friday. They looked open and staffed, but had the door barricaded. This location isn’t even mentioned on their website as a coming soon! Walking inside towards the A-C-E lines, it’s on the right side. They are also converting the Houlihan’s to a TGI Fridays, and remodeling the Roy Rogers (which contains two other places that I cannot recall). -Lunch’er Joe” Ahhh, Penn Station. What a glorious lunchtime wonderland. Anybody been to this chain before? Is it worth it?

Huge Chinese food news in the old Inbox last night courtesy of Lunch’er “Robert” (who appears to have taken this photo from his office across the street.) Szechuan Gourmet, the only place ever written about on this site to receive 2 stars from the New York Times (and my personal favorite spot for beef tendon, and twice cooked pork belly with chili leeks), is opening a second location on 56th btw. B’way+8th. The menu will have all the old favorites from the location on 39th btw. 5+6th, plus some new stuff (according to the employee I spoke to.) They hope to open this Tuesday- but you know how those things go, so you’ll want to check back here before heading over.

This is fantastic news for Midtown north Chinese food fans, who right now have to go to… I don’t know… Yips (?) for their closest Chinese food fix. Where the hell do you go for good Chinese food in Midtown north? Starting next week, the answer to that question will be Szechuan Gourmet!

Related:
Szechuan Gourmet: Day 1 as a NYT 2 Starred Restaurant

Tomorrow (6/5) is National Doughnut Day, and Krispy Kreme has one upped Dunkin Donuts’ “free doughnut with a purchase of any drink” shenanigans. Krispy Kreme will also be giving away free doughnuts tomorrow no purchase required (one per customer, at participating locations of course.) Your move DD.