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???
Dessert Truck Intros New Ice Cream Topped Creation: Yesterday the Dessert Truck introduced this new item: Your choice of a Brownie or a Chocolate Chip Cookie served with a scoop of vanilla or chocolate ice cream, salted caramel and pretzel crunch. ($6) Hello summer! You can find them on 55th btw. Lex+3rd (unless they post a change to their Twitter account.)
Posted at 11:15 am, May 29th, 2009 | 3 Comments
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.
Posted by Zach Brooks at 9:45 am, May 29th, 2009 under Olympic Pita.
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.
Posted by Zach Brooks at 8:30 am, May 29th, 2009 under Cafe Zaiya.
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.
Posted by Zach Brooks at 3:30 pm, May 28th, 2009 under Cart, Pizza, Vinny Vincenz Pizza Truck.
Time Out New York Kids jumps on the street food bandwagon, recommending Midtown favorites The Treats Truck & Wafels and Dinges plus the Ball Field Vendors, and Sammy’s Halal as great places to take your kids this summer. How my kid wasn’t interviewed for this piece, I will never know. [via Serious Eats: New York]
Bunchberries Closes: Profiled Midtown Lunch'er Julia will be upset to hear about this one. Bunchberries, the slightly upscale/slightly healthy leaning Midtown deli on 53rd btw. 2+3rd has closed. (She really liked their scallion pancakes and mac and cheese.) [Grub Street]
Posted at 1:30 pm, May 28th, 2009 | 1 Comment
The fact that free waffles ends at 1pm did not discourage these people still lined up at 12:55pm. And their patience was rewarded… everyone on line at 1pm gets a free waffle! Nicely done W&D. You could have been dicks and cut it off at 1, but you didn’t. Much appreciated…
Oh… and the new addition to the dinges menu: Speculoos, a spread made from ground up biscoff cookies (the ones you get on airplanes.) Consistency of peanut butter, but tastes like gingerbread. Amazing!
Posted by Zach Brooks at 1:09 pm, May 28th, 2009 under At Lunch Now, Wafels and Dinges.
There’s a reason that most Midtown pubs are not considered Midtown Lunches. First off, few serve lunch for under $10. Tack on tax and tip, and you’re usually spending a ton of money for food that is fine by Midtown standards… but kind of boring. And not better than what you can get for less at a real “Midtown Lunch” spot. Sure, there is the added bonus of beer and TV during your lunch… but is that really worth paying $4 for a soda? Yeah, that’s right… Channel Four (on 48th btw. 5+6th) charges $4 for a soda. I know it’s expensive to run a restaurant in Midtown, and I won’t pretend to understand the financial difficulties of being in this high rent part of town. But $4 for a soda? That says one thing to me… tourist trap. (Or, rich lawyer happy hour spot.) Either way it’s unforgivable.
But I’ll give credit where credit is due. Channel Four stepped to the plate with this bacon explosion thing. If you haven’t heard of the bacon explosion, it was one of those gross food sensations that hit the internets earlier in the year. Essentially a bacon wrapped, ground pork roll covered in BBQ sauce, Channel Four decided to recreate it for consumption in Midtown. (Amazing, right?) Even more than that, they were willing to turn it into a sandwich (called the “Bacon Implosion”) and charge under $10 for it as part of our Midtown Lunch Sandwich Challenge. So I swallowed my cheap bastard, Midtown Lunch’ing standards and stepped into Channel Four yesterday for a taste.
Be prepared to be rocked by the “Implosion” after the jump…
Posted by Zach Brooks at 11:45 am, May 28th, 2009 under 48th btw 5+6th, Bacon Explosion, Midtown Lunch Sandwich Challenge.
