Midtown Lunch

Photo courtesy of Ultraclay

• Udon West makes a mean curry udon [Ultraclay]
• Not everybody loves the Schnitzel & Things truck [Always Eating]
• Two more looks at OBAO [Fork in the Road;Life w/ Food and Drink]
• Where do you take vegans in Midtown East? [The Moment]
• Speaking of which… LPQ makes a good vegan cranberry scone [Dessert Buzz]
• Michel Cluizel is moving his dessert studio from the Flatiron to 5th Ave. [Life Vicarious]
• Soba Totto is cheaper for lunch than it used to be [Chubby Chinese Girl]
• The new Port Authority Heartland Brewery will serve the HB Burger [AHT]

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.

Who doesn’t love a burger and a beer? Well maybe a Vegan Teetotaler… but I digress. A burger is a lunch staple as well as a late night greasy-sponge after a good booze-up. In this regard Blarney Stone has occupied the most prominent spot on the ML radar screen for lunch and happy hour, but there must be other contenders, right? In my wanderings around town I came across Coppersmith’s bar. It looks like your average pub and grill, however a look at their weekly specials produced this tantalizing snippet: Tuesdays is two for one burgers and $3 Bud Lite Draft night from 3 to 10pm. Until 10pm??? Get out. I am so there! Needless to say I cleared my Tuesday night calendar and waited with eager anticipation.

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Rockluncher pointed it out in the forums yesterday, and it’s confirmed by this photo… everybody’s favorite generic Midtown deli turned Indian take out joint Indus Express (on 48th btw. 5+6th) has a for rent sign in their window.  They’re still open for now, but Lunch’er “dmax” posted this info (which I confirmed with somebody over at Indus): “They told me it was an issue with high rent and they may or may not be moving to a different location nearby within the next couple of weeks.”  There is still a chance they might work something out with the landlord, but they said they won’t know until Tuesday or Wednesday of next week at the earliest.  In the meantime, if you’re as much of a fan of their bhel puri as Fork in the Road you might want to hit the place up soon, just in case they close or move somewhere farther away.

Related:
Indus Express is Like an Indian Version of a Midtown Deli

I love getting emails that mistake me for the Midtown Lunch spots I write about. Like this one… “Hello, I am the registered owner of jumbohotdogs.com and jumbohotdog.com. I am actively looking for a buyer for both of these domain names, and your restaurant looks like a place that could potentially benefit from these names. $2,000.00 or best offer. Feel free to call or email me anytime if you are interested.”  Forget about food blogs. I think this guy has a better shot getting 2k from a porn company… what do you think?

If there’s one things I love about eating street meat in Midtown is that everybody has their own favorite spot for chicken and lamb over rice. Sure, some of the halal carts have become more famous- and Street Meat Palooza has crowned two different winners. But most people have their favorite spot (usually close to their work) where the guy knows your order, and makes it just the way you like it. And while it may not win any awards, it doesn’t make it any less worthy of being patronized.

So yesterday when Miss Softee (yes, that Miss Softee!) offered to take me to her favorite street meat cart, I immediately took her up on the offer.

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I love the blog but i’m currently in a serious midtown lunch depression as three of my favorites have packed up and left all at the same time. The Jamaican Dutchy has disappeared and my two bento delivery places (Yozu and Washoku cafe) have stopped delivering. Do you know anyone else offering bento delivery in the Rock Center area? We have a lot of Japanese people in our building and bento used to be delivered outside but now it has all disappeared. As lunch is all we have to look forward to this is seriously depressing! I can’t stand our cafeteria and won’t be able to eat indian food everyday. Please help!!

Well the Jamaican Dutchy is on vacation, and will most likely be back soon. But I’m sad to hear the sidewalk bento guys on 50th street are gone. I know Cafe Zaiya recently launched a huge online ordering system. You can try that. Anybody else have any good suggestions for Lunch’er David? Put it in the comments…

The Bryant Park Pond is in full swing now, with free ice skating (you still have to pay to rent skates), little shopping kiosks, and a bunch of food. We covered most of the food a few weeks ago, but there were a couple of holdovers that we missed on the SW side of the park. Like kettle korn! (Who doesn’t like the salty sweet goodness that is kettle corn?) And there is also a chicken teriyaki bowl place as well that we missed. But the thing I was most excited to see was MOZZAREPAS!!!

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• Indus Express has a for rent sign in the window [Midtown Eating]
• Has the gyro at the Famous Chicken Place gone downhill? [ML Comment]
• Ocha’s 3 roll combo is better than Aoki’s [ML Comment]
• The Five Guys on 3rd Ave. is training their staff [ML Comment]
• “I Need a vegetarian lunch for a big group” [Midtown Eating]
• Kyochon looks like they’re still on track to open next month [ML Comment]