Midtown Lunch

They were more prepared this week, but the NYC Cravings Taiwanese Fried Chicken Truck ran out of fried chicken at 1:45pm today (an hour longer than last Monday, the first day they parked on 45th btw 6+7th). You can still catch them Tuesdays on 24th and Park, but Thursdays and Fridays are up in the air- as is the question of when they’ll start serving pork chops!!! (I just made that up by the way… They have no pork chop plans, it’s just wishful thinking on my part.)

Related:
NYC Cravings Brings Taiwanese Fried Chicken Awesomeness to the Mobile Food Scene

Our Downtown Lunchers have been eagerly searching for a Rosario’s replacement ever since the popular Italian deli closed last year.  But when Lunch’er “Goats” suggested in the comments that there was a Rosario’s-like option in Midtown, I had to check it out.

“My heart still cries when I think of Rosarios and how it was taken so quickly from me (after only 3 visits)…That was the first establishment I found via Midtown Lunch (and It was a downtown establishment!) .I was there the last day and was as close to tears as I get when a beloved food establishment shuts its doors. I have found 2 replacements in the last year as well, Milano Deli on 34th between Madison and 5th (HUGE Italian sandwiches for 7.75:get the Milano special and you will almost think you are back at rosarios) and Defontes of Brooklyn on 21st and 3rd.”

Defonte’s is well know, but sadly too far out of bounds for me… so I excitedly headed over to Milano last week to check the place out.

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Word has come that in addition to the two new Baja Fresh locations, we’re also getting another Chipotle on 7th Ave. btw. 37+38th and another Qdoba on 3rd Ave. and 40th Street.  That will bring the total to almost 20 new burrito chains in less than 3 years!  Don’t get me wrong… I’ll admit to getting excited about Baja Fresh (Is it real Mexican food? Of course not. But it was my goto lunch when I was broke and living in L.A. for two years.)  But overall this trend is kind of worrisome.  The chain-i-fication of Manhattan food has been slowly happening for years now, but the bad economy looks like it’s accelerating the whole process.   With so much real estate open around the city, big chains are the only businesses with the kind of money you need to expand, and survive through this crappy economy. Sure, I want In N Out Burger, Chick Fil A, and Panda Express to open in Midtown. But not at the expense of Blarney Stone, Cafe Cello, and Hing Won.  Can’t we have it both ways?

Thanks to Lunch’er Rebecca for sending along the photo.

I can’t believe it has been almost 3 years since the first post went up on Midtown Lunch. The first lunch I wrote about was on June 7th, 2006, and Hing Won was the place. I’d like to say I started the site to help my fellow office workers find good lunch in this food wasteland we call Midtown… but truth be told, I only started Midtown Lunch because I wanted to have an excuse to eat gross, fattening food for lunch (and take pictures of that food.)  Now, three years later, what started as a fat man’s idea of the perfect hobby has grown into an amazing community of New York City office workers, sharing in the common misery we call lunchtime.

Without your tips, emails, suggestions, and comments the site would not be what it is today. So, with that in mind, I’m pretty excited to announce the launch of the Midtown Lunch Forums. Ideally this will be a place to make communicating with your fellow lunchers easier; an open place for you guys to ask questions and share recommendations, not just about eating lunch in Midtown, but also lunching outside of Midtown. There’s also a section for connections (if you want to find people to have lunch with) and a miscellaneous area for anything else you guys may want to talk about.  The only downside of the forums is that you will now have to register to comment.  It only takes 15 seconds, and all we need is your email address (which won’t be used for anything other than to verify that a real person is signing up for the account.) This measure is being done for two simple reasons: To ensure that the forum is kept spam free, and to guard against people posting under other people’s names.

You’ll also notice that the site has a completely new design.  Part of that new design is a brand new map, which is not only more accurate, and comprehensive than before, but also allows you greater control over the type of lunch you are looking for near the spot where you are going to be.  There’s also a new page that allows you to look for lunch alphabetically by restaurant name, and another page that allows you to search an alphabetical list of restaurants by food type.

As with any new site, there are bound to be bugs- so if you find any don’t hesitate to let me know in the forums, or by emailing me at zach@midtownlunch.com

Thanks for all your support-  and don’t hesitate to let me know what you think!  (You guys always do…)

What can I say? I’m a cheap bastard.

• Midtown Lunch… bringing old friends together over chicken and potato stick sandwiches at Tina’s [Blondie and Brownie]
• Long lines followed the NYC Cravings truck to the Flatiron District on Tuesday [Me So Hungry]
• Mr. Cutlets tears apart the meatball sandwich at AQ Kafe [The Feedbag]
• You can get a breakfast torta from the cart on 33rd and 9th Ave. [Fressagirl]
• Empty Midtown storefronts are being turned into billboards [NYT]
• The Japanese culinary center on 45th & 3rd will soon begin selling “hard to find Japanese ingredients… in home-cook quantities” [Tasting Table via Grub Street]
• For an extra $1 you can get a full size order of rice and beans with any sandwich at Sophie’s Cuban [Lunch Studio]
• Melt Cafe and Gelato bar has opened on 2nd Ave. [Eating in Translation]
• The new branch of Fika Swedish Espresso Bar has opened on Park btw. 28+29th [Tasting Table]

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.

1 2 3, Burger, Shot, Beer is out of bounds for anyone in Midtown East, but if you work on the Westside this is a popular spot to meet up with friends and enjoy one dollar mini burgers, two dollar mixed shots and you guessed it -three buck beers. The bar attracts a few local suits and neighborhood regulars but mostly younger bar-hoppers looking to get trashed and watch a game on the many large flat screens.

When navigating this bar it’s important to note the pricey things to avoid. First, steer clear of the shots. It’s a thimble sized shot and only comes in their pre-mixed girly drinks: Kamikaze, Lemon Drop, DoMeAgain, Screaming Orgasm… etc. Not worth it. I wouldn’t mess around with the $3 beers either- instead go with the Beer Tube! For $30.00 you get more bang for your buck plus it just seems right given the bright neon décor and cheap greasy food you will devour. In addition, it’s a hoot to see the petite Asian bartender (or any of their barely legal wait staff) fill up this huge beast.

That photo is after the jump…

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Believe or not I had actually never eaten at the super famous Tony “The Dragon” Dragonas cart on Madison & 62nd until last week.  I am very familiar with his disciple, Carnegie John (on 56th and 7th), but have never made it up to see the man himself.  I know it’s just a few blocks out of bounds, but there’s something about the UES that repels me- and if I do find myself up anywhere near that area, I usually eat at the original El Rey del Sabor Cart (on 60th and 3rd).

Anyway, a doctor’s appt. brought me right past the Dragon’s popular cart last week during lunch, and again those words popped into my head (like they have so many times before when faced with something delicious)…  “how could I not?”

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