Midtown Lunch

Between the two new locations of Financier Patisserie coming to Midtown the one coming soon to the walkway beneath the Fox News Building (on 6th Ave. btw. 447+48th) is more of a Midtown Lunch destination.  But for those of you on the East side of Midtown TONY is reporting that their 1st Ave. location (on 54th) is now open. They’re hoping to open the 6th Ave. location in “a month to a month in a half.”

Related:
Financier Patisserie to Open Two New Midtown Locations

Every Tuesday I turn over the site to a different Midtown Lunch’er for his or her recommendations for the best lunch in Midtown.  A few weeks ago we profiled Elizabeth, half of the team that runs the website The Skint- a great blog dedicated to the daily listing of free and cheap food, events, and other stuff around New York City. This week we profile Chris, the other half.

Name: Chris

Age: 38

Occupation: Web consultant/event lister/former corporate retail director

Where in Midtown do you Work?: Varies, but usually 38th & Madison.

Favorite Kind of Food: Thai, Korean, Indian, Mexican, olives (especially garlic-stuffed and kalamata), pickles, falafel, grilled vegetables, anything with rosemary or thyme, my mom’s Italian sauce.

Least Favorite Kind of Food: Haggis, tripe, pre-packaged sushi, anything very spicy, meatloaf

Favorite Place(s) to Eat Lunch in Midtown:The chopped chickpeas sandwich from ‘wichcraft, especially when the weather’s good enough (and I have enough time) to sit in Bryant Park. Also excited about the reopening of Le Bonne Soup (on 55th btw. 5+6th). For my fried fix, I head to Popeye’s (on 40th btw. 7+8th).

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If you are a disciple of wine peddler turned internet media superstar motivator (and all around entertaining guy) Gary Vaynerchuk, you will be incredibly excited to hear this news: Wine Library TV will be broadcasting live from the Roger Smith Hotel Lab Gallery (on Lexington and 47th) all next week at 5pm (August 24-28th.)  I’m guessing this is all to promote Gary’s new book “Crush It: Why NOW Is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion”, which comes out October 13th.

For those of you who’ve never watched an episode of Wine Library TV online, or aren’t already a convert to Gary’s unique outlook on life, you might be saying “Why should I care about this nonsense?” Well, as a guy who got to quit his job a year ago to get paid to be a fat fuck- let’s just say his new book, and general attitude of motivating people to follow their passion and get paid for it, “speaks to me”. Plus the whole thing benefits Mashable’s “Summer of Social Good”, and he’s willing to give one of you the chance to hang with him, drink some free wine (and score some free food!)

One lucky Midtown Lunch’er will get to hang inside the Roger Smith Hotel Lab Gallery during one of the broadcasts with Gary, which includes free wine (natch.) And then, get treated to free dinner for two after the show at Lily’s, the restaurant inside the Roger Smith Hotel. (Not with Gary though, unless he wants to… who knows?  You might make an impression.) All you have to do to enter the contest is tell us in the comments the one thing you’d most want to quit your job to do. (I know you’ve all got something… we work in Midtown for god’s sake.)  One winner will be selected randomly, and will get to hang in the Roger Smith Lab one day next week with Gary for a live taping of Wine Library TV, and score a free dinner for two at Lily’s (check out the menu here.)

Basically if you’ve ever wanted to quit your job to do something you love, Gary’s the guy who can motivate you to do it. Don’t want to be on Wine Library TV?  Enter anyway. You can still win the free dinner- and I’m sure you’d be able to sell the spot with Gary on Craigslist or Ebay for a ton of cash to one of his super fans (he has legions of them.)

What is it about Midtown that attracts new fast food chains trying to yuppify some strange ethnic classic?  I suppose if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere right?  Empanada Joe’s tried to do it with the empanada (gone), Sugo e Basilico with the piadina (gone), F&B Gudtfood with the European street food (Midtown location gone), Kushi Q with the yakitori (still plugging along), and of course Danku with the Dutch kroket (also still open). Plus there’s that place Piada opening in the Citicorp building (which could be Sugo reinvented.)  But even with that long, strange list this one might take the cake (no pun intended.)

Kolache Mama is the latest chain to hit Midtown with the desire to introduce New York City to the kolache, an Eastern European pastry stuffed with sweet and savory fillings that apparently are very popular in states with large Czech populations- like Texas, Minnesota, and Oklahoma (who knew?!?)  Their website describes them as “a light, flavorful fresh-baked dough filled with different ingredients like fruit, meat, cheese, veggies, etc.”

What, praytell, do these things look like?

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Photo Courtesy of NYC Sidewalker

Getting some reports about a new spot on 8th Ave. & 55th called Meze Grill.  This midtown lunch’er describes it as a “Middle Eastern Chipotle” and from the looks of the menu, posted to the Zagat Blog, that sounds like a pretty fair assessment.  Might have to check this out today…

If you wanted to read more about my kid’s first taste of tea smoked duck, the Village Voice’s Robert Sietsama has a great write up of a sit down lunch we shared last week at Wu Liang Ye (on 48th btw. 5+6th).  Sadly, none of what we ate is in the Midtown Lunch price range- with the exception of the dan dan noodles and the wontons in hot oil. Both were delicious, but neither are big enough to make a complete lunch.  Wu Liang Ye’s takeout menu does have a list of $8 lunch specials- but very few of their “Szechuan Specialties” are on it (unlike Szechuan Gourmet, which has a number of their specialties available as lunch specials.)  Either way, it was still a really tasty lunch- and worth checking out the write up if you love Szechuan food. [Fork in the Road]

Well, considering all the negative comments the Rickshaw Dumpling Truck has gotten from Midtown Lunchers since opening last year I can’t say I’m completely surprised by the reaction to their Vendy Award nomination.  While some might be upset because Rickshaw is an offshoot of a restaurant, or not really the type of vendor that represents the true spirit of the awards- most are focusing on the fact that they just don’t like the dumplings. There have been cries of foul play, and just general disbelief in the comments, and one guy even asked on Twitter if he could return his ticket for a full refund. Serious Eats grand poo-bah Ed Levine, a former Vendy judge himself, posted a comment to SENY displaying a similar disbelief.

What do I think?

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There’s something about eating lunch in a building’s loading dock that is just so fun… so awesome… so… well, Midtown Lunch’ish.  The most famous two examples of this are Pick-a-Pita (which was in a loading dock, before moving to 8th Ave. btw. 39+40th) and El Sabroso, which is still serving up delicious and cheap latin food out of a counter in a loading dock on 37th btw. 7+8th.

So, when Luncher Christina told me about Nick’s Place “tucked away in a freight entrance” on 39th btw. 7+8th, I naturally had to check it out.

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