Midtown Lunch

I love Chilean food so much, I was willing to travel out of bounds to 52nd and 2nd for sandwiches at Barros Luco. And even though I loved the food on my first visit, I was a little disappointed by the size of their chacareros (which came in a small styrofoam container.)  Flash forward to three weeks ago, Barros Luco announced that they had made their sandwiches bigger… and even though this was confirmed by a number of Midtown Lunchers in the forums, at the end of last week I had to go check it out for myself. Uh… you know… for work purposes.  It’s a tough job, but it had to be done.

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Schnipper’s Quality Kitchen (on 41st and 8th is celebrating their first anniversary this Friday by giving away a free milkshake or a free beer with purchase of a hamburger. Offer good from 11am to 11pm on Friday, January 29th only.

It looks like 2 Bros Pizza is not going to stop at just one Midtown location.  Apparently their Port Authority location on 40th and 9th is doing so well, they have plans to open two more in the next 3 months.  We’re hearing that the first will open in 7-10 days on 8th Ave. and 38th Street, followed by another location in March in the Diamond District area.  Fans of 99 cent pizza should be excited about this news.  The owners of 99 Cent Fresh Pizza?  Not so much.

Related:
$1 Slice Alert: St. Marks’ 2 Bros. Pizza is Officially Open

Every Tuesday I turn over the site to a different Midtown Lunch’er for his or her recommendations for the best lunch in Midtown. I’ve been enjoying Cer Te’s sandwiches for over a year now, and with Pizza by Cer Te a few weeks from opening (on 56th btw. Park+Lex) I felt like it was time to meet the guy who comes up with all their crazy sandwich specials.  Fresh off his “Best Sandwich” win in this year’s Midtown Lunch Readers’ Poll, meet Edward the pizza loving, 260 pound Chef/Owner of Cer Te (on 55th btw. 5+6th).

Name: Edward

Age: 39

Occupation: Chef/Owner Cer té

Where in Midtown do you Work?: 55th btw. 5+6th

Favorite Kind of Food: It’s easy to say as a chef I favor exotic cuisines. I especially enjoy Ethiopian because I love to get in to and eat with my hands. I also love their calculated use of spices. As far as favorite I am “in” love with pizza, not just love. I can eat it in the morning out of the refrigerator. I can eat it if it is out of the critical zone (board of health term for proteins left out for more than 2 hours.) and I can eat it right out of a 650 degree oven and worry about the wounds later. I equate it to sex- there is some that are better than others but it’s all good. I don’t have a favorite midtown pizzeria. One of my motivating factors to open Pizza by Cer té was the “lack of” in Midtown.

Least Favorite Kind of Food: This is a hard question for a guy who weights 260 pounds. I guess I would just have to generalize and say highly processed or “factory foods.” I just will never understand how bread could stay fresh for more than 30 days. I would also add cookie cutter food establishments to that. With that said I have included a large amount of midtown establishments.

Favorite Place(s) to Eat Lunch in Midtown: What? Besides here… hmmm. Late work night definitely Five Guys Cheeseburger with onions and fresh jalapeños. No fries though, for the calories I’d rather have two burgers. Daisy Mays I love but I don’t know if it’s midtown enough, we park our truck there. It’s on 46th and 11th avenue. BEST BBQ.

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This morning we revealed that Daniel Boulud will be serving “frenchie burgers” from the one day only NBC food truck hitting the streets on Feburary.  Eater has even more info, and it’s a good news bad news situation. The good news is, it’s not just Boulud… Alain Ducasse, Paul Liebrandt, and Michael White will also be on the truck and the food is free! The bad news… it’s not open to everybody. Only 500 people will get “golden tickets” and you have to win your lunch by logging onto the NBC website every day between 11am and 4pm. Urgh. Get more info and register to win here>>

“Frenchie Burger” photo courtesy of jmoranmoya

So as painful as it is to say, this is my last week of full time Midtown Lunching. Don’t worry… the site isn’t going anywhere, but I’m moving to L.A. so this week I’m making sure to hit all the places I’ll miss the most. A “Farewell Lunch Tour” if you will. Here’s where I’ll be today…

The Original “Biriyani Cart”, circa 2007

I still remember the day that the Biriyani Cart went from being just another chicken and rice cart with a few Indian dishes tossed in, to the media superstars you now know and love.  Kati Roll had just been forced to move their extremely popular operation from 46th btw. 6+7th, to 39th btw. 5+6th.  And it was in that moment that Meru, the owner of the Biriyani Cart, had the greatest idea of all time.  He threw up a sign on his cart for “kati rolls”, and a legend was born.

I still think of Kati Roll as the industry standard (their freshly fried paratha is out of control good), and my original post about Kati Roll was the most read post on Midtown Lunch for a long long time. But the Biriyani Cart is one of my favorite carts in Midtown… and they’ve had their share of accolades as well.  It would be impossible to choose a favorite… so, I guess I’ll have to go both!

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Forgot to mention this yesterday… don’t forget, the Restaurant Week soup truck hit the streets yesterday selling fancy soups from participating restaurant week restaurants. The truck will be parked on Broadway btw. 50+51st from 11am to 2pm for the rest of the week, before heading Downtown next week. Yesterday they had corn, crab and chorizo soup from Delmonico’s Steakhouse, tomato and fennel soup from Tribeca Grill, and Mexhattan clam chowder from Dos Caminos Park. And Lunch’er “Steve” was on hand to check it out…

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