Midtown Lunch

Photo courtesy of Jeremiah’s Vanishing New York

According to Jeremiah’s Vanishing New York, only 2 of the original 15 locations of Andrew’s Coffee Shop are still open, and both are in Midtown. According to the piece (which was inspired by the closing of the last remaining downtown branch of Andrew’s) the one on 35th and 7th is renovated and kind of crowded, while the location on 38th btw. 7+8th is practically empty. In other words, if you’re looking for a bit of quiet lunchtime nostalgia, you might want to check out the branch on 38th before it closes too.

The turf wars between ice cream truck drivers in Midtown is legendary, and we’ve stumbled upon the aftermath of more than one “encounter”. But this could be the first time a brawl between a Mister Softee vendor and a rival ice cream truck vendor has been caught on video.  Mister Softee CEO Jim Conway is pretty good about pointing out when bad generic ice cream trucks are mis-identified as official Mister Softee vendors… but it looks like he’s going to have a tough time denying this one (the instigator was clearly identified as a Mister Softee truck.)  Super curious to see what they do to the vendor in the video (if anything).  Check out the video for yourself>>

Related:
Cops Cracking Down on Softee Trucks After “Altercation”
Rule #1 of Vendor Fight Club is You Don’t Talk About Vendor Fight Club

I was walking down 38th St. last week when I noticed (the just out of bounds) Café Niagara, proudly displaying a Grand Opening sign. “What’s this?” I thought to myself, peering through the window at their menu. I noticed that among croissants, sandwiches, paninis and other things you can get hundreds of places in midtown, their dinner menu included something called hoppers. Having no idea what that is, I went inside to investigate. It turns out Café Niagara serves Sri Lankan food and while I didn’t have any hoppers (you can read about them on Wikipedia), I did have a filling plate of adventure for $5. See what I got after the jump.
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Two week ago we noticed that the Green Taste Truck wasn’t exactly pulling in the crowds… and apparently they noticed it as well! Last week Green Taste was converted into a second Desi Food Truck, serving up dal, curry, kati rolls and biriyani.  On Friday they were parked on 6th Ave. btw. 39+40th, but we’re not exactly sure where they’ll be parking going forward (neither @desifoodtruck or @greentaste has made any mention of the new truck.)  The prices seem to be a bit more expensive than the original Desi Food truck on 27th and 5th but Clay was a big fan of their Kati Rolls, so this one is clearly worth keeping an eye on.

Related:
Flatiron Lunch: New “Desi Truck” Brings Kati Rolls to 5th Ave.
Chicken Tikka Masala Smackdown

Thanks to Lunch’er “Takako” for passing along this one… “The Boi to Go on 2nd between 42nd and 43rd has been closed for a few weeks now. Initially it looked like a temporary closing but now it has a ‘For Lease’ sign on it.” I guess this isn’t a huge surprise since Boi Sandwich (on 3rd btw. 44+45th) is an avenue closer to the heart of Midtown and is serving practically the same menu. Maybe something good will open in its place.

Related:
Boi to Go (aka How I Learned to Love the $7.50 Banh Mi)

Check out today’s line at the cart formerly known as Bulgogi & Kimchi

• Treats Truck is getting their own cookbook! [Grub Street]
• Didn’t you know that lower DOH rankings mean better food!? [NYDN]
• Meskerem’s $8 lunch special is tasty [Eating in Translation]
• Fresco by Scotto is getting sued by former employees [Grub Street]
• Rock Center Dean & Deluca is closing soon [Feast]
• A short history of the soft pretzel [Fork in the Road]
• The raisin sticks at Cafe Zaiya make an ideal breakfast [SENY]
• Check out the food from the last 3 ML Happy Hour meetups [Feisty Foodie]