Midtown Lunch

From Lunch’er Spencer:

“Your team needs to start hitting the streets for the types of lunches that this site was founded on! For example, how about Roast Pork by the pound, self-serve? The pork in the picture was fall off the bone tender and on par with the usual suspects. The best part is undoubtedly being able to help yourself – the fun of taking thongs to a whole shoulder coupled with the thrill of severing a piece of crunchy skin the size of an index card. From the generic midtown deli at 1674 Broadway (52nd) ‘Crown Gourmet Deli’.”

But wait… there’s more.

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As we told you yesterday, Lost City recently posted their last vanishing New York post… but what we didn’t mention was that before they signed off they left us with a list of classic New York joints worth patronizing before it’s too late. While there aren’t too many true Midtown Lunches on the list, Oyster Bar, Sarge’s Deli, and the recently written up Flatiron Lunch, Eisenberg’s Sandwich Shop, get recommended  as do some fave ML happy hour haunts like Rudy’s and Holland Bar. Now last summer Rudy’s was on the brink of disappearing as well, so it all goes to show you, don’t take the places you love for granted.

There was some concern in the comments last week that the Red Hook Ballfield Vendors, who were forced to move their operation into trucks before the start of the 2008 season, might be affected by the Anti-Vendor Law being considered by the New York City Council this week.  The ballfield vendors are no strangers to being on the brink of extinction, but according to Exec Director Cesar Fuentes they will not be affected by this particular law.

Our vendors don’t get parking tickets based on their vending location at the RH ballfields… still, I think this proposed law is disproportionately punitive & harsh towards all food truck vendors in NYC. While there should definitely be appropriate measures to address certain cases where food trucks are illegally parked, abuse/disobey public regulations, or pose a health risk to the public, it should be also kept in mind that this is the livelihood of all hard working entrepreneurs & their employees whose incomes depend on operating these trucks. Inherent to city life is the fact that we would inadvertently get a parking ticket or more. In fact, this is such a normal pattern in big cities like NYC, Chicago, or LA and there are even parking ticket quotas expected of all traffic officers to be met every month. Often times, a food vendor will have no choice than to pay a fine in order to conduct business in the city. This is not only true for small vendors, but also for large companies like UPS or FEDEX who receive traffic tickets in massive quantities & whose summonses you could see sticking out of windshields on a daily basis.

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The first day for any anticipated food truck is going to be hard, and the first Midtown lunch for Eddie’s Pizza Truck was no exception. Waits upwards of a hour, a few ordering mishaps, and people ordering numerous large pies for their offices made it even tougher.  But I went, regardless, to get my $10 lunch special deal: a 10″ bar pie with one topping plus a side and a drink. After all, opening night is one thing. Serving the masses in Midtown during lunch is quite another.

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Lamb over rice. Chicken over rice. Combo over rice. All these things are what brought you here to Midtown Lunch. These things gave us Streetmeat Palooza. This year, one of my favorite carts (Little Morocco) came in dead last. Yeah, out of fifteen competitors they’re last? How could that be? The cart with a great hot sauce and serves kofta over rice (which is hard to find in Midtown), is last?! But I knew that Little Morocco was better than that. And I went back this week to the corner of 39th and 7th to check out something on the menu that was always intriguing to me… fish over rice.

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