Midtown Lunch

Every Tuesday we turn over the site to a different Midtown Lunch’er for his or her recommendations for the best lunch in Midtown. This week we’re excited to introduce Jeremiah, a media dude who will be officially contributing to Midtown Lunch starting this week. Tomorrow he’s going to tell us all about a gravy topped hot beef sandwich hiding inside a generic deli in Midtown West… today, he’s your profiled Midtown Lunch’er.

Name: Jeremiah

Age: 27

Occupation: Media Professional and Internet Mogul

Where in Midtown do you Work?: Bryant Park

Favorite Kind of Food: I really don’t have one, but I think I could eat Mediterranean food every day of the week without a problem. Also, the Garbage Plate is a hometown favorite that stands above just about every meal out there.

Least Favorite Kind of Food: Again, I really don’t have one, there’s not really any food I won’t eat or never enjoy. I guess I’ve never had much luck with cold soups. Then again I haven’t had many cause they kind of seem like an oxymoron.

Favorite Place(s) to Eat Lunch in Midtown: The shredded pork with garlic sauce (amongst other things) at Szechuan Gourmet (on 39th btw. 5+6th). The chicken quesadilla from El Rey del Sabor (on 43rd and 6th). Chicken over rice from Kwik Meal, on 45th and 6th (that lamb is too expensive and too high quality for its own good). The kofta and rice from Little Morocco (on 39th and 7th)

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Yesterday PR people from the newly opened Lena Latin Grill (on 35th btw. 5+6th) offered us a free $20 gift card, to “sample the variety of Latin-inspired dishes from [their] wood-burning grill”.  We have a general policy of paying for all the food we write about, and we just wouldn’t feel right keeping the free food to ourselves when we could give it to you instead! Want to try Lena Latin Grill for free?  We’ve got a $20 gift card for one lucky winner, and all you have to do to enter is post a comment below letting us know why it should be yours.  Limit one comment per person, and we’ll draw a winner on Friday (6/25) at 3pm.   Good luck!

The New York Wine and Food Festival tickets are now on sale to the general public, and one of the events might be of interest to Midtown Lunchers… Sunday, October 10th Andrew Zimmern (Bizarre Food host, and personal hero) will host “Carts in the Parc”, a tasting event featuring street food from famous restaurants, food carts, and trucks. It takes place from 3-6pm inside the new Eventi Hotel’s indoor/outdoor food park (on 30th and 6th Ave.)

The list of participants will include some pretty fancy street food(ish) participants (dumplings from Joe Ng, Asian BBQ from Zac Pelaccio) but they also asked us to help steer them towards some real NYC street food options… so don’t be surprised to see ML faves Biriyani Cart and Freddie the Falafel King of Astoria hob-nobbing alongside some of the usual folks you’d expect to see at a fancy fundraiser like this. The tickets are kind of steep (for us cheapos) but the $100 price tag includes all you can eat and drink plus proceeds from the event go to benefit Food Bank of NYC. Basically what we’re saying is, if you’re going to splurge for one NYCWFF event, this is the one we’ll be at!

Get more info, and buy your tickets, here>>

From Lunch’er “Michael”

In addition to the best food happy hour in midtown, Mccormick & Schmick’s (on 52nd and 6th Ave.) now has $10 lunches at the bar. The selections look pretty good… three of them have seafood, which I do not care for, the fourth is a sandwich with brie, which I also do not care for, and the fifth is a cobb salad- and I don’t need to spend $10 for that. BUT, a half a shrimp po boy and lobster bisque for $10? For the right person, that’s pretty sweet. Linguine with clam sauce? Dunno how many clams might be in there, but it sounds like it has potential. So, I guess since it’s at the bar only, with a drink and a tip it’s gonna be over $10, but it’s right in range, and there aren’t many places you’re going to find a sit down lunch in a pleasant, air-conditioned restaraunt, and get a half shrimp sandwhich with some lobster bisque for ten bucks, $15 with a pint of beer or a glass of wine.

$10 for half a po’boy and lobster bisque sounds like a pretty awesome deal to us.  Looking for something a bit meatier?  Michael has one more rec…

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Thanks to Lunch’er Evan for letting us know about this one… Bruce’s Burgers, the mediocre burger spot that shared space in 1 Penn Plaza with the Caribbean Kitchen, has closed.  It was recently replaced by Taste of India, which used to share space with a random deli on 33rd and 1 Penn that became a Lenny’s awhile back. Around Penn Station it’s pretty difficult to find good Indian food, let alone any Indian food so it’s good news that they’re back.  They have lunch specials around $7 or $8 depending on whether you get vegetarian or meat options. Any fans?  Let us know how it is in the comments…

Photo courtesy of Eater

I have to admit, when Mayor Bloomberg’s office submitted a letter in opposition to Council Member Jessica Lappin’s proposed anti-food truck law, I was pretty surprised.  There is no question that food trucks are hated by the rent paying business owners in New York City, and if there is one thing you can always count on with Bloomberg- it’s siding with the rent paying business owners.  Well, it turns out the Mayor’s support was in fact too good to be true.   On Friday morning Bloomberg spoke out against food trucks on his radio show:

“The Health Department does not have the staff to go and do it the way [Lappin] wants, but we’re trying to find another way to accomplish it because she is right… Moving stores into the streets is not what the streets were designed for, and that’s exactly what we’re doing. We are moving stores into the streets and they sit there and they park and they take up parking places and they block traffic.”

Really?  But that’s not what you said on Wednesday!

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