Midtown Lunch

Freeloaders, tomorrow (Tuesday, April 12th) is this year’s Free Cone Day at Ben & Jerry’s. Details are the same as in years past–free cones are offered from noon until 8pm. Lines tend to be busiest at lunch and towards the end of the day but generally move quickly. According to their Scoop Shop search engine the Rock Center Concourse branch is participating as is the one on the 4th fl of Macy’s.

Speaking of Clusterfluffs, I noticed the other day when I walked by Ben & Jerry’s that in addition to the new Late Night Snack flavor they have another new one called Clusterfluff.

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If there’s anything worse than a gimmicky restaurant in Midtown, it must be a Midtown restaurant with an overabundance of gimmicks. 4Food (Madison btw. 40+41st) arrived on the scene last year with a semi-healthy (?) burger concept called (W)holeburgers featuring patties with holes in them, along with a multitude of creative sandwich toppings, an industrial chic look (complete with iPad stations), space age packaging, and an aggressive social networking strategy. None of that made me anxious to try it, but it was one of their other gimmicks that finally got me in the door, and convinced me to create a Midtown Lunch inspired burger – their Billboard-esque chart of customer burger creations.

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With this season’s Softee trucks already rolling out and more trucks regularly coming into Midtown, it was only a matter of time before the altercations started up again. If you were reading Miss Softee’s Twitter on Friday, you’d have watched the drama play out on the corner of 44th & 6th live. Miss Softee maintains that she was parked in the spot on the NE corner, and willing to talk to the hot dog/pretzel vendor regarding turf. He wasn’t so friendly. For some reason, he pushed his cart off the curb and into Oreo, breaking two of Oreo’s windows! Luckily, there were witnesses around to verify her account, and she said vendor was taken away in cuffs. It takes more than a few broken windows to stop Oreo!

And apparently this wasn’t the only street vendor fight in Midtown on Friday…

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From Midtown Lunch’er Eric: “I’m not sure if you’ve ever ordered the burrito at Tri Tip Grill (in the Rock Center Concourse) but frankly it is amazing.  The chicken is always fresh unlike chipotle and the pico is top notch.  Anyway, after requesting that the  burrito be added to a special, Dave the very friendly owner over at TriTip has obliged… on Mondays, when you guys come in, say “Code Burro” (pronounced boo-rro) and you will get yourselves a $5.99 burrito.” And what do you know… today is Monday!

Photo courtesy of Adam Kuban/Slice

• Did you know that Ess a Bagel made pizza bagels? [Slice]
• Pichet Ong is opening a Thai spot in Times Square [Fork in the Road]
• Ciao Bella’s gelato crepes are a great treat [SENY]
• Yvo says don’t bother with Lily O’Brien’s macarons [Feisty Foodie]
• Pizza Plus on 9th Ave. is satisfying!? [Slice]
• File This Under Duh: 2 Bros is better than 99 Cent Fresh [Fork in the Road]

If you like to eat, chances are you like to drink (read: a lot of you are freakin’ lushes), so every week our Happy Hour Correspondent “Mamacita” will post about a different bar in Midtown that fits the Midtown Lunch mentality: unhealthy food, not lame (unless it’s lame in a cool way), and most importantly… cheap.

Our existence is fraught with great but nigh unanswerable questions. “What is the meaning of life?’ “Is there a God?” “Will Jennifer Aniston ever make a watchable movie?” And here at Midtown Lunch the question is: “Why the F*%@k do you need three Yum Yum storefronts in a row?” I mean, this ain’t no hot asian threesome. We’re talking basically some generic Thai food with a decent happy hour. Well, I was forced to delve deeper into this quandary when a coworker choose this place for an after work bite.

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With all the feuding that has been documented over the years between food trucks, it was only a matter of time before a TV show got in on the action. Eater has a preview of tonight’s CSI:NY, which features an exploding food truck, fighting chefs and lord knows what else. Oh, and if you didn’t know before this episode is a dead giveaway that CSI:NY is filmed in L.A.  One of the food trucks that gets mentioned is a well known L.A. truck, and the way they’re are all set up in the parking lot is a pretty typical scene for the West coast.

Before yesterday, I think I was the only member of the ML team that hadn’t visited Little Morocco (NE corner 39th+7th). It was on the opposite side of town from my job, and since that’s over with, I can finally check out what this Omar is serving up. Luckily for me, he added on some new heroes to his menu this week: kofta, lamb merguez, and a spiced potato hero (I forgot the name too). Since the potato wasn’t ready yet-it should be available today-I only got to taste the other two, and I have to say it was impressive for $4 and off a cart.

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These past few weeks of Lent I’ve been giving recs for fish lunches for those who are observing and eschewing meat. Fried fish sandwiches are always a popular option and the new Shark and Bake sandwich from Trini Paki looks like a good option if you’re able to get there early, but what if you don’t like fish? Enter my go-to meatless option at the Shake Shack: The ‘Shroom Burger.

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