Midtown Lunch

It looks like Australian meat pies are coming to Midtown. Lunch’er Hightemp emailed in this tip yesterday:

Was out walking the dog when I passed by the corner of 53rd & Broadway. The space used to be the CBS store and is two storefronts down from the Steak & Shake moving in next to Letterman.

Apparently Its becoming something called Pie Face Bakery & Cafe. Based on the logo/coloring it seems to be a NYC branch of an Australian Meat Pie / Sandwich / Pie shop.

Based on the logo on Pie Face’s website, it looks like he’s on to something. If you’ve tried these pies in Australia, let us know what we can expect in the comments!

Pie Face, 53rd & Broadway

Who doesn’t like a good old fashioned Scandinavian kickoff to the holiday season? The Norwegian Seaman’s Church (on 52nd btw. 1 + 2nd) annual Christmas fair begins today and runs through Saturday 11/19, noon to 6pm each day. According to their website:

Visit our Christmas Fair to buy Norwegian handcrafts, nisser, knitwear, jewelry, Norwegian fashion items, decorations, ornaments, table cloths and much, much more!

Large selection of Norwegian food.
Cafeteria w/Smorgasbord.
Raffle tickets for several beautiful items.

If you’ve been, let us know in the comments!

The Norwegian Seaman’s Church, 317 E. 52nd St (btw. 1+2nd), (212) 319-0370

Over the past several months, rumors started flying amongst friends and co-workers about a new bodega on 8th Avenue with an eclectic but intriguing variety of international foods. European friends murmured about their hefty line-up of Kinder chocolates and Cadbury confectioneries, and Korean friends spoke of their impressive stock of kimchi, banchan, and packaged noodle soups. The bodega that they were referring to, was none other than Midtown West newcomer, Bread & Honey.

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Last week, Rachel announced the launch of Pizza by Certe’s Thanksgiving Pizza special featuring turkey meatballs, mashed potatoes with giblet gravy, butternut squash, and cranberries ($3.95 + tax). To be honest I was a little skeptical, but I headed over to check it out anyway, and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised.

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Today’s the final week in Mastercard’s Priceless Food Truck Feast Promotion. The good news is each truck is giving out 500 free lunches once again. The bad news is we get very little love in Midtown this week. Our only options in Midtown are La Cense Burger and Van Leeuwen Ice Cream (two trucks that rarely come to Midtown any longer) both located on Lexington between 52nd and 53rd. Taim and Souvlaki GR will also be parked a bit out of bounds even for the Flatiron on 28th between 1st and 2nd. If you can stop by and deal with the crazy lines, remember to flash your Mastercard, like them on Facebook, or tweet using the hashtag #pricelessny. And if we’re really lucky, maybe they’ll extend the promotion through December. But I wouldn’t count on it.

Do you wonder what the ML contributors do when they’re not eating lunch in Midtown? (We’re actually pretty easy to stalk!)

Pork Katsu from the Curry on Wheels Truck in Los Angeles

Brian picked his favorite sandwiches in New York, Blondie checked out Greenpoint’s Lobster Joint, Brownie had a super chocolatey pain au chocolat at Brancaccio’s in Kensington, Donny has returned to his Foodaissance project with a visit to Cut Brooklyn, Rachel discovered Earl’s Beer and Cheese on the Upper East Side and I recapped some of the events I’ve photographed this fall for Edible Brooklyn & Manhattan.

Elsewhere in the ML universe… Andrea checks out the sandwiches at Tribeca pizza spot Saluggi’s, Jamie gets a flashback to Israel at Mama’s Vegetarian in Philly and Zach makes me jealous of L.A. by eating at new Japanese curry truck, A Curry On Wheels.

Well, that was fast. Looks like Swissmaker went the way of Teriyaki Boy and has shuttered. Courtesy of the forums, Lunch’er Wade noticed the closing this week and didn’t seem surprised:

Swissmaker is the place that replaced the Teriyaki Boy on 7th Ave. I never understood how they stayed in business. There was almost never anybody in there. I would go in for a pretzel once in a while. I think I saw another customer in there like once or twice. I don’t know how they possibly thought they’d make enough money to stay in a prime two floor storefront on 7th Ave. Anyway, it’s gone.

According to Crain’s the pretzel shop had signed a pretty hefty lease, which would explain their closing possibly due to not enough foot traffic.

Swissmaker, 732 7th Ave (btw. 48+49th), 212-265-2706

Ever since Chris H. wrote about Main Noodle House in July I’ve been meaning to check it out. So when the hankering for mapo tofu hit the other day I figured I’d head over, but before I did I decided to check Chris’ post to see if any commenters had other suggestions- and I’m glad I did. Read more »