Midtown Lunch

Ever since I started working in Midtown East back in late June, it was always sad to walk by Pinnacle Bagel & Deli (3rd btw 46+47th) and its empty counters. I may never get to experience their Korean tacos with a side of bagel, but I am excited to see some sort of movement in that space. Just a couple days ago I noticed brown paper covering up all the windows. I’m hoping it will be a kick ass cheap lunch spots with good Korean food (I’ve been craving Korean food, but it’s kind of hard to find in Midtown East). Anybody know what’s going in there?  Tips, or requests, are welcome in the comments…

Anyone here familiar with Yoshinoya (42nd btw 7+8th Ave)? It may seem like one of those crappy fast food joints but I actually like eating their beef bowl. I grew up eating it in LA., where they were cheap and open 24/7. Nothing like a decent bowl of steamy rice topped with thinly sliced beef and onions to cure that hunger after partying all night.

Yoshinoya was what I was thinking about when eating the egg and scallion beef bowl ($7.50) from Onya (47th btw 3rd+Lex). From now until I’m not sure when, Onya is doing a “Beef Bowl Festival” (the lady behind the counter said it’s been quite popular so she’s not sure how long they will have it but it’ll be a while). So what’s a Beef Bowl Festival? Let’s find out.

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Although we were told Snack Box would open Monday, Times Square passers-by saw Snack Box in various stages of “opening” yesterday afternoon. Busy staffers promised they should be all set today. Although we have yet to see a menu, the display case housed an abundance of pastries yesterday, including doughnuts that the New York Times reported are from the Doughnut Plant (hello, breakfast!). We are anxious to see the rest of the menu … early adopters, let us know how it goes today!

If you like food trucks and you like free lunch you better hope you have a Mastercard. Starting today they’re running a promotion called Food Truck Feast and it essentially translates to free lunch, from a bunch of food trucks in New York, every single Thursday, for the next four weeks. All you have to do is show your Mastercard at one of the 10 participating food trucks and like Mastercard on Facebook or Tweet to them with the hashtag #PricelessNY. The free grub (up to 500 lunches per truck per day) will be offered from 11am-3pm with a rotating list of 10 food trucks every Thursday.

Each week’s line-up will be announced at the beginning of the week, and today’s participating trucks in Midtown are Kimchi Taco and Gorilla Cheese and both will be parked on 55th btw. 6+7th.  Gorilla Cheese (on 53rd between Lex and 3rd), and Comme Ci Comme Ca (also 53rd between Lex and 3rd), with both Bian Dang and Mexicue doing freebies in the Flatiron. All the rules and fine print can be found here here, and then let the freeloading commence!

Brian got zombified while visiting Papabubble for his new Halloween video, Rachel tried out Cascabel Taqueria on the Upper East Side, Blondie checked out the new fall pie from four and twenty while Brownie tracked down Ben & Jerry’s Schweddy Balls at a bodega in Park Slope, Donny whipped up a lamb stew at home, Chris had dinner at The Walrus and the Carpenter in Seattle and I photographed the Marty Markowitz at the grand opening of Fleisher’s in Brooklyn.

Elsewhere in the ML universe… Zach is making a list of new Los Angeles lunch options, Andrea discovered a Mexican restaurant hidden in a generic deli and Jamie is hosting a Midtown Lunch Philadelphia lunchtime meetup later this week.

Speaking of Midtown Lunch meetups, there’s less than a week left to win a free lunch on us & Google next week at Food Gallery 32.

The whole food truck frenzy of the past few years has been propagated by an avalanche of  “I left my high paying job to start a food truck!” stories.  But none of them, that we can remember, have come with a manifesto email telling co-workers to go F themselves. That’s why we couldn’t help but laugh when we read the resignation email leaked to accounting gossip website Going Concern by a disgruntled Price Waterhouse Cooper associate. In it, the dude sounds off on his co-workers before shamelessly promoting Korilla BBQ (presumably, his new employer?)  It’s a little ironic to talk about integrity while Korilla is still deflecting accusations of cheating, but it doesn’t make the rambling, clearly in need of editing, email any less funny.  Perhaps this tactless young bean counter had too good of a time at Korilla’s recent anniversary party? Finding out how little money food trucks make will likely sober him up real quick.

After reading Brownie’s recent preview of Palenque, the new Colombian truck that just started parking in Midtown, I knew I had to try it immediately. I braved the wind and the rain last week to get a hold of some delicious arepa goodness.  In addition to the traditional corn, Palenque offers some unconventional varieties of arepa: quinoa, brown rice with flax seeds, and brown rice with sesame seeds. They have a variety of meat and vegetarian toppings, so everyone should be able to find an arepa combination that pleases them. Since Brownie already went the conventional route, I decided to branch out and try the quinoa arepa with beef ($8). They offered to add hogao for $1 extra, and who was I to argue? With that addition and my $2 sugar cane and ginger lemonade I ended up slightly over the ML limit, but for the sake of science I let it slide.

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