Midtown Lunch

In case you were unable to pay your respects to Prime Burger, which sadly closed its doors over the weekend, you can relive all the old school charm through a video produced by Lost & Found Films. The beautifully shot documentary short focuses on the food and the people who made Prime Burger tick. It was filmed before the announcement of the closing and is even more heart wrenching when you get to meet the employees who have made this place an institution for decades. Thanks to Lunch’er Rattmouth for tipping us off to this in the comments.

Check out the video after the jump.

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Schmackary’s has officially become my new favorite place to get cookies since the Treats Truck left Midtown. They just opened a couple weeks ago, and in my first visit, I was going to get something pretty standard, like chocolate chip, to be able to properly judge based on familiarity. But, apparently I’m really attracted to buttercream frosting, because instead I went with cookies covered in it. And, it’s amazing, by the way.
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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 it’s Emily, an office admin who has graciously agreed to brave the ML commenters to help out fellow vegan Midtown Lunchers.

Name: Emily

Age: 29

Occupation: Office Admin and vegan blogger

Where in Midtown do you work? Grand Central Terminal area

Favorite Kind of Food: Any Asian cuisine, bonus points if it’s spicy.

Least Favorite Kind of Food: A mushy veggie burger

Favorite Place(s) to Eat Lunch in Midtown: Being vegan, it can be pretty difficult to find quality vegan meals in Midtown. My ultimate favorite is when The Cinnamon Snail vegan food truck is in the neighborhood… I can’t resist their food and pastries. My favorite thing from there is their General Tso’s Seitan sandwich, but that’s only on special every now and again. I love Franchia’s (vegan Korean) vegetarian Stone Bowl (on Park btw. 34+35th) with their spicy chilli sauce as well as their assorted dumpling platter. I’m also big fan of the raw pizza from the FreeFoodsNYC (on 45th btw. 5+6th) lunch bar, the edemame salad from Dishes in Grand Central Marketplace, the super protein plate from NatureWorks the food bar at Health Nuts. The food court in Grand Central also has a couple places with good vegan options — Two Boots V is for Vegan pizza, the green curry from Thai Toon (on 42nd btw. Park+Vanderbilt) and cucumber avocado rolls from the sushi joint (the name is always changing so I’m not sure what its called now).

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When Todd English opened a food court inside the former Plaza Hotel two years ago, our interest was piqued but the fancy setting and high end food proved to be a lunch that had to be splurged on. Last week, we learned that more kiosks would be opening and some were actually from ML favorites. I was hoping I’d be able to leave with an affordable and delicious lunch. I admit that it was possible, but the pickings were slim indeed.

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That is one fun looking bun. Photo courtesy of Jen Chung/Gothamist

• A look at Bian Dang’s new Fun Buns Cart [Gothamist]
• Josh Ozersky loves the burger at Schnipper’s [Ozersky.TV]
• Organic Avenue has opened a Midtown pop up [Grub Street]
• Best places to eat near the Empire State Building [SENY]
• Two final meals at Prime Burger [PhudeNYC;Eater]
• Download this, because lord knows you’ll want to spend as little time in Midtown as possible this summer! [Immaculate Infatuation]

If you like to eat, chances are you like to drink (read: a lot of you are freakin’ lushes), so I thought maybe it was time to introduce a happy hour column to the site. Every week, our Happy Hour Correspondent posts 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.

Board shorts…check. Aquarium…check. Gaudy décor…check! A place where Dory and friends would happily call home, Réunion, a French surf bar marked by, you guessed it, a surfboard, was totally on my (very) short list of themed midtown places to check out.

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Photo courtesy of brainypintsizer

Eater has confirmed that Prime Burger, the 74 year old Midtown burger mainstay, will close its doors for good tomorrow around 5pm. There is talk about relocation, but we’ve always been of the mindset that Prime Burger is way more about the place itself than the food. So if you want one more chance to feel like you’re back in grade school, while eating a quality burger and onion rings in a Midtown institution, today’s the day! Read more from the owner and some of its employees over on Eater.

Related:
Prime Burger (and the Battle Between Boss & Blogs)

Flo Fab announced earlier this week that Todd English’s Plaza Food Hall would be expanding and opening with almost 20 new kiosks that could potentially be within our budget. In my opinion, the biggest and most exciting inclusions are No. 7 Sub Shop (which is a bit of a trek for those that work in upper Midtown), Luke’s Lobster (who will be offering exclusive peanut butter and blueberry whoopie pies), and Sushi of Gari (which probably still won’t be a ML). Based on the NYTimes slideshow of some fancy looking dishes and Luncher Harry’s hightemp’s first impressions, it still remains to be seen how many true $10 or under offerings will be available. But we’ll be checking it out soon enough. Early adopters, let us know what you think in the comments.

Every Friday we go south of the ML boundaries in search of a delicious lunch. Sometimes it’s Murray Hill south or the Flatiron District, sometimes Gramercy and everything in between- but we just like to call it Flatiron Lunch.

To recap my post from the first week of mad sq eats: I ate everything. Okay, okay. Not quite everything, but I sure tried. But since I left a few stones unturned and a few rice balls not eaten, I had to keep on, keepin’ on at Mad Sq Eats. And let this be your official warning that there is only one more week to go to visit Mad Sq Eats. The horror! Our only saving grace is that the festival returns in the fall. Hooray!

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Here’s a bit of Flatiron Lunch news before we lay this week’s review on you…

In not quite Midtown Lunch, Flatiron Lunch or Any Lunch news, but general good news, Hester Street Fair is teaming with Eventi Hotel, the hotel that gives much love to food with FoodParc (I just googled and it is now closed!?!? How did I miss this?), BeerParc and New York City Food and Wine Festival, among others, to present Hester Nights. Every Thursday night starting last night, May 24 [UPDATE: Due to rain, opening date postponed to May 31], they will present an outdoor market in the outdoor plaza behind the Eventi. I thought about trying to go last night to take a photo, but, honestly, the artist’s rendering with cop car out front is such a better visual. Vendors include Pies ‘n’ Thighs!!!! (Okay, there are others, like Little Muenster, Luke’s Lobster, La Sonrisa, Mimi & Coco, Bombay Sandwich Co, Schnitz, Purple Yam, Bian Dang, Good Eats To Go, Anderson’s 1949 Brooklyn, La Newyorkina, Prohibition Bakery, Iron Curtain.)

Hester Nights, Eventi Open Air Plaza – 851 6th Avenue btw 29 and 30 Streets, Event Hotel Number (212) 564-4567

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