Midtown Lunch

For all of you (like me) who have noticed that the area in your brain controlling your sense of humor experienced arrested development at age 13, you’ll be happy to know that balls are now at your fingertips.

OK, I’ll do my best to tone down the middle school humor for the rest of this post. But Marky Ramone’s Cruisin Kitchen definitely plays up the balls gimmick — even proclaiming in paint on the back of the truck, “More Balls Than Most!” The truck has been receiving attention in blogs lately, including a post from The Local East Village section of the New York Times explaining the relationship between the Ramones drummer Marky Ramone and concept creator Keith Album — Marky Ramone isn’t an owner but the truck uses his brand and marinara sauce.

Cruisin’ Kitchen has been hanging out in the Flatiron District and Downtown Manhattan for weeks, but for the past two days the truck was parked on 48th St. and 2nd Ave. Not knowing how long they’d be around, I made the trek- even though it was just slightly out-of-bounds.

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

Egg and Chorizo Huarache, by Brownie.

Brian’s hunt for the best hot dogs in town took him to Bark in Brooklyn, Donny wasn’t impressed by the food at Brooklyn Crab, Rachel enjoyed her Saturday ritual of bagels and lox, Blondie gave the pizza at Artichoke another try, Brownie continued recipe testing for New York A La Cart and I recapped my dinner at Montreal’s Au Pied de Cochon.

Elsewhere in the ML universe… Zach tracked down six soup-free noodles in Los Angeles, Jamie had bulgogi kimchi cheese fries in Philly and Andrea snacked on Tamales down by the Brooklyn Bridge.

When I first walked past Zoob Zib back in February (on 9th btw. 36+37th), my speculation was that its head chef either came from the forest moon of Endor or may have endorsed certain brands of gelatin-based desserts. Months passed before the name came up again – this time, a co-worker had ordered their duck broth and noodle soup. A quick glance at the menu yielded the Aura Thai logo next door, so it’s more than just a coincidental location. Known more for their duck broth noodle soup than their actual Thai fare, Is this just Aura trying to expand into a bar and noodle space and is it worth it? Or is it just more forgettable 9th Ave Thai?

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Have you gone to the new exhibit at New York Public Library, “Lunch Hour NYC,” yet?! Well, starting today you’ll have all the more reason to: the Library has teamed up with the Food Truck Association to bring food trucks back to the Bryant Park area! The trucks are going to be parked on Fifth Avenue towards 40th Street, right outside the public plaza in front of the Schwarzman Building. The Monday to Friday schedule features Mexicue, Schnitzel & Things, Red Hook Lobster Pound (today), Rickshaw Dumplings (tomorrow), and Eddie’s Pizza (on Friday.) The trucks should be parked from 11am to 3pm, with a portion of the sales going towards Bryant Park and NYPL.

• Hibachi Heaven is a healthyish alternative to street meat [Midtown Eating]
• Cinnamon Snail is pretty aweswome [Midtown Eating]
• How is the Halal guy on the corner of 42nd and 11th? [Midtown Eating]

UPDATE: We recently learned that the bar area between STK and STK OUT is in fact an extension of STK and all drinks and food are from this menu. STK OUT does not serve alcoholic beverages.

STK OUT, the takeaway version of hoity toity STK Midtown, has some reasonably priced lunch options. My coworkers and I noticed a scantly-stocked one room bar plopped in the middle of an outdoor seating area had just opened next to STK Out in the plaza outside of the 43rd Street side of the Grace building (43rd btw 5th+6th). We were hoping this would be a nice alternative for outdoor seating when Bryant Park Grill is too crowded. But the bar feels more like STK than STK OUT But the bar is actually a section of STK and not part of the outdoor seating area of STK OUT: a Sam Adams bottle is airport price at 8 bucks and wines are between 13 and 16 bucks. If they’re looking for a good after work crowd, they’re going to need to change their strategy and put on a Happy Hour special. Judging by the lack of customers when we were there last Friday, my midtown comrades feel the same way.  Check it out; you can hardly find a seat!

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 Ericka, an Executive Assistant who hasn’t found a plate of halal food that she loves!?

Name: Ericka

Age: 37

Occupation: Executive Assistant

Where in Midtown do you work? 50th & 3rd (S&W smell always sways me to want a juicy steak)

Favorite Kind of Food: Thai (Little Thai Kitchen), Vietnamese (OBAO, any other recommendations?), a good empanada and a good lightly fried soft shell crab has been dear and near to me lately (Cer Te, Tenzan Spider Roll), Dumplings Soup (Mee Fun), Ess a Bagel (at least one every morning), looking for soup dumplings around here.

Least Favorite Kind of Food: Anything that’s bad :-(, it’s such a bummer when you go out to lunch after reading a delectable review or seeing a great pic and spending your whole lunch hour for something that was not worth the time, effort or hard earned money on. On that note, salad bars are dead ends, I’m sorry to the many fans, but I’ve yet to encounter a good “street meat” halal place, Taco Bell, ugh

Favorite Place(s) to Eat Lunch in Midtown: Little Thai Kitchen never fails, Sophie’s for the empanadas closest to what I grew up with, the Kati Roll guys on 46th & Park

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Because I’ve only been living in New York a few years, I’m still in love with Grand Central Station, and since I started working in Midtown, I probably go there way too much. Although it’s all-around way too expensive, the architecture is beautiful and it’s fun to watch people flitting about. When I first saw Michael Jordan’s Steak House’s pricey menu, I thought, “I’m never eating here.” But then I saw a sign for a $10 “Chicago Style” burger special.

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Usually I walk right by Tonic, a Times Square sports bar that serves overpriced food to tourists. The other day, their new $9.95 lunch specials menu caught my eye as I was heading back to the office at lunchtime. The waitstaff outside were quick to tell me that usually the menu items offered on the specials menu go for around $12-$16 each, according to the normal menu, and they also assured me the portion sizes are the same.

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We haven’t really discussed Guelaguetza — a Hell’s Kitchen bodega that serves tacos in the back — on this blog, because it is woefully out of bounds on 47th between 10th and 11th avenues. (So. Far. West!) But, the deal we’ve got on our deals page today might make the trek worth your while. Considering everything is super cheap anyway, paying $6 for $12 worth of food will get you a Mexican feast at Guelaguetza. Donny checked in out back in February and took a photo that just might motivate you to hightail it over there …