Midtown Lunch

Filicori Zecchini is not the only coffee establishment that expanding it’s empire to 46th street last year. A recent lunchtime walk around midtown east revealed a semi-newish location of Gregory’s on 46th street between Madison and Fifth that opened just a couple of months ago and has a full baking kitchen cranking out fresh pastries. While Gregory’s was omitted from the ML Readers’ Poll this year (mea culpa, Gregulars!), we promise to give them a long overdue full ML treatment very soon. If you’re a Gregory’s fan, let us know what we should try in the comments.

Gregory’s Coffee, 12 East 46th Street, (212) 661-1722

Every morning on my way to work I always pass by the guy wearing a sign and handing out menus for Joy Curry and Tandoor. I rarely crave Indian food (I wonder why?) and and usually manage to ignore the dude.  But one particularly cold morning, I thought to myself “it must be a tough job standing outside passing out menus and having everyone around ignore you.”  So, feeling sorry for the guy, I figured the least I could do was check out Joy Curry and Tandoor.

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I really enjoy soup but usually avoid it for lunch for fear of major mid-afternoon munchies. The exception to this rule would be homey and delicious Asian noodle soups, but I’m sure that’s no surprise to regular readers of this blog — we tend to be partial to the Asian goodies. Anyway, a month or two ago, I noticed that the Hot Soup cart had returned the northeast corner of 45th street and 6th avenue for the winter season. Soup carts are usually invisible to me, because of my previously stated aversion to cup-of-soup lunches, but the unusually long line caught my eye. I checked in recently and couldn’t resist trying the interesting (or maybe just weird) sounding “chicken jerky” soup listed on the menu.

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There is definitely no shortage of Mexican food in Midtown but good tasting authentic Mexican food is a bit harder to come by. Enter Mexico Blvd, a new food truck set to hit the streets in February, which according to their website plans to “bring to New York the food and culture of Mexico that we loved so much.  Apparently the owner of the truck has worked at Riverpark the Tom Collichio restaurant run by ‘wichcraft chef Sisha Ortuzar.  You can check our their menu and a gallery of photos on their website, plus follow them on twitter or the ML tracker for updates, and as soon as we know more we’ll let you know.

Brownie really needs to share these amazing looking doughnuts.

Brownie brought a tear to my eye with homemade brown buttered bacon doughnuts, Donny had dinner at Mary, Queen of Scots, Brian listed his top five dishes of 2011, Blondie does her own 2011 food recap, Chris checked out the new West Village Fatty Cue, Rachel brunched it up at One Hundred Acres and I’ve started a new photo project called Food/Work.

Elsewhere int he ML universe… Zach collected all the lunches he ate in 2011 in one gigantic photo, Jamie scored a banh mi at Philly Cafe and Andrea discovered a sandwich she calls a pork explosion in a generic deli downtown.

Here’s some news that slipped by almost everyone in New York: Korean coffee chain Caffe Bene is opening its first US location on 49th Street and Broadway sometime in the near future. The announcement was made by Wall Street Journal Asia back in April, with an anticipated opening during the Fall. As of a few weeks ago, they didn’t look close to opening. They were looking for a regional manager in early November which can mean that the opening will be soon. Anyone had their coffee in South Korea?

Before Thanksgiving, Dylan’s Candy Bar opened a pop-up store on the SW corner of 42nd and 6th, and apparently all of you did what we did: avoid the area at all costs until after the holidays. Well if you still want to stop by, the Pop-Up is going on through this Saturday. I checked it out only to find out that us lunch’ers have been missing out on Sprinkles cupcakes, and also the apocalypse is totally happening.

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You nominated the finalists, argued in comments, and voted for your favorites. And now… it’s time for the results. Here are the winners of the 2011 Midtown Lunch Reader’s Poll, complete with Editor’s Pick for each category chosen by our correspondents.

Best Hamburger: Shake Shack

It was no real surprise that Shake Shack reigned supreme in the Poll for Best Hamburger. If you haven’t tried this quality charred burger in Midtown this year, you’ve probably tried it just about anywhere else as the Danny Meyer empire continues to grow across the country (and the world). And while the Shack prepares to dominate the planet, the two previous winners, Burger Joint and Five Guys trailed head to head just behind. I’d be happy with a burger from any of the nominees, but my preference is for the modest simplicity of Burger Joint‘s classic patty. Brian H’s Pick: Burger Joint [View Results]

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Last month we brought you word that there’s a new waffle (instead of wafel) truck in town called Real Good Truck. Like Wafel and Dinges they’re serving waffles with your typical sweet toppings (think nutella and fresh fruits) but they also have a number of savory items as well like cheddar jalapeno bratwursts and Japanese fried chicken. The best part is, instead of putting the toppings on top of their waffles, the Real Good Truck turns their waffles into sandwiches. Yep, a whole waffle folded in half with stuff inside (sounds like something people come up with when they’re totally drunk).  I finally got to try one of these creations, and according to the owners they’re going to try and park in Midtown today and tomorrow.

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