Midtown Lunch

The opening of Nino’s Trattoria, now named Nino’s 46 (46th between 5th and 6th), has had many Midtown Lunchers waiting with bated breath after a long repair/remodel after a fire. Back when Zach gave it the full Midtown Lunch treatment in 2009, it hadd a great chicken parm and you could find many menu items under $10. Luncher arastaman003 tipped us off in another post that Nino’s 46 had opened its doors, but with a new menu that makes it hard to find food under the $10 limit (although word is, the menu is going to expand in a few weeks).

Check it out after the jump…

Read more »

If any of you happened to host a Thanksgiving Dinner at your house last week, I’m willing to bet money you had a shit-ton of leftovers, and you’re getting sick of turkey. I know I am. I thought this would be a good opportunity to highlight Berger’s. It’s flown under the radar of Midtown Lunch for years — probably because it can easily fall into the category of generic deli.

A few weeks ago, I was in the mood for pastrami. I hadn’t had pastrami in Midtown since I tried Marky Ramone’s Cruisin’ Kitchen back in June, so I went to Yelp and searched for pastrami in the area near my office. What popped up was “Berger’s”, which boasts New York’s best pastrami sandwich. Of course, I haven’t tried every pastrami sandwich in New York City, but I assumed Katz’s (which I also haven’t gotten around to trying) is heralded as the best.

According to Berger’s, this is not so.

Read more »

Pitopia, the falafel place on Broadway and 37th that shocked everyone by winning the Midtown Lunch best falafel reader’s poll last year, has been open for one full year now.  And to celebrate their first anniversary they’ll be giving away free falafel sandwiches all day long today-  starting now until 11pm tonight, and is only available in store.

Dumplings, man. Dumplings. Jiaozi, baozi, howzi doing. I love ’em. It’s hard not to. They’re one of the wonderful bits of food engineering that predate molecular gastronomy and don’t involve uber-salting/pickling/preserving as a miracle of pre-refrigerated goodness. I could down ’em for entire meals. The major Midtown draw has been the heavily-contentious Rickshaw Dumplings truck and stand, with the occasional decent draw of xiao long bao or steamed fluffy buns at other Chinese-centric locations. You can get ’em at Tabata. Now, though, you can get your dumplings in a hip space to hang out and have some coffee with your potstickers. Spring, which opened just this past Monday, answers the unasked question of “When can I be a dumpling hipster without venturing into the Cyclopean horror city that is Williamsburg?”

Read more »

For those of you who don’t feel like Thansgiving is enough, you should be going to The Turkey Leg Ball, the annual party thrown by the dudes from Immaculate Infatuation (who are Midtown Lunchers!) It goes down a week from today (Weds 11/28) at Hudson Terrace- which is kind of in Midtown (on 46th btw 11+12th)- and features BBQ done by the guys from Foreign & Domestic in Austin.  The event always sells out, and there are only a few tickets left, so don’t procrastinate.  Get all the details and buy your tickets here>>

Several Midtown Lunchers have noted in posts and by contacting us directly, that the Goodburger on 54th and Lex has closed. According to the New York Times, Phil Scotti, owner of the prolific P.J. Clarke’s bar/restaurant chain (which serves a damn good but somewhat expensive burger) will be opening a spinoff called Clarke’s Standard in this Northeast Midtown locale. The Times reports more burgers will be served, along with chili, sandwiches, and ice cream in Dixie Cups (we’re guessing the kind you eat with the tiny wooden spatulas). When the ML Team went by to check it out, the remnants of Goodburger’s sign were still visible, while the window clearly signaled Clarke’s Standard impending presence… we’re movin’ in! We asked someone working on the renovation when they’ll be open. He expected if not by the end of the year, then early 2013.

Pizza joints don’t get me too enthused these days… especially after MJP’s fantastically written $1-Slice-O-Rama, it’s hard to seriously enjoy a slice at a $3-$4 price anymore. I had been walking by Uncle Paul’s Pizza (Vanderbilt btw. 45th + 46th) for several months, assuming it had either been covered by Midtown Lunch already, or it had faded into the fray of mediocre Midtown pizza joints. After I went on a Slice-O-Rama excursion with MJP a few months ago, I was inspired to research Uncle Paul’s to do a comparison, and I realized it was a fairly new pizza restaurant, only opened for a few months, that hadn’t yet been covered.

I’ll start off by covering the things about Uncle Paul’s that are gonna catch some hell…

Read more »