Midtown Lunch

It’s looking like the new AQ Kafe on Broadway btw. 58th and Central Park won’t be a second location of Marcus Samuelsson’s casual Scandinavian eatery… it will be the only location.  The original AQ Cafe in the Scandinavia House on Park btw. 37+38th is gone, replaced with the more expensive Smorgas Chef.  If the menu from their three other New York City locations (one is in Midtown East on 49th and 2nd Ave.) is any indication, this is not an improvement for Midtown Lunch’ers.  Well, at least we have the new AQ Kafe coming soon… but that is probably little consolation for the swedish meatball lovers in Midtown south.  Thanks to Lunch’er Wayne for passing along the photo.

There once was a time when it was very difficult for chefs to make big money.  And while being a professional chef is still a tough racket, the opportunities for cashing out are much wider.  Following the leads of Todd English and Bobby Flay, more names are lining up to open up gigantor restaurants in Vegas, which with a built in clientele basically just serve to print money.  On the other end of the spectrum some chefs are going downscale, opening up chains of faster, cheaper food- perfect for lunch.

The most famous in Midtown is ‘wichcraft, Tom Colicchio’s upscale sandwich shop which opened its first location in Bryant Park a few years ago- and now has 4 stores in Midtown (with a 5th coming soon to Herald Square).  David Burke also has Burke in a Box in Bloomingdales, which is best described as “cheaper”, but not exactly cheap.  And of course there is Matt Kenney’s FreeFoods NYC.  (The latter pair, both too pricey to be considered Midtown Lunch’es.)  But by far, the best deal in Midtown for chef obsessed eaters is AQ Cafe, a downscale cafe in the Scandinavian House from Aquavit’s Marcus Samuelsson.  And the best part is, it falls in the Midtown Lunch price range.

What they’ve got and a +/- after the jump… Read more »