Midtown Lunch

Fresh on the heels of my lunch with Ralph Brennan, I get this news- Bourbon St. New York is tentatively scheduled to open April 15th on Restaurant Row (46th btw. 8+9th). As a fan of New Orleans I can’t decide whether to be excited or horrified. Apparently the chef was born and raised in New Orleans and “ran the kitchens in places such as Commanders Palace and Dickie Brennas”, whatever that means. Plus side, they have a Bourbon St. style balcony with something that appears to be wraught iron. The negative side, that balcony looks out over 46th St. We shall see…

• Jezebel, the shuttered front half of Midtown Lunch out of bounds favorite “Piece of Chicken” will become “Five Napkin Burger” [Eater]
• Patsy’s Midtown is suing Patsy’s Long Island over who was Sinatra’s favorite [NY Post]
• Dr. J had lunch at Hawaiian Tropic Zone the other day! [NY Post]
• Profiled Lunch’er “Rachel” popped up on the Martha Stewart Show talking about Cupcakes [Gakwer]
• Naked Cowboy to Shill for Qdoba & Spotlight Live [NY Mag]

Fusilli with Fresh Vegetables from Peppe Rosso in the Grand Central Food Court
Posted to the Midtown Lunch Flickr Photo Group by nycblondieandbrownie

• Brownie’s favorite lunch in Midtown is at Peppe Rosso in the Grand Central Food Court [Blondie & Brownie]
• There’s a new chef at Ammos Estiatorio, the greek seafood spot on Vanderbilt near Grand Central [TONY Blog]
• Andre Mika has a great steak at old school Frankie & Johnnie’s [Fork NY]
• Some great food porn of Soba Totto [Food in Mouth]
• The owners of Serafina will open a new Brasserie in two weeks [Eater]
• Joel Robuchon will be hanging out at his Aterlier in the Four Seasons next month [Insatiable Critic]
• Park Avenue Winter Just Re-Opened as Park Avenue Spring [Eater]

and finally, it’s not Midtown and it’s not lunch- but I know there are some pork lover up in this piece, so I’d be doing you a disservice if I didn’t tell you about the pig butchering demo I went to at the Brooklyn Kitchen on Tuesday night. For $75 I got to watch Butcher Tom Mylan (Diner, Marlow & Sons, and Bonita) take apart 1/2 of a whole berkshire pig (and then divide up the meat among the 12 of us).

A pretty amazing pre-butchering photo (head and all) for everyone but the vegetarians, after the jump… Read more »

Basil Naan Chicken Sandwich (and innards!) from Indus Express (48th btw. 5+6th)
Posted to the Midtown Lunch Flickr Group by The Flooz

• A lot of Pump talk on the site this week.  Here’s some visuals [Food in Mouth]
• Dave Cook checks out Katagiri, the Japanese grocery store on the upper east reaches on Midtown [Eating in Translation]
• After a lengthy battle with the landlord in Hell’s Kitchen, Le Madeleine finally closes [TONY]
• The fried shrimp at Yagura look really good! [Food in Mouth]
• If you wanted to see more of the food from the Choice Eats Festival, this site has the best photos [Salty/Savory/Sweet]
• More than you ever cared to know about the cupcakes at Cucina & Co. [Blondie & Brownie]

According to the NY Times City Room Blog, the rising cost of flour is sending pizza prices soaring. The owner of Midtown Lunch fave La Bellezza is quoted as saying they haven’t raised prices yet, but may be forced to. But the real question is, does this spell the end of 99 Cent Fresh Pizza?

• The rising cost of flour sends pizza prices soaring. Midtown favorite La Bellezza says they may be next [City Room/NYT]
• Naples 45 is one of the 10 best pizzas in the Country! Who knew? [Forbes]
• Three delicious looking mousses from Cafe Zaiya [Meatloafing]
• For all of us who are office cafeteria-less, here’s another one to be jealous about [Grub St.]
• Midtown Kosher spot “The Vegetable Garden” on 41st is closed, and being integrated into Bagels Plus on 38th btw. 7+8th. [KosherNY via Eater]
• This generic Midtown deli is slightly better than other generic Midtown delis [NYC Food Guy]
• Top Chef Hung cooks his first meal in Midtown, is terrified of Rabbis… [TONY]
• … he also likes Pop Burger better than the burger at the Ritz Carlton [Grub St.]

“Cupcakes from Cucina” posted to the ML Flickr Photo Group by NYCBlondieandBrownie

• Restaurant Girl Says FreeFoodsNYC feels like a “Vermont country store”, and says most of the dishes she sampled were 100% organic [Restaurant Girl]
• P. Diddy Eats at the Ray’s Pizza on 8th Ave. & 52nd St. [Gawker]
• New Italian Restaurant Bistro Milano quietly opens across from Menchanko Tei on 55th [Citysearch]
• A list of good wine bars in Midtown West [NY Times]
• The “Sick” “Well Again” “Sick Again” Treats Truck is “Well Again” and will be at 45th & 6th Ave. today from Noon to 5pm [Treats Truck]
• Here’s a pretty awesome looking long lunch at Mia Dona [Wandering Eater]
• If you don’t mind stepping foot into the Brooklyn Diner, and paying $16 (!!!), their Bacon Cheeseburger is the best? [NYC Food Guy]
• Two Midtown Burger Kings are Forced to Close for Not Adhering to the Value Menu [NYDN]

Early word on Indus Express (48th btw. 5+6th) is mostly good.  Full +/- coming soon.  Photo posted to the Midtown Lunch Flickr Photo Group by The Flooz.

• Two Starbucks Workers Tortured in Midtown [NY Post]
• A Midtown Burger slideshow!!! [Zagat]
• Does Bouchon Bakery have the best chocolate chip cookie in Midtown? [Food in Mouth]
• CEO Wants Sakae to be the Starbucks of Sushi [Forbes]
• Rene Pujol, Tsushima & the 43rd St. Burritoville on the East side have closed [Zagat]

For those people who feel like cutting your generic lunchtime salad up into little pieces somehow makes it taste better, a new Chop’t has opened on 51st btw. 6+7th

• Sakae Sushi gets caught shilling [Eater]
• First it dumps Chipotle, now McDonald’s is divesting its 33% of Pret a Manger in the U.S. [NRN] 
• A guy was stabbed on 45th St. btw. 5+6th at lunchtime on Monday [Gothamist]
• Inside the $18 all you can eat Norweigan Seamen’s Church Buffet [EIT]
• Kathy orders in from Mangia, PJ Clarke’s & Mama Mexico [Passion for Food]
• Is the missing egg at the Chapati Roll Cart sign of a recession? [Lunchboxr]

Amazingly the Treats Truck is at 45th & 6th today until 3pm.
If this weather doesn’t keep it away, I don’t think anything will!

• “Sugar” the Treats Truck returned this week after an extended trip to the shop [Miss Menu]
• Treats Truck, Zen Burger, Go Go Curry & Five Guys are nominated for Time Out New York Awards. Go and vote now… Midtown Represent! [TONY]
• Maybe if there was an “West Village Lunch” blog, the new Five Guys would have been more crowded on opening day [Eater]
• In case you missed it, this morning I added a Map to Grace’s soup post from yesterday [Midtown Lunch]
• Cafe Edison gets a new paint job [Lost NYC]
• The Lunch Box Buffet on 34th St. gets a Chinese bakery! [Foodies R Goodies]

• Benicio Del Toro is a regular at Prime Burger (on 51st btw. Mad+5th) [Gawker]
• Comedian Patrice O’Neil Eats Dinner at the $50 all you can eat meat fest that is Churrascaria Plataforma, 3 nights a week!  Related Story: He is my new hero.  (He also likes Golden Krust) [NY Mag]
• Top Chef Season 3 Winner Hung will be cooking in Midtown for the Month of March [NY Times]
• Former Sugo e Basilico employee arrested for extortion, and terrorizing the staff [NY Post]
• You are not allowed to take photos of your lunch at Bar Masa [Food in Mouth]
• Peter Meehan Agrees With Most of the Midtown Lunch Commenters… Zen Burger sucks [NY Times]
• Kathy Can’t Get Enough of Spoons, and tries the $7.50 smoothie from FreeFoods NYC (so the rest of us don’t have to!) [A Passion for Food]

Have you seen me? Lunch’er Suzanne writes in to say that the she hasn’t seen the truck at 55th and Park since before Thanksgiving. Anybody seen it? They may want come back after getting some love from New York Magazine this week…

• NYMag’s Food Truck rundown includes Midtown favorites like the Treats Truck, Jiannetto’s, & the Steak Truck [Grub Street]
• The Treats Truck has a special Valentine’s day Treats Box… [Eater]
• … Hopefully the truck will be back from repairs by next Thursday! [TreatsTruck.com]
• Joe D. checks out Sakae Sushi for dinner.  Warns against being hypnotized by the combo of conveyor belt and Japanese pop music.  [Gothamist]
• Grand Central Oyster Bar renames N.E. Clam Chowder, “Giants” Clam Chowder [WNBC]
• Kyotofu on 9th Ave. has got some good Valentine’s Day Treats [Umamimart]
• According to Lawrence, the spicy “Drunken Noodles” at Topaz are Far Superior to Pongsri [NYC Food Guy]
• Time Out Weighs in on the Best Wings in NYC Debate (Scruffy Duffy’s on 8th Anyone?) [TONY]