Midtown Lunch

As is customary here on Midtown Lunch, every Tuesday we’ll profile a different lunch’er and get their recommendations for places to eat in Downtown NYC. This week, we have Kino who fuels his running with a whole lot of lunching.

Name: Kino aka “Notorious P.I.G.”

Occupation: Consultant during the week, marathoner/ultramarathoner on the weekend.

Where you work: Broadway & Wall

Age: Dirty 30 + 2

Favorite kinds of food: Anything ethnic & adventurous.

Least favorite foods: Japanese natto (fermented beans) and factory farm fast food.

Favorite lunches downtown: Ise Japanese Restaurant on Pine (btw. William & Pearl) for its secret pre-noon specials (menu is in Japanese, which I can decipher); Zaitzeff on Nassau (at John) for their 1/2 pound Kobe beef burger, medium rare, with an add-on of white cheddar cheese, grilled mushrooms, & grilled jalapeno; Potbelly’s Italian on whole wheat plus meatball, double meat.  I’m a sucker for Nicky’s Vietnamese Sandwiches‘ pork banh mi. Also, Shake Shack on Murray (btw. West & N. End Ave.), Luke’s Lobster on S. William (at Broad), Crisp on Fulton St. (btw. Dutch & William), and Bon Chon on John (btw. Cliff & Pearl). Hopefully their upcoming KorTako place doesn’t disappoint.

The “go-to” lunch place you and your co-workers eat at too often: All of the above.

Places downtown you discovered thanks to Midtown Lunch: Downtown? There are definitely places I have discovered thanks to both Midtown Lunch and Downtown Lunch, but my memory is bad, so I can’t recall the exact places.  Probably 1/3 of the places I have been to were thanks to tips from Midtown & Downtown Lunch’ers.

Dream job location, purely for lunch purposes, and why: If just limiting myself to places in NYC, then it would be a job at Google.  I hear nothing but amazing things about their AYCE free cafeteria, and their sushi is supposedly good.

Anything you’d like to ask the Midtown Lunch: Downtown readers? Don’t limit yourself to just Manhattan (outside of lunch)!  I’ve found that NYC’s best eats are in Queens and Brooklyn.  That’s where the recent immigrants reside.  My theory is: The less English restaurant workers speak, the better the food!  Happy lunching, folks.

I would like to think all of you Lunch’ers who read this site are already going on outer borough food adventures, but it’s always good to have a reminder. And as always, if you would like to be next week’s Profiled Lunch’er (or know somebody you’d like to nominate), email us at downtown@midtownlunch.com.