Midtown Lunch

When you walk into the Imperial Coffee House, you feel like you’re stepping into a Norman Rockwell painting, but then the men behind the counter start their schtick and you’re back in NYC. This is perhaps the least fancy place to eat lunch in Tribeca, and the prices are also some of the cheapest downtown with the menu topping out at $8. This is the place to go for a no-frills meal of greasy food.  Read more »

I know we haven’t reported on the closure of Five Guys, but most of you have probably realized it closed along with all of the other ground-floor businesses in that building on Fulton St. due to a condo development. The good news is that soon we’ll be getting a Smashburger on William St. (nr. Fulton) in the space that housed Yips. There’s one other NYC location of the Colorado-based chain in downtown Brooklyn and in addition to smashed burgers they also have chicken sandwiches, salads and shakes. It looks like there will also be one burger concoction unique to the Financial District location.

For the past couple of years, I’ve really been wanting to try out the angus burger at Bon Chon on John St. (at Cliff). Then the place nearly burned down and they were closed for a time earlier this year. Thankfully, they’ve reopened with the same menu, and I could fulfill my need for a burger topped with kimchi and an onion ring.  Read more »

I was out of town running a marathon earlier this week when Clarke’s Standard officially opened its doors on Maiden Lane (at Pearl St.), but was more than happy to go eat a burger and fries after punishing my body for 26.2 miles.

The place was not too crowded at prime lunch time mid-week and it only took a wait of a few minutes to get my lunch. You’ll find no complaints from me about Clarke’s Standard’s food in this initial review, but I do question whether a burger and fries lunch of more than $10 (with no drink) from a quick-service place has become the norm.

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Despite Zaitzeff being a mere two blocks from my office, I have never stepped inside the place, partly because it had already been reviewed long ago on this site, and because of the prices. I mean, I like a good burger, but is it worth paying nearly (or more than) $10 for just a burger and no fries? It was time to find out, and I picked the turkey burger as my guinea pig.

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Earlier this week Lunch’er Jamie wrote in to say that the Goodburger on Maiden Lane (at Pearl) which has been closed since hurricane Sandy was gone and being replaced by…another burger shop. Lo and behold, something called Clarke’s Standard is going in there, with paper in the windows promising freshly ground burgers and homemade sausage. It looks like another location of Goodburger in Midtown is making the same switch so either they’re owned by the same company, or Clarke’s Standard is just picking off faltering burger joints. Watch your back Five Guys!

It’s not only the Financial District that’s having a flurry of new lunch spots opening: Battery Park City is having its day in the sun with the previous Japanese curry invasion announcement and word that Bill’s Bar & Burger is coming to the neighborhood. It’s already been approved by contributors over on the Midtown site, so maybe we should start getting excited about the beef influx coming our way. Read more »