Midtown Lunch

A couple of weeks ago we reported that kosher food hall Milk Street Cafe on Wall St. (nr. William) was on the verge of closing after a sharp decline in people eating there, and now it looks like that’s becoming a reality. They’ll close the doors for good after today. There was a whole lot of fanfare when the place opened in June, giving those who keep kosher a place where they could actually sit and eat lunch and didn’t only sell falafel. In the months since then the presence of barricades has increased on the street outside the restaurant due to Occupy Wall St., and Milk Street’s owner said that was the main reason for a 30% drop in business. Now the massive space will be empty, and hopefully not filled by some terrible chain restaurant. I only ate at Milk Street once when it opened, but were any of you regular customers who are going to miss this place?

Yesterday, we at Midtown Lunch: Downtown were alerted by an e-mail from a publicist that the situation at the giant kosher food hall Milk St. Cafe isn’t really any better than it was a few weeks ago when they had to lay off 21 staff members and news reports said they were hemorrhaging money. The blame was put squarely on the barricades put up on Wall St., and therefore in front of the restaurant, due to the Occupy Wall St. protests a couple of blocks up Broadway. They were taken down temporarily, but then put back up and owner Marc Epstein says that if the 30% drop in business doesn’t rebound, they’re going to have to close.

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It took forever to open in a huge space on Wall St., and now it appears that kosher food court Milk Street Cafe could shutter and the finger is being pointed at the Occupy Wall St. protests. According to the story, 21 people have been laid off and the manager says they could be three weeks from closing after only being open for a few months. The prices are a little high, but for a lot of people this was an awesome lunch destination if you were kosher or just vegetarian. Update: It looks like a little publicity helped because, voila, the barriers lining Wall St. were taken down on Wednesday.

Up until Milk Street Cafe opened on Wall St. last week the options for kosher food in the Financial District (OK, and most of the area this part of the site covers) was limited to glorified generic delis, a place that consists of a take-out window and another place with not a whole lot of seating. Milk Street is the classiest option that the kosher among us have, and nearly everything on the menu is more than $10. If you don’t keep kosher then you might not eat here just because the prices are higher than you’d normally find, but the food seems high-quality and there are options galore. Read more »

That giant kosher place Milk Street Cafe that popped up in the old Mangia space on Wall St. (at William) nearly a year ago is opening its doors tomorrow. They’re having a ceremony and giving out free cookies and coffee from 10 to 11 a.m. and will be open for lunch afterward. Regular hours are 6:30 a.m. until 9 p.m. except for Fridays when they close at 3:30 p.m. Based on a press preview a couple of weeks ago it looks way better than most generic delis down here and should be a great destination for all you vegetarians out there.

A huge kosher restaurant called Milk Street Cafe announced it was moving into the old Mangia space at 40 Wall St. back in August of last year. Well it looks like it’s about to open soon, according to a sign in the window. The food hall will have a bunch of stations including breakfast, pasta, panini, salads, sushi, a grill, carvery, rotisserie, baked goods and something involving “Pacific Rim specialties.” It won’t be entirely vegetarian, with chicken and beef served alongside the seafood options. I know there’s at least one good kosher option in the FiDi with seating, but this sounds like it will be a huge boost for those who otherwise have limited falafel-heavy lunch options.

A friend who works in the Trump Building on Wall St. (btw. William & Broad) had passed this along a while ago and I ignored it, thinking it was another generic deli. A place called Milk St. Cafe, which is apparently a well-loved corporate caterer and cafe in Boston that makes everything from scratch, is opening a branch in the space where Mangia used to be. It’s not slated to open until early 2011, and until then there is a weird interactive ad for MasterCard in one of the windows in lieu of plain paper. The menu has vegetarian (and kosher) items in the form of pizza, sandwiches, quiche and some Middle Eastern stuff, but they also have fish.