Midtown Lunch

Last year shaved ice purveyor Wooly’s Ice went home a winner for best dessert at the Vendy Awards. The cart was in ML Downtown territory last year – first starting next to the 1 Centre St. kiosks and later moving up to Elizabeth St. This year they’re on the move again and starting today will be parked for the summer season at the South St. Seaport, right at Pier 17. Danny Che from Wooly’s gave us the low down on some changes to the cart’s ices and some other information. They were expecting to be up and running by the beginning of May but as often happens there were some unexpected setbacks which is probably fine because it hasn’t exactly been warm enough to crave icy treats. Straight ahead for what you can expect to help you deal with the heat this summer.

Read more »

Every time I see a clump of people heading down Maiden Lane with one of those Just Salad plastic bowls in their hand, I shake my head and wonder why they’ve chosen that fate as their lunch. Well, I can only be a little judgmental because some days when I need some vegetables in my body and/or when it’s hot out, my mind sometimes turns salad which my brain turns in “You should go to Cosi because they have delicious bread. Oh, and you should get a salad while you’re there, too.” And that, my fellow Downtown Lunch’ers is why I’m writing about Cosi (located at Broad & Exchange and in the WFC) today, because their flatbread is awesome.

Read more »

In a continuation of my quest to tell you about some delicious food that I haven’t gotten around to sharing with you on Downtown Lunch yet, today’s installment comes from Fanelli Cafe on Prince St. (at Mercer). I’ve never eaten anything at Fanelli’s other than the burger and vegetable burger, and I really don’t think there’s much else worth ordering except alcohol. This bar is one of my favorite old-timey spots in the city and is one of the few non-pretentious places to get a beer and some decent food after dealing with the hordes of tourists in the area. But back to this veggie burger. I think it’s the sum of its parts that make it great, or perhaps the fact that it doesn’t fall apart into a pile of mush when you bit into it. And dare I say it tastes a little meaty?

Read more »

If you don’t want to stand outside in the drizzle at the World Financial Center food truck lot, you’ll be happy to know there’s another event inside at the Winter Garden today called Noodlepalooza. From 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. you can check out some actual noodles and vaguely noodle-related items for less than $5 from some of the restaurants in and around the WFC like Harry’s Italian, Wei West, Milk Truck, Table Tales, Blue Smoke and against all odds…Starbucks?!? (the full list can be found here). It’s a good chance to try out some upper crust restaurants’ food on a Midtown Lunch budget.

Normally we don’t post about things happening on weekends (unless it’s something awesome like the Vendy Awards), but there’s a pilot event this Sunday at the New Amsterdam Market at the South St. Seaport that sounds pretty cool. It’s called International Meats Local and involves Vendy winners including Solber Pupusas, A-Pou’s Taste and Veronica’s Kitchen cooking some of their regular dishes with sustainable, locally-sourced ingredients. There are early bird and general admission tickets available here for $30 or $20 respectively, and they include tastes of the food.