Midtown Lunch

It seems like just yesterday that the first New York outpost of Chicago-based Potbelly Sandwich Shop debuted on Maiden Lane to a line of frenzied fans. In fact, that was more than two years ago and now a third Financial District location has popped up on Fulton St. between Nassau and William. Apparently our hunger for sandwiches with hot pepper relish knows no bounds.

When Diso’s Sandwich Society truck debuted downtown in June and then decamped to Midtown before I got a chance to try their food, I was disappointed but assumed they would come back to the Financial District. I was mostly wrong (they have come back a couple of times although not regularly), but on Wednesday I noticed on Twitter that they would be at Varick & Charlton. This was finally my chance to stuff my face with an Italian sandwich from a truck!

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There are many delis and other eateries that I’ve walked by many times but never bothered to step inside. That’s usually OK, but sometimes you find a gem that you would never tell existed from the outside. Corte Cafe at the corner of Lafayette and Duane streets is such a place, advertising only “international foods” on its awning. A step inside shows the usual salads and sandwiches, but you can also get fried chicken, a torta or a variety of Caribbean food. It was the latter that piqued my interest since the area around City Hall is lacking in the food of the islands.

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We got word in June that Bluestone Lane Coffee would be opening on Broad St. near Exchange Place. The shop will serve coffee including Australian flat whites along with food items and snacks such as an avocado smash toast. A location of the Melbourne-influenced shop recently opened in Midtown and had a cheap coffee special for ML readers and they’re doing the same for us. You can get a $1 cup of coffee on Oct. 2 when they open the doors. See the opening food menu after the jump.  Read more »

Soma By Nature has been a standby for Korean food in the Financial District with sushi and a few other Japanese offerings pushed to the side. On Friday I noticed they have changed the name to BentOn Cafe (of which there is a location in Midtown), although the sign promoting the $6 Korean lunch specials remained outside. What has changed is a rack of grab and go bento boxes and Japanese sweets prominently featured near the Korean food station.

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If you’ve tried to eat at Alfanoose lately, you may have noticed they no longer exist on Maiden Lane. Word is the building they were located in between Broadway & Nassau St. is being developed and they were forced to move. What you may not be aware of is that Alfanoose moved to Fulton St. (at Ryder’s Alley) in the space where L&L Hawaiian BBQ used to be. Both are long-running businesses in the Financial District but L&L Hawaiian seemed to be floundering around lately, adding a Chinese food buffet and some lunch deals to lure people in. I couldn’t find anything online that they have moved to a new location, so it looks like the city has lost one of its only sources of Hawaiian plate lunch.