Midtown Lunch

All the way back in 2010, Kevin checked out Ruchi on Cedar St. (btw. Greenwich & Trinity Place) and found its “50% off North Indian” lunch deal to be kind of a rip-off. They still have that deal on offer, but have also added a variety of lunch boxes, perhaps after one too many people complained about not getting rice with their meals? The boxes seem like a pretty good deal but I’ll reserve judgment until I’ve tried one (or one of you lunchers tells us if they’re decent).

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 Rich who has a lot of good sandwich recommendations for the Soho/South Village area.

Name: Rich

Occupation: Software engineer

Where you work: Bleecker & Broadway

Age: 29

Favorite kinds of food: Ramen, chirashi, burgers, oysters, anything spicy or fermented (except stinky tofu).

Least favorite foods: Stinky tofu, over-cooked BBQ, anything super greasy

Favorite lunches downtown: No. 9 tuna sandwich and bee stinger smoothie at Lite Delights (a.k.a. “Juice Bar”) on E. Houston & Mott; “Matthew” proscuitto & mozzarella sandwich on semolina at Alidoro on Sullivan (btw. Spring & Prince); Tuna 1.0 or lamb sandwich at Snack on Thompson (btw. Spring & Prince); Super Heebster on an everything bagel, toasted, at Russ & Daughters on E. Houston (btw. Allen & Orchard); Calexico burrito at the Calexico Cart on Wooster (at Prince); Tofu spicy udon or beef bibimbap at Duke’s on Broadway (at Spring); Pretzel sandwich with turkey at Whole Foods on E. Houston (at Bowery).

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There are a lot of bars and pubs that serve food in the Financial District but most are out of ML price range. That’s mostly the case with the Irish American which just opened in John St. between Broadway & Nassau, but one item on the menu caught my eye. They’re serving a Juicy Lucy, aka, the burger that originated in Minnesota and involves the cheese being cooked inside the patty rather than put on top. It’s $13, but most of the other burgers on the menu are also more than $10 so if you like molten cheese wrapped in meat this might be worth a shot.

We don’t often post things about the increasing number of promo food trucks gracing the streets (tacos and Gap jeans anyone?), but this one involves free things for some of you Downtown Lunch’ers. Cookware maker All-Clad is launching a truck next week, and will make stops throughout Manhattan giving cooking demonstrations with chefs, and more importantly, giving out food samples from what is being cooked. One of the stops will be in Soho on September 21, and we’re giving away four VIP spots to meet chef Marc Murphy who you may have seen on the Food Network (or eaten at one of his fancy restaurants) and get a tour of the truck. There will also be some freebies involved. Interested? Tell us in the comments why you should be on of the four VIPs chosen, and obviously being in the Soho area at lunch time on the day of the stop is required. You have through Monday, Sept. 19 to try to snag one of the spots.

You can’t even call Pane Panelle a sandwich shop as there are no seats (other than outside) and you have to step aside to make way for deliveries going into the kitchen. It’s essentially a hallway. That being said, it’s kind of genius for an upper crust restaurant such as Stuzzicheria to open a lower-brow sandwich place by simply blocking off part of its dining room and having a separate door. Put up a couple of signs advertising that you exist and you’re done. There are six sandwiches to choose from here along with a lone “appetizer” of sorts. And those sandwiches come with one killer side. Read more »