Midtown Lunch

As is customary here on Midtown Lunch: Downtown, every Tuesday we’ll profile a different lunch’er and get their recommendations for places to eat in Downtown NYC. This week, we have Elise who gets her falafel from “a legend” and wants to know where to find good food near her apartment.

Name: Elise Graham

Occupation: Assistant director of admissions

Where you work: Broadway & Exchange

Age: 23

Favorite kinds of food: French food (Balthazar is a staple), Greek food, and BBQ is always a favorite for this Texas girl (Hill Country BBQ is my favorite in the city!)

Least favorite foods: I can’t handle anything spicy, so most Indian food is out of the question.

Favorite lunches downtown: Adrienne’s Pizza Bar on Stone St. (nr. Hanover Sq.) for their addictive prosciutto basil pizza; Luke’s Lobster on S. William St. (nr. Broad) for shrimp rolls; if I’m feeling lazy, I’ll get the falafel over rice from the food cart on Broadway and Beaver (aka the Homemade Cart). The only thing better than the falafel is the man running thecart. The man’s a legend.

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I think we all know that the words “healthy” and “pizza” should set off alarm bells for anyone who enjoys food. I enjoy pizza of all stripes and quality levels from fancy Neopolitan to trashily delicious Totino’s Party Pizza, but what I encountered at the newly-opened Stamina Grill on Nassau St. (btw. John & Fulton) made me utter the words “Oh, noooo.” out loud as I opened the box of my personal pie.

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I only just got back to working in my company’s office in the Financial District on Wednesday of last week after not being there since Oct. 25. Like many of you, our phone lines were fried and Internet service and electricity were slow to return. However, after walking around in the lower-lying sections of the neighborhood on Friday, it was amazing how much changed from block to block. Instead of office workers scurrying back to the office on Water St. below Maiden Lane, there was the constant hum of generators, streets lined with disaster recovery vehicles and construction workers wearing hardhats and reflective gear. Food carts and trucks remain the only options in some areas.

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If only all sandwiches were less than $2. Via SENY.

• A guide to being a complete cheapskate in Chinatown. [SENY]
• Here’s an update on Seaport eateries hit by Sandy. [Broadsheet Daily]
• The smorrebrod at Aamanns-Copenhagen are “delightfully complex.” [TC]
• The brick & mortar version of the Bistro Truck gets a review. [NYT]

Is it just me or did Thanksgiving sneak up on anyone else? I saw on Twitter that GRK on Fulton St. (btw. Nassau & William) was serving turkey gyro with cranberry tzatziki as a pre-Thanksgiving special and then I realized the holiday is next week. On my first day back to work in the Financial District since hurricane Sandy mucked things up, I headed over to see what happens when you put turkey on a rotating spit and pair it with cranberry-spiked Greek yogurt. (It turns out that magical, crispy things happen).

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