Midtown Lunch

Those of you who were sad when R. Retha’s Cart disappeared after getting shuttered by the Department of Health should probably just stop reading this post now because it contains no good news. Yesterday, the owners of the Jamaican Dutchy Truck posted on Twitter that they had a cart for sale, with the above photo attached featuring the telltale Jamaican flag flying from the top. It wasn’t looking good when the cart’s parking spot at William & Beaver was taken over by a halal food vendor, but here’s hoping another outfit buys it (the Cinnamon Snail Truck owners seemed interested) and we get to reap the benefits.

Many people wanting lunch from a cart tend to gravitate toward the collection on Broadway between Liberty and Cedar streets, but some more interesting options can be found a few blocks away on William St. The stretch between Maiden Lane and John St. is home to a smoothie cart, fruit seller along with a Biryani House cart and Halal Gyro Express which serve an interesting mix of street meat, falafel, biryani, kati rolls and some Afghani dishes. A while ago a new cart called NY Express Biryani started parking right across William St. from Biryani House serving some of the same dishes including kati rolls, biryani and chicken tikka. It wasn’t until yesterday that I walked by, though, and noticed a substantial lunchtime line outside NY Express Biryani so I thought I should finally post about its presence. Have any of you eaten there? Is the food worth crossing the street for?

NY Express Biryani Cart, corner of William & John streets

Sometimes curiousity gets the best of me and I end up eating something that I know full well is probably going to be terrible. You see, I love a good banh mi, even if I have to shell out more than $5 for it. A good sandwich is a good sandwich and sometimes you have to pay more than rock bottom Chinatown prices, especially in the Financial District. The thing is, though, that we have several sources of Vietnamese sandwiches in the area that are actually good so when a chain steps up and sells something called a banh mi, it had better be solid. Yushi on Pearl St. (btw. Maiden & Pine) tried its best, but really they should just stick with their Yu Bowls and overpriced dumplings and leave the sandwich game to someone else. After the jump I will tell you what happens when you try to make a Vietnamese sandwich with sourdough bread.

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You may have eaten from the Shorty’s on Wheels truck at some point since it launched a while back (and which I realize I haven’t reviewed), as it was a regular in the Financial District for a while and now parks in the WFC food truck lot on occasion. But did you know that truck is an offshoot of two Shorty’s cheese steak shops in the Flatiron and Midtown? Well, Shorty’s announced on Twitter Friday that they’re opening a shop at 62 Pearl St. between Coenties Slip & Broad sometime around Christmas. Their cheese steaks are said to be good, although the roast pork is supposedly better. Either way, they will also have a bunch of beer on tap and whatever a whiskey wall is for your liquid lunch and happy hour needs. Photo courtesy of ultraclay.