Midtown Lunch

Get ready everybody, because healthy pizza’s coming to the Financial District! Yesterday I spotted this sign for Stamina Grill & Juice Bar in one of the many papered up windows along Nassau St. between John & Fulton, promising smoothies, chopped salads, wraps and this pizza. This storefront is diagonally across the street from Energy Kitchen which also traffics in wraps and foods that will make you want to go run a 5K, so it will be interesting to see how the menus differ (and find out how they made pizza healthy).

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 Alyse who’s still finding her way around the lunch landscape of Soho, but is off to a good start!

Name: Alyse

Occupation: Assistant editor at Wetpaint Entertainment

Where you work: Lafayette & Prince St.

Age: Twentysomething

Favorite kinds of food: Any type of Asian (mostly in part to being Korean, but adopted); lots o’ pasta; contemporary American; most anything with cheese and/or avocado — or anything between two pieces of bread.

Least favorite foods: Pickled and brined dishes; awful offal; anything that still has eyes intact; mouth-burning, eye-watering spicy food.

Favorite lunches downtown: I’ve only worked in SoHo for a few weeks, but when I eat out, I love grabbing basically any sandwich at Dean & Deluca at Prince & Broadway, or SoHo Park on Prince at Lafayette; lunch combos galore at Arbor Bistro; dosas topped with cilantro chutney at Hampton Chutney Co. on Prince (btw. Crosby & Lafayette); and a myriad of salads at Spring Street Natural on Spring (at Lafayette). Oh, and I can’t forget the sweet and savory yogurt dishes at the new Chobani store on Prince (at W. Broadway) or Rice to Riches on Spring (btw. Mott & Mulberry). Everyone needs an afternoon pick-me-up!

Read more »

I can’t recall ever eating at Lenny’s, the sandwich chain that has a location on John St., but we’re about to get another one in the Financial District. A sign in a papered up window on Water St. between Coenties Slip & Broad alluded to the imminent opening. Is this better or worse than another Potbelly or Subway? Not sure on that one, but the sandwich-crazed among you should take note.

Don’t get me wrong, I love a good plate of chicken over rice with ample hot sauce and white sauce, but sometimes you want something different. That’s why I was intrigued when A-Pou’s Taste Cart at Liberty St. & Broadway started serving a special of basil chicken with white rice, adding to their strong lineup of Taiwanese potstickers and Chinese spaghetti. I’ve basically loved everything I’ve ever gotten from this cart (plus the woman who works there is super nice), and it’s so nice to have an alternative to the halal cart overload happening on the Liberty Plaza. But would basil chicken from a cart be any good? Could it surpass the potstickers?

Read more »