Midtown Lunch

Labor Day weekend is almost here which means fall is around the corner. Wah wah wah. I drink iced coffee year ’round–I’ve found it’s the only way I can tolerate the office coffee, but if you’re a seasonal iced coffee drinker you’ll want to give Blue Bottle’s New Orlean’s style iced coffee a try while the weather is still nice. Read more »

We’re still waiting to find out who’s up for the Dessert, Rookie, and the new Market category of the Vendy Awards. But earlier this week, the excitement for the big day increased with the announcement of the six competitors in the Vendy Cup Award. While only one will be the official winner, this competition is really more a celebration of the vendors and their stories, commitment, and delicious food. Every year the nominees get their own official video documentary. This year they’ve all been produced by our friend Liza de Guia from Food Curated. Click below to check out the videos of the two Midtown nominees, Cinnamon Snail and Uncle Gussy’s.

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Do you wonder what the ML contributors do when they’re not eating lunch in Midtown? (We’re actually pretty easy to stalk!)

Brownie’s Lobster Mac & Cheese from Freeport Seafood Company in Maine. Photo by Brownie.

Blondie is surveying New York’s Greenmarkets, Brownie reported on the Lobster Mac & Cheese in Freeport, Brian had spicy hunan peppers in Flushing, Rachel had the best ice cream in her life at Telepan and I told Brooklyn Based how I spent my summer.

Elsewhere in the ML universe… Andrea’s excited about the upcoming Dosateria at the Tribeca Whole Foods, Jamie tried a fancy Cubano at Wishing Well in Philadelphia and Zach “reluctantly” explores the menu of a new Los Angeles food truck called Pigs Feet Under.

Earlier this month, Bon Appetit picked up a story on DipJar, a device being tested at the Times Square location of Oren’s Daily Roast (Broadway between 40th+41st), that allows customers to swipe their credit card to quickly leave a tip. Eater NY quickly followed up. Although the ML team was somewhat perplexed by the newsworthiness of this story, when we dropped by yesterday, yet another reporter was there with photography crew in tow. According to the DipJar website, the inventor’s justification for producing such a device is the drop in tips baristas experienced after the rise in having “plastic only” and an excuse for leaving nothing in the tip jar. The device is being tested out in just a handful of locations (apparently those without a tip line on their credit card receipts) and each business sets the tip amount. Oren’s set amount is $1. According to DipJar, when fully up and running, the service will take a small fee for tips processed at no cost to retailers, while collecting a significant tip money for employees that would otherwise not exist. As Bon Appetit points out, the tips will also be on the books, so employees who underreport tips to get by might be doubly hit.

We’ve seen the line long… but never this long!  Holy wow.

Related:
Vendy Award Finalists Announced- Plus Hang Out Early w/ Zach, Brian H, Blondie & Brownie

Port Authority Bus Terminal is the structure we all love to hate. Those unfortunate enough to have to take NJ Transit buses (Decamp for life, if it serves your area) or Greyhound know too well its inner workings, its layouts the architectural equivalent of the Mos Eisley cantina (“nowhere else in Manhattan will you find a more wretchedly-laid out hive of scum and villainy”) and its external visage looking like a boondoggle of an Erector Set. Its seamy underbelly has been no-mans-land for as long as any of us can remember, despite such Midtown Lunch landmarks as Tabata Noodle Restaurant and the as-yet-ML-unreviewed (oh, this is going to be fixed, you’d better believe it) Troy Turkish Grill within a stone’s throw.

Just past the soup kitchen under Port Authority can be found 99¢ Fresh Pizza, a hole in the wall without much to speak of in terms of space. This isn’t a place to linger over your slice and shoot the breeze on matters of court and state – you wanna grab and go here. In our exploration of the dollar slice, are we seeing trends emerge in terms of location vs. atmosphere? Granted, we’re not exactly looking for a Gramercy Tavern dining experience, or even McDonald’s, but who knows what trends yet emerge in the dollar slice experience?

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Is 2012 the year of the Japanese Food Truck? Between Domo Taco, Okadaman and now Hibachi Heaven, we have been blessed with a plethora of good new Japanese food options that extend far beyond bentos and sushi. When I first heard about Hibachi Heaven back in June, I was excited, because flat-top cooking is very food truck friendly. Then, when I read Andrea’s first look from when they first opened, I was a little underwhelmed. Finally, I found the truck in Midtown the other day and decided to try for myself.
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The magical Salume kiosk in Times Square that has disappeared and reappeared and even lowered the prices of their paninis over the last year seems to be down for the count. Eater reported yesterday that the kiosk will close on September 1. The brick and mortar location in Soho remains opened, although that is certainly out of bounds. Wonder if a new kiosk will replace it…

Guy Fieri’s Times Square joint Guy’s American Kitchen & Bar on 44th between 7th and 8th avenues now has an elaborate marquee, and the blue boards out front are coming down today. I guess that means they’re on track for that September opening. Sigh.