Midtown Lunch

Just a few weeks ago, Andrea reported that a new Financier Patisserie opened on Fulton Street downtown – that makes 3 in the FiDi. Well, now we discovered (thanks to an email from Tom) that a new location looks to be opening at 245 Park Avenue. The storefront is on 47th Street in the same building as ‘Wichcraft, Oaxaca, and Yushi. There’s no official word on their website about this new location, but I think it’s pretty clear this will be their next (and fifth!) location in Midtown.

Ever since Mooncake Foods opened in my hood, it’s been a reliable Midotown lunch and dinner option – the food is fairly priced, filling, and while it won’t blow you away, it’s consistently tasty. As much as it may irk my ML overlord, Zach Brooks, I’ll push one of the healthier items on their menu, the tofu banh mi ($8).

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As we mentioned a few weeks ago, Beecher’s, Seattle’s Pike Market cheesemonger opened up an outpost on 20th Street and Broadway last month. It’s still on the new side, so today’s post is more of a look around at the place and what they offer.

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Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf isn’t the only west coast coffee spot coming soon to Midtown… Eater reported yesterday that signage for San Francisco’s Blue Bottle has gone up in Rock Center. Their Williamsburg location garners huge lines every day, and Coolhaus sells the stuff on their trucks, but obviously that is no substitute for a permanent location in the heart of Midtown lunching. Their Facebook page says they “have no idea when it’s going to open”, but Eater says it will be sometime this summer. Here’s hoping it will be in time for us to enjoy their amazing iced coffees in this ridiculously hot weather.

Blondie and Clay have shown us a bit of the sweet and savory sides of Paris Baguette, but on a day like today it’s all about their frozen treats. Read more »

Just because we’re afraid that fully legalizing food trucks might open the door to a corporatization of street food, doesn’t mean we don’t want to show support.  In fact it’s important that the government knows that for every complaint they receive about food trucks (likely from brick and mortar businesses), there are scores of consumers who love and support those same trucks. Doing this will help ensure that the city thinks twice about passing new laws to further restrict street vending, and will hopefully help to encourage them to be a little more lax about enforcing the laws that currently exist.

The New York City Food Truck Association has created a petition that does just that.  Show your support and sign it today!

I can’t say I’ve had any interest in the 99¢ pizza trend. Cheap is good, tasting good is better. Still, I have to admit some morbid curiosity when passing the new 99¢ pizza shop that’s opened up in the old K! Pizzacone location. If I could try that abomination, how bad could this be? As I waited though, I glanced at the menu and saw a single other option on the menu: a Jamaican beef patty available with cheese and pizza toppings.

I hadn’t had one of those since my high school days when every pizza joint sold slices for a dollar. It’s greasy and spicy and cheesy, I had to try it out after all these years and see if it was actually any good.

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Today is National Holiday in Belgium, and to celebrate Wafels & Dinges will be giving out free tastings of their newest ice cream flavor, Belgian Madness. The ice cream is made with honey, lemon and Hoegaarden beer and while they’ve been serving it for a few weeks now, today is the official launch day. Plus between Noon and 1pm you can get a free cone of the stuff (or you can get it as a gratis topping on a waffle) at all their carts and trucks. The truck should be parked on 46th between 5th and 6th (if they don’t get shooed by the cops like last week) and they have a cart on 40th Street between 7th and 8th Avenue. Just be sure to check the ML Twitter Tracker before you head out.  (Photo courtesy of Blonde & Brownie)