Midtown Lunch

• “Would you like flies with that?” [Midtown Eating]
• Looking for brown rice [Midtown Eating]
• Lobster in NYC is a rip off! [Midtown Eating]
• Wafels & Dinges expands to Jersey [Miscellaneous]

Every Tuesday we turn over the site to a different Midtown Lunch’er for his or her recommendations for the best lunch in Midtown. This week it’s Matt, a TV dude who does mini food cart crawls to assemble his lunches.

Name: Matt

Age: 28

Occupation: TV Development Assistant

Where in Midtown do you Work?: HBO on 42nd & 6th

Favorite Kind of Food: Japanese + Korean. And shrimp n grits.

Least Favorite Kind of Food: Salad, with which you don’t make friends.

Favorite Place(s) to Eat Lunch in Midtown:I like to construct my lunch with smaller dishes from a variety of carts. Usually always includes a Doubles from Trini/Paki Boys on 43rd & 6th (best deal in midtown), and I rotate the following: Chennai Roll from Biryani Cart (on 46th & 6th); side of Falafel balls from Moshe’s on 46th & 6th (the pickles make it); Shrimp Masala Roll from Kati Roll Co on 39th btw. 5+6th (pricey but just damn good); Gruyere Sandwich from ‘wichcraft (the only acceptable thing to order form wichcraft); masala dosa from the dosa cart on 38th and Broadway; a quinoa salad from Taim… list goes on. For desserts I love my Treats Truck, and if I’m willing to walk a few blocks I’ll head over to Kyotofu in Hells Kitchen for the best sweets ever.

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With all the threats facing food trucks the last few weeks in Midtown, it’s amazing that a handful of them still park in Midtown East. I was pleased to walk by at least five of them around Park Avenue in the low 50’s and high 40’s last Friday. I’m not sure how long this will really last, but I’m frequenting them as much as possible while they’re here. And I was even more surprised to see The Frying Dutchmen, who have not really made an appearance in Midtown since they launched a few months ago. Don’t they read the Times?

Perhaps their arrival on 48th Street and Park last week was an answer to Lunch’er pshinnyc’s plea on Twitter for the truck to bring their Belgian-style frites to Midtown proper. Or maybe they’re feeling like now’s the time to strike since there may be less truck competition around. Whatever the reason, I spotted their red and yellow design after I had already purchased my lunch. But I figured since I was having a healthy salad, it might be worth balancing out all those greens with a side of french fries.

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As Times Square promised last year, the Earl of Sandwich is coming to Midtown and Lunch’er David tipped us off to the plywood that is now up on 52nd street, between 5th and 6th ave. He actually thought it might have taken over the Yips space, but thankfully for fans of crappy Chinese food it didn’t- Yips is still open.  Based off of the reader comments (and possible shills), the product here seems to be comparable to, if not better than Quiznos. So for fans of fast food chain sandwiches and lunchers looking for an upgrade over Quiznos, looks like its time to get excited(?) Unless of course Potbelly opens first...

Photo courtesy of Feisty Foodie

• Have you seen Comme Ci Comme Ca’s Basmati Royale! [Feisty Foodie]
• Aroma Espresso makes a solid haloumi sandwich [SENY]
• A new arepas place has opened on 35th St. [NYTimes]
• And yet another Johnny Utah’s mechanical bull lawsuit [Gothamist]
• Blue Bottle is coming to Rock Center! [Eater]
• The goat curry is better than jerk chicken at the Sunrise Grill truck [Feisty Foodie]

If you like to eat, chances are you like to drink (read: a lot of you are freakin’ lushes), so every week our Happy Hour Correspondent “Mamacita” will post about a different bar in Midtown that fits the Midtown Lunch mentality: unhealthy food, not lame (unless it’s lame in a cool way), and most importantly… cheap.

For the lunchers who’ve ever experienced the wait for table during lunch at Social Eatz, there’s good news. Angelo Sosa’s quirky new eatery with an award winning burger opened their new back patio yesterday, adding 16 additional seats to the restaurant. They have also rolled out some seasonal drinks for summer time happy hours, including sangria and beer pitcher specials. This comes just in time for the long 4th of July weekend. To sweeten the deal, they’ll be giving away a free cocktail for anyone that orders dinner from 9-11pm, for the next 6 weeks. Viva la summer! And while we’re at it, huzzah to Independence Day!

Here’s a round-up of some more al fresco places to celebrate your independence this weekend, and we even give a nod to our hockey luvin pals to the north as today is also Canada Day!

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Photo courtesy of Serious Eats: New York

Shake Shack is kicking off their annual 4th of July celebration early with Corn Dogs ($4.50) and their special Blueberry Pie-Oh-My concrete ($6.50). Their Corn Dogs, which feature Vienna dogs dipped in housemade batter, deep-fried w/Corn Relish, only come around a few times a year and they’re serving them at all Shacks (except Madison Sq, sorry Flatiron!) today through Monday. Unfortunately the Corn Dog plus concrete will take you a buck over the ML, but as a pie concrete fan (blend a pie slice with custard), I’d wager it’s worth the splurge.

Shake Shack, 691 8th Ave. (on 44th Street), 646-435-0135

Every Friday our man UltraClay goes south of the ML boundaries in search of a delicious lunch. Sometimes it’s Murray Hill south or the Flatiron District, sometimes Gramercy and everything in between- but we just like to call it Flatiron Lunch.

This summer is turning out to be surprisingly busy for the Flatiron food scene. In addition to the events like Madison Square Eats and the upcoming Flatiron Chefs (only $160 – ouch!), there are some new restaurants opening up in what’s usually a pretty dead season. See the brand new, the sorta new, and the coming soon after the jump.

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After the NYTimes article on Wednesday officially named Midtown off limits for food trucks, you’d think we’d have been left high and dry yesterday. But fortunately for us, there is a strong bond between these mobile food vendors and our hungry bellies, and they don’t want to go down without a fight (the food trucks or our bellies). The scene in Midtown was definitely quieter than usual yesterday, but a few trucks decided to give it another go. Crisp on Wheels, Gorilla Cheese, and Wafels & Dinges all seemed to make it through the lunch shift without too much trouble. Korilla BBQ took to the hinterlands and set up out of bounds on Ninth and 39th Street, and it sounds like the only problem they had was running out of meat. Hell’s Kitchen and Flatiron may get all the love in the coming weeks.

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• XPL vs. Rafiqi’s vs. Uncle Gussy’s [Eating]
• Red Hook Lobster Truck’s sandwich is waaay too small [Eating]
• Beware of the imposter dosa cart [Eating]
• Why won’t the Frying Dutchman truck come to Midtown!? Oh, right. [Eating]
• Oceana lobster cart is now selling a new peanut butter/chocolate cookie [Eating]