Midtown Lunch

The date for the 10th annual Vendy Awards have been announced and now is the time to purchase tickets and nominate your favorite food vendor. This year the event will be on Saturday, September 13 and will return to Governor’s Island, which is always a beautiful setting to enjoy the best street food in the city.

Nominees are chosen by the public’s write-ins so now is your chance to make sure your favorite street meat cart (or gourmet fusion taco truck) gets nominated. Vote for your favorite at the website here.

General Admission, VIP, and Early Bird tickets are available for purchase by clicking here. The tickets always sell out and while the price is a bit more than a typical Midtown Lunch, there is always more than enough food to go around and all the proceeds go to the Street Vendor Project, who continually fight for the rights of NYC’s street vendors.

Of all of the notable culinary contributions that Hawaii has gifted the world, I would argue that none is more perplexingly low brow yet delicious than loco moco. Like many dishes from the Hawaiian culinary repertoire this garbage plate marries elements of east and west – a hamburger patty over white rice, drenched with brown gravy and gilded with a fried egg over easy. It’s a blue collar sort of dish, rich as hell, and in the right hands, a thing of beauty.

Enter Big D’s Khao cart which launched a few months back (typically located at 50th and 6th). Instead of Korean inspired tacos and grinders, the Khao cart has tightly focused on rice bowls (khao translates to ‘rice’ in Thai and Lao) accented with Vietnamese and Thai flavors. But there’s also a very successful riff on loco moco on the menu, called the Loco Grande ($9).

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Broadway Bites is returning to Greeley Square (33rd & Broadway), and the list of food vendors has been finalized. This event, which brings big name Chefs and artisinal producers together into one tidy ensemble, will be open daily from June 3-August 1 between the hours of 11am-9pm.

The confirmed vendors include: Brooklyn Taco, Gelato Ti Amo, La Newyorkina, Melt Bakery, Palenque, Graffiti / Me & You, CAЯNAVAL, Hong Kong Street Cart, Onigiri by Tampopo and Breads Bakery, Roberta’s, Red Hook Lobster Pound, Bar Suzette, La Sonrisa Empanadas, Macaron Parlour, Mayhem & Stout, Mighty Balls, Chutney, Asiadog, Nunu Chocolates, Bangkok Bar, Stuffed Artisan Cannolis, Arancini Bros, Charlito’s Cocina, Mimi & Coco NY, Seoul Lee Korean BBQ, Mexicue, Mrs. Dorsey’s Kitchen, Jicama: California Street Food, Mason Jar NYC, Two Tablespoons and mmm enfes.

“Chipotle meets Apple Store” concept, 4Food quietly shuttered about a month ago. In its place, a similarly well intentioned (but potentially misguided) concept called Local Thyme is close to opening. Based on this job posting, the new restaurant seems to be focusing on organic, non-GMO, local ingredients, and will feature sandwiches, salads, smoothies, and the like. You can follow their progress on twitter @LocalThyme

I would venture to guess that the average Midtownluncher hasn’t lamented over the lack of French style rotisserie chicken in Midtown. On the other hand, before the uptowning of Xi’an Famous Foods, there were plenty of us that yearned for a taste of those bracingly spicy lamb noodles during our lunch breaks. And do you recall how glum the Midtown pizza scene was until Don Antonio brought us a proper Neapolitan pie? Curiously, an unspoken demand for French style rotisserie chicken has been met with the opening of Provence as well as Hells Kitchen newcomer, Poulette.

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El Rey del Sabor is adding a few specials to its excellent roster of burritos and tortas. Starting today (and continuing every Friday), they’ll be serving pambazos. This hearty Mexican sandwich is made with both white and red (from a dip in a red guajillo pepper sauce) bread. It’s stuffed with with guacamole, ground beef, chorizo, and potatoes. It’ll cost you $6.

And if you missed out on the chance to dare your co-workers to eat a grasshopper quesadilla, you can try on Thursday when the carts will have chapulines once again.

El Rey del Sabor (3 Locations)

• 49th and Park
• 43rd btw. 5+6th
• 60th and 3rd

Every Friday we go 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.

Nutella. All Nutella. ALL.THE.TIME. (Except at my apartment right now, because I have a nasty tasty habit of eating it straight from the jar with a spoon.) But on Monday, there will be a major convergence of Nutella within a block of the Flatiron building. I wonder if the force of so much Nutella in one area might cause a black hole.

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Looks like the forthcoming Times Square Mexicue location is making progress! Signage recently went up declaring their “coming soon” status, which makes sense after last month’s Crain’s profile that detailed a June opening. If you’re wondering what the 1200 square foot Midtown shop will look like, Mexicue posted a rendering on Instagram a couple months ago. So what does all this mean for the truck? According to that same Crain’s article, Mexicue has discontinued its daily service, reserving the truck for catering events only.

Mexicue, 1440 Broadway (on 40th btw. B’way+6th)