Midtown Lunch

For those of you who forgot that today is Valentine’s Day, you can still save your you know what with some treats for your lady. Lily O’Brien’s (on 40th btw. 5+6th) will be getting their Monday delivery of Robicelli’s with special Valentine’s flavors:

• The L’Amour: Chocolate Chambord cake, Chambord & raspberry buttercream, chocolate shavings, wildberry drizzle
• Strawberry Champagne: Champagne cake, strawberry champagne buttercream, strawberry reduction, edible gold dust
• Dark Chocolate Dulce: Dark chocolate cake, dulce de leche buttercream, dark chocolate drizzle, Maldon flake sea salt (seen above)
• The Eve: Walnut cake, pomegranate cheesecake buttercream, roasted walnuts glazed in pomegranate molasses.

Additionally Treats Truck will be making a special Monday appearance in midtown on 45th & 6th Av from 12:30-3pm with heart shaped sugar cookies, chocolate heart cookies and raspberry linzer heart cookies. Keep track of the Treats Truck’s location on the ML Twitter Tracker or via Twitter.

Lily O’Brien’s (40th btw 5+6th), 212-575-0631

Bouchon Bakery Mousse Cake. Photo by Robyn Lee/SENY

• A look at Bouchon Bakery’s Valentine’s Day treats [SENY]
• Pret plans to triple its NY presence in the next 2 years [Fork in the Road]
• Naya Express’ rice bowl is extremely filling [Grace is Full]
• I guess Two Boots has improved their “po’boy”? [SENY]
• Another fan of the Sami’s Dosa Cart! [Fork in the Road]

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.

The Stag’s Head has been a great location for a happy hour with friends for a while. ML regulars even did a meet up there last year. The thoughtful beer selection features a seasonal rotation of microbrews, many of which, if you time it right, meet the $5 mark. Stag’s also has a delicious and indecently early happy hour beginning at 11am. In summertime the roof deck provides the opportunity to bask in the warm sun with a drink in hand. So why haven’t we ever written about Stag’s Head? Maybe it’s that the location is too far east and not in Midtown proper. Maybe because we’d like to keep the tourists away. Maybe because there are too few bar stools at Stag’s and I like to keep my bartender to myself. Whatever the case, it was time, so I decided to stop by this week and grab a pint.

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In the two years that it has been open, Schnipper’s Quality Kitchen has always seemed to covet a spot amongst New York’s burger elite. Initial reactions to their signature offering were good, but not great. While Schnipper’s was quietly stepping their ground meat game up, by cooking patties to order and switching to LaFrieda beef, Shake Shack opened a few blocks away and the stakes got higher. Schnipper’s burgers have seemingly been climbing up the ranks of public opinion for a while now, so I decided to celebrate their 2 Year Anniversary with my first visit, and one of their new and improved cheeseburgers.

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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.

I’m very late in trying out the generically named Argentinian food truck NYC Mobile Eatery. Back in the fall, luncher “El Dubya El” posted about it in the forums. It’s been on my radar ever since, but I only seemed to find it after I’d already eaten. This week, I finally tracked it down on 26th Street and 6th Avenue and was shocked to find a sandwich I haven’t had since I visited Buenos Aires years ago.
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What would $3.50 get you for lunch? A plain slice? A couple of dirty water hot dogs? Maybe a small cup of soup? At Woorijip (on 32nd btw. B’way+5th), $3.50 can buy you a modest, yet filling lunch. It’s a well known fact that Woorijip is one of the best lunch deals in the vicinity of K-town. We at Midtownlunch have always loved this place for a variety of reason – the fair prices, the variety of food, and their willingness to tinker with special menu items, for better or for worse. I’m personally a frequent customer (I think I fill up a loyalty card at least once a month), and take a quirky delight in sampling any new menu items as soon as I notice them. And today’s new menu item happened to be a spicy chicken wrap, priced at only $2.50.

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Sadness is showing up on the last day of Flex Donuts, hoping for one last hurrah with their spiced chocolate goodness, only to see a sign saying “Out of Doughnuts.” That is a sad sign. One look to the left reminded me of the paradox that is Magnolia Bakery (in the Grand Central Food Court.) Knowing I was not going to be getting a cupcake, I took a gander at the display case to see if anything else tickled my fancy: personal chocolate pudding pie, anyone?

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