Midtown Lunch

The Boi restaurants were at one point a God-send for those of us in Midtown East: pretty decent Vietnamese, only slightly overpriced for what it was. Plus, Boi To Go was one of the first places to offer the elusive banh mi in Midtown; granted it wasn’t Chinatown-cheap style banh mi, but we take what we can get here, don’t we? For a while they’ve been going through some changes, beginning with Boi To Go shuttering back in August which wasn’t a huge shock considering that Boi Sandwich is practically identical and one avenue over.  But when we heard yesterday that they had closed Boi Restaurant, their slightly upscale Vietnamese flagship (on 44th btw. 2+3rd), that was kind of surprising.  Even more surprising? The new name. Ladies and gentleman, meet “Foodie”.

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Over a year has come and gone since we’ve written about the food that Frites n Meats offers to lunchers all over the city. Since then, they’ve shown quite the penchant for generating non-food headlines, whether it be the frequent tussles with other food trucks, their indirect involvement with an increased crackdown on food trucks in Midtown, or even DeBragga-gate of 2009. As interesting as it may be to read and report on restaurant and food truck drama, it’s always been about the food here at ML, and I decided to fight this week’s cold weather with their spicy jazz burger and a cup of chicken noodle soup.

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Got a bunch of coffee news for those of you looking for a morning pick me up… Oren’s has expanded to Times Square! They recently opened a new store on Broadway (between 40th+41st) which they’re calling their “flagship” (whatever that means!) Whatever it’s called I bet anyone cash money that they’ll be running out of frozen yogurt come summer-time.

But that’s not the only coffee news, Joe the Art of Coffee in Grand Central is trying to help out their extreme line situation with a coffee cart!

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

Tabla’s Infamous Crab Cake

Blondie had one last dinner at Tabla before they close on December 30th, while Brownie was in Canada wondering why foreign McDonald’s are so much better than the ones here in the US.  Ultraclay was in Philly having tapas at Bar Ferdinand, and as you all know Chris was in Hawaii.

In the rest of the ML Universe… Andrea tried the new Downtown location of FIKA Espresso Bar, Jamie had some tacos from a cart near the campus of Temple in Philly, and I was all about this all you can eat Brazilian pizza rodizio in L.A.

According to Variety via Eater, ABC and a couple of King of the Hill vets are reportedly developing a sitcom about a family run food truck starring stand up comedian Al Madrigal. This immediately got me thinking of how many amazingly hilarious story lines you could come up with centered around a family run food truck! Here are a few of my favorites:

• On their first day of business in their new spot, a crazy lady who runs a rival food truck can jump on top of the bumper of the food truck to keep it from opening. A passerby films it, posts it on You Tube, and the crazy lady gets her own spinoff show.
• Baja Fresh decides they want to buy the family food truck. When the family says no, they steal the idea anyway and run with it.
• The brother decides he doesn’t want to work for the family business anymore, and opens a rival food truck right next door. Posts hilarious trash talking signs telling people how much better his food is.
• Crazy father in law decides he wants to get into the business too. Starts rival food truck across the street, creating gut busting marital problems for him and his wife. Will they have to go to counseling? You’ll have to watch and see! (Kelsey Grammar guest stars..?)
• The family decides they want to sell ice cream on the truck in the summertime. They get a late night visit from the head of an ice cream truck owning “family” who discourages them from branching out into ice cream by making him an offer he can’t refuse.

And let’s not forget about the potential product placement money!

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For those of you keeping score at home, there’s a brand new generic deli called Fresh Day that just opened on west 48th btw. 5+6th right next to Five Guys. They have the expected sandwich counter and salad bar as well as a by the pound buffet. I hate to admit it, but I am intrigued by their Asian and Korean menu which features Udon, Ramuyun (Korean Noodle Soup), Soft Tofu Soups, and bibimbap, among other Korean specialties. Early adopters, let us know how it is in the comments.

Check out the (blurry) menu after the jump.

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Whenever I find myself in the lunchtime doldrums, I hit up the ML Twitter Tracker. Yesterday I saw that Uncle Gussy’s was grilling up both lamb and pork chops and serving them with salad and their mom’s famous lemon potatoes. I enjoyed their lamb chops when they first rolled them out. How could I resist pork chops and lemon potatoes?

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