Midtown Lunch

If you’re near Pizza by Cer Te (on 56th btw. Lex+Park), but not exactly craving a slice, Hello Pasta (on Lex btw. 54+55th) will soon cover that other carb craving we always have.  Early reports say this location will be the first of ten for this new fast food pasta company, and they’re not shy about wanting to be “the Starbucks or Pinkberry of pasta”. Honestly, I don’t know whether to celebrate or cringe, but you know we’ll be there when they open in June to see if they should bother with the other nine locations!

Midtown is in desperate need of a lot of things, and good pizza is definitely at the top of that list. This is New York, bad pizza is unacceptable, and unfortunately we have a glut of it. I haven’t exactly been hiding my love for the sandwiches at Cer Te (55th btw. 5+6th), so to say I was excited about their “green” take-out pizzeria, Pizza by Cer Te (on 56th btw. Lex+Park) would be an understatement. I’d been studying the menu since it came out, particularly curious about the “bakers” and the “ciagels,” but since I was going for lunch I could only get the answer for one of these creations (ciagels are on the breakfast menu.) Having a low environmental impact is good and all (I’ll admit the plant walls are pretty cool) but we want awesome tasting pizza and we want it now!

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9th Ave. is just out of bounds for Midtown Lunch’ing purposes, but you know we’ll travel an extra avenue or two for the Northern Thai specialty khao soi!  And from the looks of it, the version at Pam Real Thai (on 49th btw. 9+10th) is the real deal!  Read all about it over on Food in Mouth>>

Related:
Talent Thai’s Khao Soi is the Bee’s Knees

It looks like the Go Go Curry Eating Championship isn’t the only competitive eating game in Midtown this month…  Baja Fresh will celebrate Cinco de Mayo by holding a 10 minute burrito eating contest.  The winner will get free Baja Fresh for a month (winner can come in and order one entree and fountain soda, once a day, every day, for one month.)  To qualify for the May 5th final contestants will need to finish a Dos Manos Burrito Enchilada Style in less than 30 minutes at either of the Midtown locations.  Thanks to Lunch’er “Andy” for the tip and the photo.

Photo courtesy of @Remy

Is there any truck in Midtown that gets into more trouble than the Schnitzel & Things truck? There was the fight with Mister Softee, the catching on fire, having their tires slashed, and having the cops called on them by Fox News.  But this could be the craziest.  According to Business Insider (via Grub Street), they were forced to leave their spot on 54th and Lex after somebody from the Citigroup building called the cops and claimed they were a terrorist threat.  Sure, the aftermath of a schnitzel burger could be considered a dirty bomb of sorts- but terrorist threat?  That’s a little extreme, don’t you think?

Even though they packed up and left on Friday (it was the end of lunch service anyway), the truck doesn’t seem too deterred.  According to this weeks schedule they’ll be back on 54th and Lex again this Friday.

Photo courtesy of the Chubby Chinese Girl

• How to turn street meat into fried rice [Chubby Chinese Girl]
• The city is considering turning 34th St. into another pedestrian plaza [NYTimes]
• Another look at the Mia Dona meatball cart [Phude-NYC]
• The fries are the best part of the Frites N Meats Truck [Tasty Eating]
• Kyochon sucks (if you order a sandwich and a salad instead of the actual fried chicken!) [Puff List]
• Sultan’s delight is a good choice at Akdeniz [NYC Foodie]
• Nick Solares doesn’t recommend Burger Heaven [AHT]
• Want to take your parents on a 24 hour food tour of NYC? Midtown is a good place to start [Wined and Dined]

If you like to eat, chances are you like to drink (read: a lot of you are freakin’ lushes), so every Friday afternoon 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.

Two exciting news items came through the wire from Hell’s Kitchen best dive bar, Rudy’s. First was “There’s new duct tape on the booths!” Sweet! The old tape was getting mighty gummy. Then, the true shocker, “We’re serving food!” Rudy’s bar? Serving something other then greasy wieners?

Let me give you a moment to let that percolate in your mind… Think historic old watering hole… Seats mummified in red duct tape… The fat of a thousand free hotdogs seasoning the rollers of a 7-11 style flat grill… A bar with the thick patina of sweat, tears and stale beers…. Floors that have shuffled in the best of NYC sidewalk effluvia and taint… Now consider a barman cooking you some grub behind this bar, tantalizing isn’t it? Well, thankfully that’s not what you should expect. No cooking is involved here, instead Rudy’s now brings in a pocket-change meal that ideally quells the momentous wrath of a prodigious binge: $1 Fried chicken and a $2.50 bowl of chili with cheese. It’s not healthy but lord knows you’ll need it after a few $7 pitchers of Rudy’s blonde ale.

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