Midtown Lunch

Every Tuesday I turn over the site to a different Midtown Lunch’er for his or her recommendations for the best lunch in Midtown. This week, I’m pretty excited to welcome Sisha Ortuzar, the cofounder of ‘wichcraft, which has many Midtown locations. Whether or not you love or hate ‘wichcraft, Sisha is an amazing chef who has cooked in some of ML’s favorite cities- including Chile, New Orleans, and of course NYC (at Grammercy Tavern). And he co-wrote the brand new ‘wichcraft book (along with Tom Collichio). We actually have 5 copies to give away at the bottom of the profile.

Name: Sisha

Age: 36

Occupation: Restaurant owner, so it depends on the day (sometimes chef, sometimes designer, sometimes architect, sometimes marketer, sometimes dishwasher, etc.)

Where in Midtown do you Work?: ‘wichcraft (several locations in Manhattan, a lot of them in Midtown)

Favorite Kind of Food: I like almost everything; it really depends on the day. The food that I find most interesting tends to be spicy (Szechuanese, Korean, Indian) but I also like simple and straight forward food. One of my favorite things to eat is toast with butter.

Least Favorite Kind of Food: Puerto Rican food. It just seems very bland and one-note to me.

Favorite Place(s) to Eat Lunch in Midtown: Bar Zippeto (on 6th btw. 56+57th) for espresso. The halal meat cart on 6th Ave. and 49th for meat on a stick. A cheeseburger from the Burger Joint at the Parker Meridien (on 56th btw. 6+7th), and Yushi (on 47th btw. Park+Lex) for a healthy snack.

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Certe’s First Two Sandwich Challenge Entries

So, I’ll admit, it’s taken me awhile to go and check out “The Primavera”, Certe’s new entry to the Midtown Lunch Sandwich Challenge. Part of it is because it’s their *third* entry (they have done one every month since we started), but part of it had to do with the fact that it was a vegetarian entry. Don’t get me wrong, it sounded good and all (crispy eggplant, zucchini and yellow squash with basil ricotta, fresh mozzarella on a homemade garlic herb focaccia), but not blow-me-away good. Not so-good-I-felt-the-need-to-rush-over-there and stuff my fat face good (which presumably would get fatter and fatter just by looking at the sandwich.)

Yesterday, I finally found time to trek over to Certe (on 55th btw. 5+6th) and try the sandwich. And boy am I glad I did.

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Photo courtesy of chris6sigma

Remember Obika, the Italian Mozzarella bar that opened in the atrium on Madison & 56th last year? Their sandwiches were pretty good, but a little small for the price- and I haven’t really thought about going back since the original +/- they got in November. That is, until I saw these photos that chris6sigma posted to the Midtown Lunch Flickr Photo Pool. Damn, that mozzarella/proscuitto sandwich looks good.

But the eye grabber (and the thing that may have me drop everything to return immediately) is after the jump…

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The rumor I reported last week has now been confirmed via Twitter, and re-confirmed on their website:  The “Steak and Egg” burger has been restored to the menu at all Goodburger locations starting today.  When I originally launched the Midtown Lunch Sandwich Challenge back in January, I told restaurants they could pretty much do whatever they wanted… but I did have a few special requests.  First was that somebody do a grease truck sandwich, and second was that Goodburger bring back their formerly breakfast only “Steak & Egg” burger, featuring a burger topped with home fries and a fried egg.  See, Goodburger used to serve breakfast- but when they stopped doing that, the “Steak & Egg” went away.

Nobody has answered the call for a grease truck sandwich- but Goodburger has finally listened to the pleading from the Midtown Lunchers, and brought back the “Steak & Egg”!  Do you want to see it? (Of course you do…)

Steak and egg porn is after the jump…

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I don’t know the exact history of Six-0 Catering on 39th btw. 5+6th, but it has been around for as long as I can recall.  In fact, I still remember the first time I walked by the place, and was intrigued by its sign touting Mexican food- from an American looking catering place.  It was a complete dump, and the day I walked in was practically empty- save for the one guy behind the counter who told me “we have no burritos today.”  Since then, Six-0 has undergone a massive transformation (both physically and existentially.)  Before they seemed like catering company, that happened to serve lunch food if you hit them on the right day.  Now, under their new name Madeline’s, they seem like a Midtown lunch place that also happens to do catering.  And I was kind of surprised at how good and cheap all the food was.

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Based on this write up by James over at the blog The Eaten Path, the Green Leaf Deli (on Park Ave. btw. 34+35th) sounds like your typical, generic Midtown deli, save for one thing: their amazing home made pepper sauce.  “The steam tray lunch options at Green Leaf, a mostly mediocre offering of curries and stews over rice, are nowhere near the pepper sauce in terms of quality. When you’re faced with a condiment this magnetic, though, the food it’s on can quickly become irrelevant.”  James admits that you can find hot sauce this powerful (citing the red stuff at the cart on 53rd & 6th) but “rarely this sophisticated.” [The Eaten Path]