Midtown Lunch

It looks like Sahara Grill, the old Turkish take out place on 40th & 7th that closed in January, is being replaced by a branch of Maoz Vegetarian– the European falafel chain. Maoz has locations all over the world, including three in NYC, but this is their first in Midtown; and while I haven’t tried it yet, Serious Eats:New York called it the best falafel in Union Square. The positives: you get your choice of some tasty looking toppings (like eggplant, hard boiled egg, avocado, or feta) and they have Belgian fries (the chain started in Amsterdam).  The negatives: another small, individually owned Midtown Lunch place is being replaced by a chain.

I doubt it will supplant Olympic Pita (on 38th btw. 5+6th) as my favorite falafel in the area- but it does set up the inevitable Maoz vs. Crisp falafel chain showdown.  Crisp’s second location is opening just down the street at the end of the week (on 40th btw. 6+B’way).  No word yet on when Maoz will be opening.

My kid with The Carrot from Pump Energy Food (on Madison btw. 39+40th)

• According to Lunch’er Andrew, the “Woody Allen” at Carnegie Deli could easily be split into 8 sandwiches [Wined and Dined]
• There is a free Red Mango coupon in the latest issue of Time Out New York [The Feed Blog]
• The Rickshaw Dumpling Truck is hiring [Eat Me Daily]
• This ranking of NYC cupcakes inexplicably leaves off Crumbs (less surprising: Magnolia ended up mid-pack) [Grub Street]
• You can get a great mushroom and barley soup in the Dean and Deluca in the New York Times Building [BLD Project]
• A Mini guide to lunches in Midtown South [Eat to Blog]
• 9th Ave. is the best place to run into a cast member of Hair [Grub Street]
• Yvo hits up the Downtown branch of the Jiannetto’s Pizza Truck [Feisty Foodie]

If you like to eat, chances are you like to drink (read: a lot of you are freakin’ lushes), so I thought maybe it was time to introduce a happy hour column to the site. 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.

Faces & Names draws its moniker from the many oil paint caricatures of various famous folks that adorn the walls. While amusing enough, beyond the décor what you have is basically your usual Midtown lounge. As you enter there’s a large bar that sits in a square at the center. There’s plenty of bartenders and beer taps on either side offering your usual favorites of Guinness, Yuengling, Bass, Sam Adams, Stella and Sierra Nevada to name a few. The full range of cocktails is available and this is definitely a place where you can order a fancy girl drink and not get a sideways glance.

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Yesterday I made it back to that Halal cart on 53rd & Park that is now serving tacos and burritos (not to be confused with the new El Rey del Sabor cart on 49th btw. Lex+3rd).  The cart has been around for a few months, but they only started serving the Mexican food a month ago.  I tried the $3 chicken burrito with everything (rice, beans, lettuce, tomato, sour cream, jalapenos) as recommended by Lunch’er “Alan”, and was pleasantly surprised with how tasty it was.

The innards are after the jump…

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Spotted this little treasure trove around 11:20 a.m. yesterday on the ledge in front of the famous Halal Cart on the SE corner 53rd & 6th.  It looked like the owner was delivering it, like a Brinks Truck would deliver money to a bank. In fact, I’ll bet if there was a choice between stealing a bag of money, or a crate full of white sauce from the 53rd St. cart (and you could only take one) 9 out of 10 Midtown Lunchers would probably take the sauce. (Especially if you got those two squeeze bottles full of red sauce in the deal…)

Stopped by Golosi (the new pizza/gelato place on Park Ave. btw. 41+42nd) today and, as promised, my pizza purchase came with a free scoop of gelato. (They didn’t skimp either… there is a lot of room left in the cup because they gave me the larger cup so I could take it to go with a lid.)  The Yolato looking signs are still up, so it probably is the same gelato as before (but I can’t say that for sure).  As for the pizza… well, I’m not good as passing judgement on pizza, so I may leave this one up to you guys.

On the plus side, they only charged me $2.71 for my 3 inches (which made no sense since supposedly it’s 99 cents an inch) and the slice they cut me was actually 4 inches! (I measured)  Tasted pretty good, although I can’t decide if it’s going to be good enough to replace any of the goto pizza spots in the area.  The by the inch thing is fun, but I could see it getting pricey once you start getting the slices with toppings.  My slice was almost big enough to be worth it, but they also gave me 4 inches (I only paid for free three.)  There are certain places where you feel like you are getting a great deal, and others where you never quite feel like the price works out in your favor (regardless of whether it does or doesn’t.)  This probably falls into the latter category.

Speaking of toppings, they had the hot dog topped pizza- and it’s crazier looking than you could imagine.  Check it out after the jump…

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You know how you can tell that Winter is officially over? The Mister
Softee Trucks are out in full force. (I hope this doesn’t jinx it.)