Midtown Lunch

Photograph by Food in Mouth

Two commenters took the Shake Shack challenge today, and did it in just over an hour.  Lunch’er Tom went from 1 Rock Plaza to the UWS location in 1 hour and 7 minutes.  Here is his timeline:

1214PM: Leave Desk at 1 Rock Plz
1217PM: Arrive at Uptown track for B train
1224PM: Get on the “1219″ B train
1234PM: Arrive at 81st street
1238PM: Get in line at Shake Shack
1252PM: Order single cheeseburger and fries
1258PM: Receive food
0103PM: Just miss B train and take C train instead
0112PM: Arrive at 50th and 8th Ave and walk back to desk
0121PM: Arrive at desk
0130PM: Regret not getting the double

And Lunch’er Joanna went to the Madison Square Park location from Rock Center, and claims to have traveled, eaten and even chatted!

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Photo by Food in Mouth

One question has always plagued me (and no doubt many other hamburger lovers who work in Midtown):  Can you make it down to Shake Shack and back in 60 minutes from Midtown during lunch.  The short answer is no.  The longer answer is no… definitely no.  Sure there are going to be those few miraculous exceptions, but for the most part- if you want to eat at the Shake Shack in Madison Square Park during a time that would acceptable for lunch’ing, the wait on line is too long to make it down there and back to your desk in Midtown proper.

But what about the new Shake Shack?  That’s right… the Shack has expanded, opening their long awaited Upper West Side branch this past weekend on Columbus Ave. btw. 77+78th Street… a five minute walk from the 79th Street 1 station, and the 81st B/C station.  My hunch is, with fewer large office buildings on the UWS, and the Shake Shack’s new technology (which will surely decrease wait times for your food) this could be do-able for the Midtown Lunch’ers whose offices are close to the 1, B or C lines. 

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Big changes at one of my favorite fast food Chinese places in Midtown… Hing Won (on 48th btw. 5+6th) which is famous for their two different lines, has upended the left side of their operation by making their steam table into a pay by the lb. self serve food bar.  The Americanized Chinese food they served on the left side used to be one of those point-to-what-you-want situations, but now you help yourself- and pay $5.80 a pound for whatever you take. The food itself hasn’t really changed, so you probably end up paying more for less of the exact same food- but you do end up with greater variety, so it’s not all bad.  And $5.80 is still cheaper than most generic deli by the lb. buffets.  So if Chinese food is what you like, and buffet by the lb. is your preferred method, this news should be very exciting to you.

That’s not all though.  The right side, where Hing Won serves up their more “authentic” Chinatown style fare, didn’t escape unscathed. 

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5 vendors battled it out at the Fourth Annual Vendy Awards on Saturday night, and for the second year in a row, a Midtown cart was the crowd favorite, but failed to take home the Vendy Cup. Last year it was Kwik Meal… this year the Biryani Cart. Despite putting forward an amazing effort, and getting the most votes from the largest Vendy Award crowd ever, the Biryani Cart lost to the Soho based Calexico Cart- who were awarded the Vendy Cup by the tastebud-less distinguished judges. Kwik Meal was the judges’ pick for runner up.

I don’t want to say Meru and the Biryani Cart were robbed… but I kind of think the people’s choice award says it all. Don’t get me wrong, I love the Calexico Cart- and if they ever decide to move their burrito cart from 25th & Park into Midtown proper, I will be the first one in line for one of their awesome carne asada burritos. But man did I want the Biryani Cart to take the whole thing… and based on the plate of food they served- they really should have.

Food porn, dessert award and more, after the jump…  Read more »

God I love doughnuts. Photo by nycblondieandbrownie

• A new Krispy Kreme has opened up in Penn Station [Blondie and Brownie]
• Danny checks out the chicken parm from Bella Napoli on 49th [Food in Mouth]
• The pizza from the new Lazzara’s location on 9th Ave., may be better than the original [NYCNosh]
• Has Ying Du raised their prices? [Bionic Bites]
• Another look at the Dessert Truck throwdown with Bobby Flay [Life Vicarious]

The CW11 Blog is falsely (?) reporting that the new location of Crumbs (on Madison btw. 52+53rd) is opening this Monday morning at 8 a.m. and giving away 1000 free cupcakes.  But I was just told by somebody at Crumbs, this is not true and the planned grand opening is next Friday (10/24). Cupcake fans, mark the 24th on your calendar (in pencil of course…)  Overly suspicious cupcake fans?  Feel free to do a walk by on Monday morning and let us know if there’s anything going on!

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 we’ll 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. This week Mamacita checks in with a look at Jimmy’s. They don’t have any food (boooo!) but they’re right near Margon (yea!!!!!).

Lurking behind the neon glow and glitz of Times Square there is a humble slender bar called Jimmy’s Corner. Opened in 1971 by pugilist James Lee Glen to help fund his gym, 39 years later it still stands carrying with it the vestiges of a life immersed in the love of boxing. Coloring, and covering, every wall is photos of boxing giants with one in particular at front and center: a picture of Muhammad Ali with Jimmy at his side (photo after the jump.)

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Serious Eats:New York files the first official report of the new lunch offering from the Wafels and Dinges Truck we posted about yesterday. My favorite part of the post?  The truck thought that the reporters were from Midtown Lunch!  Sorry guys… 27th Street & Park Ave. was too far out of bounds for me today.  But from the looks of this monstrosity, I’ll be hitting that up on the first day the W&D truck is back in Midtown proper! Want to track the truck yourself?  Sign up for their Twitter.

Everybody has a different way of marking the end of summer. For some
it’s temperature, for others maybe it’s leaves. For Midtown Lunch it’s
the appearance of the red hot soup carts. I was alerted to this one on
52nd btw. 6+7th by a lunch’er. Not sure if the full fleet has been
dispatched, but they’re all connected, so I’m guessing there are more.

Feel free to post sightings at other locations in the comments…