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.  Three weeks we profiled “Blondie” half of the duo that runs the blog http://blondieandbrownie.blogspot.com.  Today, Alex (aka “Brownie”) gets her moment in the sun… 

Name: Brownie

Age: Mid-Twenties

Occupation: Publishing (and 1/2 of the blogging team “Blondie and Brownie“)

Where in Midtown do you Work?: Rock Center Area

Favorite Kind of Food: Cupcakes, peanut butter, cheese, dark chocolate, New Haven pizza, Ethiopian, Korean, Greek, and Indian.

Least Favorite Kind of Food: Cottage Cheese. Yuck.

Favorite Place(s) to Eat Lunch in Midtown: Kwik Meal’s lamb pita (45th & 6th), grilled cheese with gruyere and caramelized onion from ‘wichcraft, chicken pita platter from the cart on 53rd and 6th, red lentil soup from Dervish Turkish (47th btw. 6+7th), small combo with moudardara and mousakka from Bread and Olive (45th btw. 5+6th), spicy pork and the kimchi pancakes from Woorijip (32nd btw. B’way+5th), and plain fro-yo from Forty Carrots (yes, I consider fro-yo lunch).

“Go-To” Lunch Place You and Your Coworkers Eat at Too Often? Ever since I discovered Midtown Lunch, I’ve ditched the old go-to spots. Just say no to overpriced soups at Hale and Hearty. I still shudder when my co-workers order in from Pronto Pizza. Not my kind of pie.

Place you discovered thanks to Midtown Lunch? I will always be grateful to ML for breaking the news that the cart on the SE corner of 53rd and 6th is the same as the night cart on the SW corner of 53rd and 6th. Cut my wait time in the evening and brought their chicken pita into my lunching world. Thanks, Zach!

If you could work anywhere (just because of the lunch) where would it be and why? I went to school in the village and I miss some of the cheap eats there. And Downtown lunch correspondent, Daniel Krieger is making me a bit jealous. I’d work in Chinatown solely for access to cheap and authentic bahn mi and roast pork buns.

Is there anything you’d like to ask the Midtown Lunch readers? I love cupcakes. I’ve tried Cucina, I’ve tried the ones from Dean and Deluca, from Crumbs, Zaros, and most recenlty the Treats Truck. Am I missing any notable Midtown cupcakes?

Cupcake recs in the comments please…

And as always, if you want to be the next Profiled: Midtown Lunch’er, or you’d like to nominate somebody in your office, email me at zach@midtownlunch.com

If you were hoping to cross the Avenue of the Americas for lunch purposes today, you may be very disappointed.  The MLB All Star Parade will be shutting down 6th Avenue from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. today, from 40th Street all the way up to 58th Street, and while there will be some cross streets open to pedestrians along the route, I think it’s safe to say you should pretty much steer clear of 6th Avenue during lunch;  unless of course you have an interest in watching grown men in baseball uniforms walk down the street for absolutely no reason (they didn’t even win nothing,) in which case you must be very excited.

The West Tandoori Club (on 37th btw. 7+8th), which closed for renovations over a month ago, has re-opened as Touch of India.  Gone is the dingy atmosphere, and take out counter in the back- replaced with a nice (but by no means well designed) atmosphere that is typical of these kinds of Midtown restaurants.  Thankfully they still offer the all you can eat buffet, and shockingly it’s still under $10 (making it one of the very few left in Midtown.)

Interior buffet shots, after the jump…  Read more »

I don’t know what Bastille Day is, but I know it’s French- so why not use it as an excuse to eat the most French Midtown Lunch there is.  It’s been almost 2 years since I wrote about the Cyber Cafe (on 49th btw. 7+8th), an internet cafe that was home to two of the strangest lunches in Midtown: a satellite version of Tuck Shop (the Lower East Side Aussie Meat Pie place) and Madeleine “The Crepe Lady”, a French woman who made authentic Breton style crepes on Wednesday through Sunday.  Tuck Shop closed up awhile ago (although the Cafe may still sell their pies, I’m not sure) but Madeleine is still there 5 days a week (Wed-Sun) serving up the best crepes in Midtown.  Unfortunately she’s not there on Mondays- but it’s still worth posting about considering the holiday.  She makes savory crepes and sweet crepes and if you haven’t checked it out, you’re missing out on one of the hidden gems of Midtown Lunch’ing.

Crepe porn, after the jump…  Read more »

 
Orange Chiffon Cake from the Treats Truck. Posted by nycblondieandbrownie

• Treats Truck makes the New York Times, along with the rest of the dessert slinging mobile vehicles in the city [NYT]
• The Treats Truck is having a treat naming contest where you can win a $25 gift certificate [Treats Truck]
• Organge Chiffon Cake and Cupakes are the latest addition to the Treats Truck menu [Blondie & Brownie]
• Speaking of cupcakes, check out this video review of just out of bounds bakery Daiuto’s on 8th Ave. and 31st [Cupcake Takes the Cake]
• The Osteria del Circo gelato cart on 55th St. is M.I.A. [Word of Mouth]
• If you want expensive Italian food delivered, Mia Dona is now delivering throughout Midtown [Strong Buzz]
• The city plans on reducing Broadway from 4 lanes to 2 between 42nd St. and Herald Square to create more public space [NYT]
• Time Out New York puts out their annual Cheap Eats issue, and almost completely ignores Midtown [TONY]

Oftentimes people will get angry and upset, and for some reason choose to email me to complain it.  The good ones, I put up in a post called “Airing of Grievances.”  Usually the emails will complain about how a Lunch’er was wronged by some restaurant in Midtown- but my favorite emails are the ones that come from people who are too stupid to realize that they are not emailing the restaurant directly.  This email arrived in the ole inbox yesterday.  It’s not a complaint, but I still thought it’s worth posting:

 

From: Y. Rodriguez
To: zach@midtownlunch.com
Date: Tue, Jul 8, 2008 at 12:49 PM
Subject: Past Due Balance Sugo Restaurant

Your account has a past due balance, please call me at [removed] ext 18.

Thank you for your business

Ms. Y. Rodriguez
Accounting Department
[Removed]

Really? Seriously? Are there actually people out there that know so little about using the interwebs that they would mistaken this page for a restaurant website? Well since you were kind enough to email, I will be kind enough to reply. (It’s the nice thing to do, right?)

Dear Ms. Rodriguez,

Sugo! e Basilico has been closed since April. I’m sure they appreciated all the cleaning and fire prevention services your company provided, but I’m guessing you are probably not going to get paid.

Sincerely,
Zach “I have nothing to do with Sugo! e Basilico beyond stuffing my face with their Italian burritos and writing about it on my stupid blog” Brooks

Well, that solves that problem. If you actually have something you’d like to complain about to Midtown Lunch (and not the restaurants themselves) feel free to send your emails to zach@midtownlunch.com