Check it out: Someone who sat at the bar at Vertuccio’s (the new pizza place that opened up next to Urban Rustic) says that their pizza is the best they’ve ever had.
Get This!
Today Matt, Eric and Andy ordered pick-up from Ella (I brought a sandwich and an apple). Matt got the lunch special with the asparagus side, which means you get just two pieces of asparagus needlessly packaged separately. Look at how sad this is.
Brace yourselves, Lunch Options is Back!
Ella Cafe
Bedford Ave Between N7 & N8
I’ve been feeling sick all week (it’s not H1N1 okay) and I really wanted some soup. Ella Cafe has daily soup specials and a great lunch deal. You can get a soup, half sandwich/wrap and one side for $8.95 (swap the soup for a side for $1 more). The soups, sandwiches and sides are all generally delicious. Its great if you just want to taste a sandwich and not eat a huge nap-educing thing. Their zucchini side (seen about with butternut squash soup and salmon wrap) is pretty amazing— don’t walk away without trying that. The tables in there don’t let you cross your legs.
— Renda
Lunch Options Special Edition: Vermont
Hong’s Chinese Dumpling cart
Corner of Church and Cherry, Burlington VT
Burlington, Vermont, is the smallest biggest city, by which I mean all the cities for which one can say “This is the biggest city in the state!” One can say that about Burlington, ideally to someone visiting from NY or TX or RI or SD or literally any of the 49 states in the union outside of VT, but Burlington’s city status is really just a technicality.
At one point in the recent past, Burlington planners decided to carve a walking plaza across the center of town, and called it the Church Street Marketplace. The plaza functions as an outdoor mall, for better or for worse — plenty of space to sit and watch the day go by, tip the buskers, avoid the young panhandlers, and shop.
There’s also a food court, of sorts, given that half the storefronts are restaurants and cafés, but my favorite spot to eat is an occasionally-available dumpling cart called Hong’s Chinese Dumplings. The cart’s manned by a woman I can only assume is Hong, since she’s the only person I ever see behind it. She rolls out the dough, packs in the stuffing, takes the money, counts the change, asks if I like the look of her menu (yes!), talks to me about the sauces, etc. A one-woman-operation, Hong’s.
Ohhh the dumplings themselves, they’re pretty good. Uneven quality. Sometimes a dumpling has a perfectly crisped dough and robust interiors, while the next one on my plate has too soft a texture, or the crimping isn’t complete and the stuffing leaks out, and so forth. But if you’re in the mood for greasy street food, delicious.
Dumplings served:
Chicken/pork (best)
Veggie (good)
Crab/cream cheese (I don’t like this, I regret eating it now)
Chicken/cheese (pretty good if you like a bit of Mexican in your Chinese)
Hong serves other dishes as well, including egg rolls, sesame noodles, and root beer. But I’ve never tried them.
—Andy
New York’s First Restaurant
One of my favorite blogs, Ephemeral New York, has a great post today about New York’s first restaurant, Delmonico’s, which opened in 1837. Did you know that back then the avocado was known as the alligator pear? Check it out.
There’s more lunches to blog, I swear. I also have a special edition lunch option on location in North Carolina that I’m going to blog about later this week.
— Renda
Summer Restaurant Week
The “week” yesterday and runs until July 31st (excluding Saturdays). Three course lunches are $24.07; dinners are $35. Here’s the restaurant list. Make your reservations now.
Gray’s Papaya
Broadway and 72nd Street
This afternoon brought some of us to the Upper West Side, so we took the opportunity to sample Gray’s Papaya’s classic Recession Special. Unlike the surrounding environs, Gray’s Papaya seems almost frozen in time: $4.45 including tax bought us two juicy all-beef dogs with sauerkraut and spicy brown mustard, as well as 14oz of tasty papaya goodness.
The hot dogs were perfect. I eat frankfurters infrequently, but these were very well made. Also, I recall during past experiences that the Papaya drink was overly sweet, but this is not the case at all. Halfway between juice and milkshake, it was incredibly refreshing. It’s an institution for a reason, I suppose.
From the lunch counter, perfect for people-watching, we observed the triangle at 72nd and Broadway. This micro-park is officially called Sherman Square, but is also referred to as “Needle Park” in the 1971 classic Al Pacino drug-film (screenplay by Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne). The new development catty-corner from Gray’s Papaya now houses an Urban Outfitters.
—Holly
Sandwiches at Relish
Counter at Relish
Yellowfin Tuna Sandwich
Steak Sandwich
Outside of Relish
Relish on Wyth
North 3rd Street
I had the pleasure of lunching at Relish today. Their food is gourmet diner fare with a complimentary diner atmosphere. The restaurant is actually a modified diner, they added an extra room on back (not very charming) and an extra big garden (very charming). Booths are comfy and the counter is nice, especially if your eating solo. If you go to Relish you better be hungry ‘cause the portions are huge & filling, the coffee cups are bottomless and the sweet potato fries are to good to pass up.
Steak Sandwich: This isn’t like most steak sandwiches where you get thin sliced whimpy steak on a bun. This thing is a one big slab of half inch thick fatty steak on bread. It is delicious and incredibly filling.
Yellowfin Tuna Sandich: Tuna tartar on a sandwich? Undoubtably one of Williamsburg’s finest sandwich experiences. I’d order either one again but the Tuna sandwich is really not to be missed. Follow it up with an old-timey milkshake if you really want a treat.
— Eric
DIY Lunch Options: Summer Salad
Wholey inspired by yesterday’s lunch meeting at Roebling Tea Room, today I prepared my own lunch in our shiny new/old kitchen. Ingredients for this lunch were procured via a highly productive trip to Topps supermarket (N. 6th between Berry & Wythe), which features a large, refrigerated room stocked with cheese, yogurt, beer and even an olive bar.
Today’s lunch salad featured radishes in honor of Renda’s lunch yesterday. Below, I will detail the salad ingredients as well as what motivated me to include them:
- Earthbound farms brand Herb Salad (I learned of this delicacy during a housewarming party I threw 2 years ago, upon returning to NY)
- Sheeps milk feta, dried cranberries, walnuts (inspired by my salad at Roebling Tea Room yesterday)
- cucumber, cherry tomatoes (they taste good and add nutritional content)
- pea shoots (Jeff Lai’s garden)
- Lemon Tarragon Vinaigrette (when I used to make a lot of salads I found lemon juice was the best dressing)
Verdict: healthy, crunchy, delicious.
—Holly
Robeling Tea Room
Metropolatian and Robeling
For lunch I ate a bunch of totally raw radishes with butter and sea salt, with some bread on the side ($7). The menu listed it as ‘Breakfast Radishes’ and I ordered because I was curious to find out what that is. I still don’t know what that is and I also don’t think that the Tea Room does either. If you want a good afternoon snack, make some of this for yourself at home. If you’re hungry for lunch, at at the tea room, you should probably order something else. Zack got this delicious pile of food, listed on the menu as a ham sandwich:
— Renda
