4:00pm chocolate chip cookies

When I eat a Pickle Petunia cookie, I taste loving homemade-ness in every bite. This cookie could have been baked by the lady across the street, who came over one lazy afternoon with a plate full of them, and we sat there and polished off the entire plate while watching kids romp through the sprinklers.
McNally Jackson Cafe, 52 Prince St, NY, NY 10012 (btwn Lafayette and Mulberry)

Tacombi

Ah finally, 2 hours later my hands have finally stopped wafting the odor of pescado tacos. But that's part of the charm of eating tacos, such a visceral experience. And if you throw in some Bushwick garage style in the middle of Nolita, the whole meal becomes a rather transporting experience. The only thing missing is some loud Batanga Radio, for some reason the lofty ceilings and bare concrete floors really dampen the sound. The tacos are not altogether noteworthy, but Tacombi's atmosphere is worth going back for.
Tacombi, 267 Elizabeth St, NY, NY 10012 (below Houston)

4:00pm plum tartin

Serious Eats recently declared Ceci Cela's croissants the BEST. Bold statement but I'm inclined to agree. It could be I'm biased, they are, after all, my neighborhood bakery and I stop by almost every day for a delicious croissant. But as I told our office mates: Out of 10 croissants, on average, I might have 1 or 2 meh ones, 5-7 pretty good ones and 2-3 really fantastic ones. That's pretty good odds. I'm a fan.
And speaking of fans, please look at this awesome photo sent to us by newly reconnected reader. It made us laugh and laugh. Awesome.
Ceci Cela Patisserie, 55 Spring St, NY, NY 10012 (btwn Lafayette and Mulberry)

Grandaisy

Ah dear friends, it may seem like we are little lazies over here, but actually it's the opposite. We're cranking away on a proposal due tomorrow and haven't had the compunction to post punctually. Rest assured, we continue to eat bravely and with gusto!
Grandaisy Bakery, 73 Sullivan St, NY, NY 10012 (btwn Broome and Spring)

Parisi Bakery

Once the weather turns cold, we rarely get a rarely ever go to Parisi; the lines tend to be out the door and not friendly to uncomfortable climates. However, being that it's practically t-shirt weather here, we decided to take advantage of it. Their monstrous sandwiches are perfect for sharing and never disappointing.
Parisi Bakery, 198 Mott St, NY NY 10012 (btwn Spring & Broome)

4:00pm Halloween cookies

We certainly do not mean to start any holiday themed week of dessert blogging but these cookies at Oro were too cute to resist. Sadly they crumbled and cracked, carelessly tossed in a handbag.
Oro Bakery, 375 Broome St, NY, NY 10013 (btwn Mulberry & Mott)

Osteria Morini, with Hong

I'm not sure we really needed another fancy-ish lunch place on our list, but Michael White's Morini is a pretty welcome addition to the 'hood. Perfectly cooked pastas with hearty, yet not heavy, sauces on charming country chinaware and a completely revamped space, it's almost impossible to recall what used to be here. And that's a really, really good thing. I think Morini is going to do just fine - dinners are packed, lunches busy enough and the breakfasts sound too die for.
Osteria Morini, 218 Lafayette St, NY, NY 10012 (below Spring)

4:00pm Halloween brownies

Um so. Patrick sent an email to the office this morning that said "Waiting for you on the dining room table". I run over right away and sure enough there is tray full of these awesome googly eyed, hairy brownie monsters. Love! Thank you Kristina for making them and thank you Patrick for transporting them.

Also, on an unrelated note, we hit our 1000th FB fan today and are looking for him to send us his mailing address so we can properly acknowledge this momentous moment. Funny fun.

NY Dosa

The NY Dosa cart on the south side of Washington Square Cart has been on our lunch list since practically forever, way before Thiru Kumar deservedly won a Vendy Award. For some reason though, it feels just this side of too far. But the strange warm weather had us in the mood for a healthy stroll and so we headed north to the long awaited dosa cart. We were a little nervous on the walk up, after all it had been on our covet list for so long, what if it were just not destined to be? What if it, shudder of horror, wasn't good?? But no such disappointments awaited us. Instead we sat in the park and each wolfed down a seriously delicious dosa. Seriously delicious.
NY Dosas aka Dosa Man, south side Washington Square Park near Sullivan, NY, NY 10012

4:00pm plum tartelette

Financier Patisserie never disappoints us. Ever. They are a prime example of great bang for buck. For instance this plum tartelette is not the most amazing plum tartelette we've ever had, but it's pretty damn good. But throw in the cost factor ($3.75) and you got yourself a really worthy piece of dessert.
Financier Patisserie, 62 Stone St, NY, NY 10004 (near Hanover Square)

Adrienne's Pizza Bar, with Art

M. and I always love poking around new places, but it's even better when it's work that takes us around the city. Today we were in familiar grounds downtown and could not resist pizza at Adrienne's with Art, for as M. says, who doesn't love pizza? I mean really. The topping of choice seems to be pepperoni, it was practically on every other pizza in the super bustling place. I love how there is only one size of pizza, regardless of whether you are 2 people or 4.
Adrienne's Pizza Bar, 54 Stone Street (near Hanover Square)

4:00pm wheat flour and dark chocolate chips

The only reason we're having Tate's wheat flour and dark chocolate chip cookies for a dessert today is because I got to the deli this morning for a ham and egg breakfast sandwich, only to realize I had no cash, having spent it all last night on wheat beer and taxis. It's a good thing we're such Tate's fans, it's no hardship to have them for afternoon snack.

Bread, with Art

We often end up ordering from Bread when Art is in town for one of our partner meetings. It's such a perfectly balanced lunch special - a cup of soup, a little salad, a piece of bread and half a tasty sandwich. It's no wonder we prefer Bread in the comfort of our office where we can enjoy lunch in peace and quiet instead of the hustle bustle of the restaurant itself.
Bread, 20 Spring St, NY, NY 10012 (btwn Elizabeth & Mott)

4:00pm coffee cake

Of course no Torrisi lunch is complete without the moist, intensely delicious coffee cake that Torrisi succeeds at all too well.
Torrisi Italian Specialties, 250 Mulberry St, NY, NY 10012 (below Prince)

Torrisi

The great thing about being part of a larger office is when we're too swamped to get out, we quickly tack on a request to their daily lunch order and it magically appears on the kitchen table. And then in addition to having not to think about what's for lunch, we benefit from the pleasure of their company. The prime rib sandwich from Torrisi is a daily special, it's not bad, not their greatest creation, but not bad.
Torrisi Italian Specialties, 250 Mulberry St, NY, NY 10012 (below Prince)

4:00pm vanilla cupcake, chocolate frosting

Cupcakes have been in the vogue for several years now, new bakeshops are still popping up everywhere we look. The latest to arrive in the neighborhood is the Little Cupcake Bakeshop at Prince and Mott. We miss the old quirky and moody Chibi. The bakeshop is bright whites, happy perky cupcake colors and perpetually crowded since it's opening. The vanilla and chocolate follows in the American tradition of overly sweet cake and frosting, not really our style, but judging by the popularity of the space, a minority opinion.
Little Cupcake Bakeshop, 30 Prince St, NY, NY 10012 (at Mott)

Pho Bang, with Matt

We've been meeting new lunch buddies in the neighborhood, mostly other people who like to eat and do it often. I've always thought food was a good launching point for new conversations. Today we met Matt at Pho Bang for a very unsatisfactory pork chop over rice and decent banh cuon (rice crepe), or as decent as is possible 8,183 miles from its point of origin. I was totally craving broken rice though so I'm not entirely sorry I dragged everyone out for a mediocre meal. We did promise Matt that it wasn't always so unfulfilling.
Pho Bang, 157 Mott St, NY, NY 10013 (btwn Grand and Broome)

4:00pm pumpkin bread

This is a highly irregular occurrence, but I completely forgot to post dessert yesterday! And for no real reason but absentmindedness. Samara made this delicious pumpkin bread for office potluck yesterday, so delicious that the 2 loaves she brought in rapidly disappeared until there is only one last small slice. And out of politeness it's likely to remain there for the rest of the day.

Vietnamese egg noodle soup

It's true that in our former lives before the advent of the world wide web and food blogging, we were caterers for small events so preparing a complex meal for a dozen of our office mates is no sweat. It's just a matter of organization. Well there is some labor, mostly in lugging 13 containers of tupperware full of the myriad ingredients required for any Vietnamese noodle soup, but other than that no problem. After that it's a straightforward matter of compiling each bowl: egg noodles, roast pork, shrimp, bean sprouts, scallions, cilantro and a sprinkling of crispy shallots. There's no particular name for this soup that I know of, it's sort of a hybrid hu tieu and any standard mi noodle soup.

4:00pm graham crackers

We need a new category of food description. We're going to start labeling things "from Planet Crack", meaning foods we eat that are as addictive as crack. Like these graham crackers from Peels. Crack crackers they should be called.
Peels, 325 Bowery, NY, NY 10003 (at 2nd St)

Hung Ry, with Danny and Shawn

Not a one of us can resist the allure of hand pulled noodles, especially when newly opened Hung Ry has the added bonus of not having to fight crowded Chinatown sidewalks to get there. The space is much like the food, refined moments juxtaposed with raw earthiness. We all loved the noodles, but despite being native born chopstick holders, found them a bit difficult to unearth from below the toppings. The toppings, on the other hand, were sublimely soft and full of flavor. None of us would have minded a bit more broth in our bowls. Still, it's nice to have a noodle soup place nearby and I suspect they will do well for that.
Hung Ry, 55 Bond St, NY, NY 10012 (near Bowery)

4:00pm chocolate eclair

Wow. If we were chocolate lovers, and we're not, we would have one of these FPB chocolate eclairs every single day. Or perhaps that statement would be stronger if I said, we're not chocolate lovers and yet we could have one of these FPB eclairs every day.
FPB Francois Payard Bakery, 116 W. Houston St, NY, NY 10012 (btwn Sullivan and Thompson)

FPB, aka Francoise Payard Bakery

It feels weird to have a Payard downtown, particularly since the old Patisserie was such a bastion of Upper East Side lunching. But everything about FPB, including its logo and look, has an appropriate "downtown" feel, albeit a very stylish one. The sandwich and salad we had were just fine and probably more than fine if you wanted a meal on the go. We sat in the little cafe feeling very shabby chic.
FPB Francois Payard Bakery, 116 W. Houston St, NY, NY 10012

4:00pm peach tart

As pretty as this peach tart looks, it was a bit of a dud. The texture was a bit too pasty and the flavors just melded together into one mushy bite. Sad us.
The Adore, 17 E. 13th St, NY, NY 10003 (btwn University Place and 5th Ave)

Eataly, with Mark

It's good Mark had been to Eataly just last week because he was completely understanding as we wandered through the space, dazed and confused. There is very little that is naturally intuitive about the space. The seating areas are for restaurant style eating but you have to find a hostess related to a particular food type to seat you. The rest of the space is like an enormous, disorganized train station with every conceivable type of Italian foodstuff, including counters for ordering sandwiches that can then only be eaten at standing counters or taken to go. None of this mattered after the first bite of the most amazing porcini rubbed prime rib sandwich from Rosticceria. It was large, not cheap and if my stomach was not already busting to its seams, I would have finished those last 3 bites too.
Eataly, 200 Fifth Ave, NY, NY 10010 (at 23rd St and Broadway)

4:00pm cookies

If you've ever wondered how and why we keep an online lunch journal that we religiously update twice a day, aka the LUNCH blog, thanks to the fine folks at Harvest, you can now watch a 5 minute video of M. and I talking about LUNCH, how we do it, why we do it and why you should too.
Hampton Chutney, 68 Prince St, NY, NY 10012 (btwn Crosby and Lafayette)

Caffe Falai

A bit of an indulgent lunch this fine Tuesday at Caffe Falai. Indulgent on all fronts, starting with the slow, languid service from the verrry Italian waiters to the 2-course lunch prix fixe and ending with a tab that could have fed 4 in Chinatown. But then again we wouldn't have enjoyed such a lovely frisee salad, one of the nicest I've had in awhile. Not to mention my favorite, perfectly proportioned tortellini bolognese.
Caffe Falai, 265 Lafayette St, NY, NY 10012 (below Prince)

4:00pm yummy nut cupcake

We had some grand plans this morning but were thwarted by over-eager museum goers awake and in line far earlier than us. We consoled ourselves with coffee and a cupcake from the nice lady at the Cake & Shake truck. The yummy nut is sweet and intense with a back kick of banana. Consume without coffee at your own risk.
Cake & Shake, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY, NY 10028

Old Town w/ fellow Quarantiners

Today was a quasi-reunion lunch for a handful of ex-quarantiners.  It was pointed out to us that a year has quickly passed since the first night we all met - not exactly a happy thought.  Luckily it made us all happy to be in one another's company, enjoying a lazy Friday afternoon lunch, catching up on new news and gossiping about some old ones. 
Old Town Bar & Restaurant, 45 East 18th St, NY, NY 10003 (btwn Park Ave South and Broadway)

4:00pm snickerdoodle

We're fans of Oro's snickerdoodles, they're compact and tasty, making for a perfect afternoon munchie. We're also fans of this perfect, sunny weather, especially after I had already mentally prepared myself for a week of showers.
Oro Bakery, 375 Broome St, NY, NY 10013 (btwn Mulberry & Mott)

Lafayette Espresso Bar

As I suspected, having an espresso bar and snack shop downstairs would come in handy one day. And today it did when we were split apart in the morning for meetings far and near and were not able to reconvene until late in the afternoon. Grabbing lunch on the go, as you know, is not a habit we like to indulge in, but when it is, the Lafayette Espresso Bar is there for us.
Lafayette Espresso Bar & Marketplace, 189 Lafayette St, NY, NY 10013 (below Broome)

4:00pm coffee cake

We would like to thank the fine folks at Torrisi for baking such deliciously moist coffee cake and for making it so incredibly photogenic. If you'd like to purchase this beautifully shot photo of your coffee cake for your own promotional use, please contact us at lunch at front studio dot com.
Torrisi, 250 Mulberry St, NY, NY 10012 (below Prince)

Lahore Deli

This may look a big pile of brown mush, and most everything from Lahore generally does look the same, but it's a reliably good pile of brown mush. Today we combined chicken masala with cauliflower something or another and got 2 heaping bowls of lunch for the price of 1.
Lahore Deli, 132 Crosby St, NY, NY 10012 (below Houston)

4:00pm cookies

A pupu platter of cookies from Birdbath.
Birdbath, 160 Prince St, NY, NY 10012 (btwn Thompson and West Broadway)

Hide-Chan Ramen

Ramen is one of those perfect we-will-travel-for-lunch meals. Quick to the point of instantaneous and insanely satisfying, a hot piping bowl of ramen brings a contented smile to my face almost every time. After reading Serious Eat's Best Ramen in New York City post, Hide-Chan got stuck in our minds. A subway ride later, we grabbed two counter seats and dug into a some Hakata style ramen. The traditional bowl consists of a heaping mound of scallions, wood ear mushrooms and two adorably soft pieces of fatty pork. I quite loved the thin noodles and lighter flavored broth. M. thought it was good. (translation: better than some others and quite possibly where she would go if she had a craving for ramen but pork flavored broths aren't her all time favorite so maybe she's pre-biased anyway).
Hide-Chan Ramen, 248 E. 52nd St, 2nd Fl, NY, NY 10022 (near Second Ave)

4:00pm lime cornmeal cookie

M. thinks this lime cornmeal "cookie" tastes more like a cornmeal muffin but I am inclined to think it's neither here nor there. Regardless of how we would describe it in words, we both agree it was a nice break from a more traditional cookie.
Amy's bread @ Chelsea Market, 75 9th Ave, NY, NY 10011 (btwn 15 & 16)

Nyonya

We couldn't bring ourselves to walk very far today, the damp, chilly air is seeping right into my bones. We actually thought we could make it as far as the Bowery for some congee but ended up at Nyonya instead. The thought of typical Chinatown bright fluorescent lighting was too intimidating and we sighed in relief at the dim lighting and dark wood panels at Nyonya. It was a natural gravitation towards piping hot chicken soups, a clay pot of pearl noodles and the chef's special shredded chicken. We left feeling a little more restored to life.
Nyonya, 199 Grand St, NY, NY 10013 (btwn Mulberry and Mott)

4:00pm chocolates

Thank you Patrick for not only purchasing Bespoke Chocolates for a Friday afternoon treat, but for making sure each and every one of us would have a chocolate of one's own so as not to incite chocolate wars in the office.
Bespoke Chocolates, 6 Extra Place, NY, NY 10003 (above 1st St)

Jup She, with John

Jup She has changed their lunch menu, I can't quite parse what it means although it does look like you can order a complete meal - entree, rice and stew for $12 or so. Not cheap, but I don't think there would be any chance of leaving feeling hungry. John and I had the new hot stone bibimbap options, which look smaller, have less ingredients and no raw egg, but are still thoroughly nourishing. The hot sizzling pot is perfect on gray rainy days, although I could have one on almost any day at all.
Jup She, 171 Grand St, NY, NY 10013 (at Baxter)