4:00 doughnuts

I know nothing about Matt except he sits at a desk on the other end of the office, is a friend of Harvest and oh yeah, best office mate ever because he brought in a box of Doughnut Plant doughnuts fresh from Grand Street this morning. What a treat!
Doughnut Plant, 369 Grand St, NY, NY 10002 (near Essex)

Eight Mile Creek, with Josh

The next best thing to failing to arrange a large group lunch is Fish Fridays! Which works out fortuitously since (1) it's Friday, (2) it's bitter cold outside, (3) Eight Mile Creek is less than a 5 minute walk away and (4) they serve a very respectable fish and chips.
Eight Mile Creek, 240 Mulberry St., NY, NY 10012 (btwn Spring & Prince)

4:00pm banana bread

Fresh butter cures all, especially several days old, homemade banana bread.

Bun

Once in awhile we have a lunch so surreal we have no coherent response. Bun has been in our once or twice a year rotation but each subsequent visit has been leaving us more and more puzzled. Today we tried the $14 lunch special consisting of 8 "courses" of such a strange mixture of tastes and textures that we left in a daze of confusion.
Bún, 143 Grand St, NY, NY 10013 (btwn Lafayette and Crosby)

4:00pm holiday cookies

We generally avoid Dean & Deluca as the inefficient service, crowded store and inflated prices can be frustrating but today we lucked out and it was remarkably empty or at least sufficiently so. A leisurely perusal through their ever changing selection of desserts and we walk out with a set of nice snowflakes from Art Girl Cookies. Yum.
Dean & DeLuca, 560 Broadway, NY, NY 10012 (at Prince)

Cafe Select

This morning the handwritten lunch special at Cafe Select was"roast pork loin sandwich", 4 words we cannot resist. And even though the cold, wet weather is perfect for short lunch walks, by the time we sat down something more substantial was in order. We split the ever reliable bratwurst and the new to the menu tagliatelle. And then miracles of miracles, the sun peeped out a little after lunch so we took a stroll around the block.
Cafe Select, 212 Lafayette St, New York, NY 10012 (at Kenmare)

4:00pm fried mochi

Apologies for the crap photo today, but frankly this dessert was kinda crap too. Mochi and red bean paste are a delicious combination, however this one tasted slightly funky, fishy even? Could tell if it was a problem with my palate or the fault of the dessert. Oh well.
Koryodang, 31 West 32nd St, New York, NY 10011 (btwn 5th and 6th Ave)

The Stage

Few things make us happier than pierogis and chicken noodle soup from the Stage. And even when it's eaten in take-out form and not at the narrow friendly counter of the Stage, it still brings cheshire cat grins of contentment. The only other thing we could possibly say about the Stage is GO. GO NOW.
Stage Restaurant, 128 Second Ave, NY, NY 10003 (btwn 7th and 8th Sts)

4:00pm vanilla cupcake

Cupcake Cafe's butter based cream frosting and dense vanilla cake remain consistently in our most favorite of cupcakes but it just occurred to me that perhaps they are always so delicious because we have them so infrequently. The 18th St location isn't out of the way, but it's not around the corner either, so months may pass before we get our hands on some. And you know what they say, absence makes the heart grow fonder. Applicable for cupcakes too.
Cupcake Cafe, 18 West 18th St., NY, NY 10011 (btwn 5th and 6th Aves)

Fatty Crab, with Brian

A late lunch but thoroughly enjoyable as we hit our third Quarantine Studio lunch, another fellow architect, Brian. Since Fatty Crab encourages family dining, we agreeably split an array of dishes arriving to a common consensus on the watermelon and pork belly dish (best!) with the green mango salad second. A minor nit-picky note about the Char Kway Teow, which is intentionally incredibly salty and intensely spicy. But if it's so salty that not even the chef telling us this could eat a plate by himself, then maybe it should either be served with a rice chaser or the server should highly recommend a rice accompaniment to cut the salt. Still, all in all, a tasty lunch with very good company. Worth repeating.
Fatty Crab, 643 Hudson St., NY, NY 10014 (above Horatio)