Best Thursday Afternoon: A Little More Interesting than Expected

Thursday afternoon, the early part of it, I had to stop by one of my agencies for a minute and I had plans to lunch with Hillary, who I hadn't seen for a million years.  Good, solid plans, but things turned out more noteworthy than anticipated.  Now calm down, I'm not saying it was the most amazing afternoon in my life, I'm just saying that it was neater than expected.  Okay?

First, when I got off at Times Square I emerged in the middle of this Honda-related concert event that was coming together.



Over on the sidelines Pharrell (I know what you're wondering, He's still alive?  Apparently) was being interviewed.  A little internet research when I got home revealed this was a Honda/Grand Turismo 5 joint promotional event that was to feature a performance by N.E.R.D.  So there you go.  I suppose this sort of thing happens all the time in Times Square, but guess where I'm not at All The Time?  Yes, Times Square.



Then, for lunching with Hillary, we decided to try No. 7 Subs at the Ace hotel.  The sandwiches sounded inventive and were a little expensive . . . nothing extreme . . . it seemed like the right thing to do.  We ordered a broccoli with mozzarella, thai basil, and fried lemon sub and a roast beef with chimichurri, hummus, and potato chips sub.



Oddly, No. 7 food counts as "outside food" in the Ace Hotel lobby, so we walked our lunch down to Madison Square Park, a perfect lunching spot.  Here's a portrait of my halves of the pair before I had any idea about how delicious they'd be.

A closer look at my half of the broccoli sub.  Still no idea that this sandwich would be knocking my socks off just a split second later.

And here's Hillary being forced by me to recreate her reaction to her first bite of the roast beef sub because, Listen.  These Number Seven Subs are So Good, so good that it's ridiculous.  This one made Hillary jump back in her chair and point at it.  Both sandwiches were absolutely startingly delicious, both totally exceeded any guess I might have been able to make of how tasty my lunchtime sandwich would be.  I haven't been so stunned by a sandwich since my first tinga torta at Super Tacos in Santa Monica.  The mysterious fried lemons in the broccoli sub really put it over the top and the roast beef was so magnificently rare, the way it combined with the texture and flavors of the hummus and the potato chip crumbs was magical.  Essentially these unorthodox creations are the sandwich equivalents of a Momofuku Milk Bar cookie: delicious and redefiners (sometimes a word must be invented) of their food-genre.



A few more great things about No. 7:

• Line was big, but moved quickly and didn't have to wait long at all for our sandwiches.
• I asked for a water cup, the sandwich bagger filled me a full size 20 oz. soda cup with water and ice, capped it, and handed me a straw.
• Now that I've been simple and started with a roast beef sandwich, I'm ready to move on to lamb meatloaf  with hardboiled eggs . . . or another of their vegetarian subs, like the General Tso's tofu with seaweed, edamama, and pickles.

Take a look at the menu and then start planning a trip.  Dare I call this the Xoco of New York City?  In another trip I just might.