Ah, Mangia, the name that is on the tip of lunching ladies’ and executive assistants’ tongues everywhere. If you’ve ever had an in house client lunch meeting in Manhattan, you’ve no doubt had a sandwich from this joint. If you’ve ever had a yuppie, woman colleague between the ages of 26 and 42 who asked you out for a “quick bite,” you’ve no doubt come across the yuppie, woman soup/salad/sandwich leader of NYC. Two steps up from Cosí and ten steps up from your corner deli, Mangia puts the gourmet into gourmet sandwich shop. What other sandwich place in NYC has linen napkins at the tables? There ain’t none of those Stage Deli-type sandwiches either, with their heaping piles of tongue, corn beef and pastrami. We’re talking smoked salmon with cream cheese and cucumber on pumpernickel, some sort of thing that looks like roast beef but is called something else way more pretentious with arugula and that other lettuce that tastes like black licorice, and grilled portabello with a goat cheese and red pepper puree on focaccia with an olive tapenade (are these real words?) These things just fly off the trays at business meetings. Oh, and don’t you pay dearly for that catered service and fancier-than-most-places plastic trays and serving ware. This handsome, upstairs location is packed with mid town single ladies in ascots and designer shoes, with the occasional effeminate male coworker uttering “yeah, but she’s such a bitch” loud enough to be heard over the already considerable din. [MF]
16 E 48th St.
212/754-7600
mangiatogo.com