A quiet lunch in the in-between

RESTAURANTS • First Person

There is a liminal quality to the blocks framed by Lafayette and Bowery to the west and east, Houston and Bleecker to the south and north — Mulberry, Mott, Elizabeth — not Soho, not East Village, maybe technically Noho, but maybe not quite yet. 

These blocks have always felt like their own worlds: shaded, quiet, a little bit sec…