(upbeat jazz music)
- [Prez Voiceover] Oh gah, yeah, this is amazing.
(chiming music)
No mission.
It's 2 o'clock, lunch is basically over.
I'm starving.
Where's my lunch?
- Oh, yeah.
(upbeat jazz music)
Yo, no help, no mission.
No problem, I got this.
Now, burgers in New York are a dime a dozen.
You can get 'em from a big corporate chain
or they can cost you up to 10 bucks.
Unless you're me.
Now, I got this gem on the Upper East Side called Ethyl's.
They got this Fi-Dolla burger.
Yeah, fi', like F-I.
And, also, they have great drinks.
It's five bucks somewhere.
"Operation 5 Buck Lunch: Burgers" is a go.
Let's go.
So, these are the rules
of "Operation 5 Buck Lunch."
It's gotta be good, 'cause nobody wants bad food for lunch.
No big chains, 'cause that's just too easy.
It's gotta be $5 or less.
And whatever I don't use today,
rolls over into the next episode.
So, if you're a 20-something New Yorker, like me,
you probably don't go above 23rd Street, right?
And especially the Upper East Side.
Forget about it.
It's a different world.
It's a bit cleaner, a bit buttoned up.
It's old money.
But, even in the Upper East Side,
you can still find $5 eats.
We're actually gonna transfer at 42nd Street to the Q.
OK, what did you have for lunch today?
- Today, I had a turkey sandwich.
- Where'd you get that from?
- From a deli.
- From a deli? - Yeah.
- Is it your joint?
Do you always go there?
- Well, it's like a block from my house, so it's like yeah.
- All right, all right, all right.
- There's this one guy named Bill, makes it up real nice.
- Makes it real good?
How much did you pay for that?
- Six bucks.
- Aw, damn.
We're in luck here today.
Yo, these guys are close.
If I gave you five bucks, what would you go get?
- Probably a gyro.
- Probably a gyro?
You got a guy?
- Yeah, 77th. - 77th?
What's his name?
- I have no idea.
- You have no idea?
- What do you get on your gyro?
- This guys, kinda like he kinda adds falafels on the side.
Metal tin, it's not the white box.
So, you'll have falafels, chicken,
and then he separates the salad from the rice
so it's pretty good.
- Aw, that's your guy right there, man.
He does it good.
- Second and 77th.
- Second and 77th, there you go.
The Upper East Side is home to some of the most
expensive zip codes in the country.
With homes in the $6 and $7 million range.
Also, it's home to Gracie Mansion where the mayor lives.
Also that's where Alexander Hamilton died --
the man, not the musical.
Transition!
(beatboxing)
Here we are, in all of its glory,
Ethyl's a nice little joint.
I mean look at it:
it's got everything you could possibly want.
A stage for bingo and music,
trinkets all over the walls,
and most importantly,
it's got my lunch and I am starving.
C'mon.
Hello.
I see here on this menu you got a ton of fi' dolla' food.
- We do, something every day.
- That's crazy.
Guys, check this out.
They got Meatball Monday, Taco Tuesday,
Wing Wednesday, Disco Curd Thursday,
Banana Spider Friday,
which is kinda cool; that's clever.
And they got weekend happy hour.
Wings, nachos, Bloody Marys, those are also five bucks?
Wow!
I also see beers, wine five bucks, well drinks five bucks.
But I see that you have a Fi-Dolla' burger
and you have a Cinco Dolla' burger.
Can you tell me a bit about that?
- Yeah, the Cinco Dolla' burger has a little bit more
of a kick to it.
It has pepper jack cheese and poblano peppers.
It's our little Mexican twist on our traditional Fi-Dolla'.
- Nice.
It's got a nice little kick,
I think I'm gonna go with that one.
- Yeah. - Yep, thank you so much.
I didn't only get you a Fi-Dolla' burger,
I got you a Cinco Dolla' burger
and a $5 food for every single day
of the week at happy hour.
You guys owe me, seriously.
Look, one, two, three, four, five.
I set you up.
You can't never say I never did nothin' for ya.
Ah yeah, and there it is.
- Ta-da! - Thank you so much.
This is amazing, guy, wow.
Boom, straight away.
Peppers, pepper jack cheese,
and then you have this moist little burger
right under there.
(gasp) And there's cheese on the bottom, too!
Look at that!
- [Bartender] That's our gogo sauce.
- Oh, that's the gogo sauce.
- Mm-hmm, that's our secret house sauce.
- I gotta get a bite in -- I'm starving a bit.
Mmm, immediately a kick.
Not too hard, not too hot, but it's there.
Nice little box in the chin.
The patty is not messing around,
and this gogo sauce takes a bit of the heat off.
Oh, then you get a little char on the side, guys, c'mon.
It's the details, it's the details.
Guys, look at that.
You can't...
It's so juicy.
Look at this.
Y'know sometimes you get a burger,
y'know, those corporate burgers
and they're all dry and stuff?
Um, it's juicy,
you get a little crunch from the peppers,
the bun is moist, it's not like dried out.
I don't know, guys, you guys gotta eat this.
I wish you guys could eat this through the screen.
Actually, let's test that out.
Didn't work -- sorry, try again.
Our mission today, absolute success.
We hit every single one of our points as usual.
Five bucks, in our budget, of course.
It's delicious, not a big chain, I'm winning.
Hi, how much do I owe you?
- Not three, not four, not seven,
not $4.99, not five--
- Not five? - Fi'.
- Fi-dolla'. - Fi-Dolla' burger.
- Fi-Dolla' burger. - It's a Fi-Dolla' burger.
- How do you spell that? - It comes with a pinky ring.
It's an F, an I, an apostrophe, and "dolla."
- D-O-L-L-A, dolla. - Yo, graphic.
- Merci beaucoup.
That's French, I just hope you know that.
- Oh my God, he speaks two languages.
What?
Yo!
We set and we out.
(camera shutter clicking)