Your First Look at the Bon Appetit Supper Club and Pop Up Cafe
This year’s BA Pop Up Cafe, complete with outdoor seating
As anybody who reads this blog on a daily basis knows, I am a fat and cheap bastard. I like my lunch big, gross and inexpensive. But that doesn’t mean I can’t class it up every once in awhile. And when I eat dinner out in NYC I tend to gravitate towards the fancy spots. Basically, what I’m trying to admit is that I’m a famous chef whore. Which makes the annual Bon Appetit Pop Up Cafe for me (and those like me) one of the more exciting events in Midtown Lunch’ing. Every year, for one week we get a chance to eat some fun fast food, made by famous chefs, and it’s all under $10.
The Cafe opened at 11am this morning, and your first look at the food and space is after the jump…
It’s a different space this year, and everything is more spaced out and organized.
There’s also a large seating area upstairs once you pay for your food.
Soup station
Salad Station
Free wine samples! And Stumptown Coffee available for sale (which is exciting for any coffee nerds out there.)
New this year… a small “market fresh table” with fruit and veggies for sale.
Nate Appleman’s Vegetarian Sandwich ($8) & Jose Andres’ Serrano Ham & Manchego sandwich ($9).
Emeril Lagasse’s Roast Turkey Panini ($9)
Tom Douglas’ Salmon Sandwich ($9.50)
Cat Cora’s Brisket Wrap being made downstairs in the kitchen
Sweets!
More sweets!
The deal of the century! Daniel Boulud’s signature terrine trio ($8.50). Sure, you’re spending almost 9 bucks for a few bites of food… but it’s freakin’ Daniel Boulud. And this would probably cost you three times as much at Bar Boulud! Fat man likes a lot of food for his money. Fat man also like terrines. Oh, and the best part? It’s in the salad section! That means it’s good for you.
You can easily complain (and many will) that some of the food is too expensive for the amount of food you get (and in some cases you’d be right), but it’s a great one week a year splurge- and in the end, you’re getting good food made by chefs whose food normally cost more. Click here for a complete menu and list of daily specials. The cafe is open through Friday from 11am to 3pm.
The lines can get pretty long, so the earlier you get there the better… and we’ll see how the new layout works. Feel free to post updates in the comments…
Bon Appetit Supper Club and Cafe, NW Corner of 57th and 6th Ave
Posted by Zach Brooks at 12:33 pm, September 21st, 2009 under Bon Appetit.
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27 Comments
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(crossposted)
Today I had the JLT (*very very good*, and buttery), the crab louie (the sum was greater than the parts for sure), and the corn soup (very good as well, the poblano gave a nice bite). Yeah sure, $28 for lunch ($1 donation, and…. free recycling bag, so that’s more like a $25 lunch!)
That aside, today I realized the real reason for their slowness.
THEY HIRED MODELS AS FOOD PREPARERS
Seriously, look at the people serving food. They don’t look like they’ve ever served food before. The klutz making my sandwich could hardly wrap the pickle (convoluted in it’s own right), and his knife skills scared me. It probably took 40 seconds to take a sandwich, cut it, wrap it (isn’t that backwards?), take a pickle (he picked it out of the jar like he was handling nuclear waste, he looked afraid of the tongs), wrap that, and hand it to me. This guy looked like he should be standing outside of Abercrombie & Fitch without a shirt or something (I never understood how you market clothes while not wearing any….)
I noticed the person pouring the soups had a similar issue. For starters, the containers were above her head, so she was lading everything at that height, so she had to keep the cup under the center of the ladel and tip over, and let gravity eventually do the rest.
I mean, really. All the best chefs in the world, and this is the best you could come up with for service? No wonder the lines were out the door.
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I must go back again, loved Rick’s soup, Mario’s salad, and Alex’s yuzu tart was out of this world!… but paying yesterday was slooooowwwww… hopefully tomorrow will be better
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had the JLT today. good but not enough serrano ham (and it was sliced so thick! what would jose andres say?!). bf had the salmon sandwich which unfortunately was dry and kinda tasteless. i also had the cloud cookie today. its like a dense chocolate brick. please share. i didn’t. and we got some cedar plank salmon samples they were cooking, which were actually really good. emeril was late so i didn’t catch a glimpse of him. taco day tomorrow!
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korovka, I noticed the salmon both days. Yesterday it looked luscious, today it looked dried out. A friend had it on Monday and said it was awesome and worth the money.
I really think that whoever is running this event has some organization issues.
I will try 11:45 tomorrow as well.
I had the Meatballs & Peaches (very very yummy. Ikea could learn a thing or two), and the Terrine (meh, didn’t blow me away). The free reusable tote bag is a nice touch though.
I’ll be back tomorrow though.