Midtown Lunch

Every Friday we go south of the ML boundaries in search of a delicious lunch. Sometimes it’s Murray Hill south or the Flatiron District, sometimes Gramercy and everything in between- but we just like to call it Flatiron Lunch.

Midtown Lunch, and especially Flatiron Lunch, has history of sweets for lunch. We don’t always have to worry ourselves with sandwiches, pastas, burgers and fried chicken – I mean, we have Doughnut Plant and we have contributors called Blondie and Brownie. And now we have Baconery! Which just opened this week in the cafe of Books of Wonder, a children’s bookstore. As an added bonus, through today, they have a 2 for 1 offer on all items, so go double your lunch!

Within Books of Wonder, Baconery is just one of several vendors featured at the cafe. For those of you who freelance in the general Flatiron area, the cafe is a wonderful office/Starbucks substitute. It is not too loud or crowded, and when I was in there, several people were happily typing away on laptops (they probably enjoyed the overarching smell of bacon) and several empty tables were still available. Also featured is Wonder-Land, a branch of Alice’s Tea Cup, who provide sandwiches and teas for the space. The sandwiches straddle the border of real sandwiches and tea sandwiches (Black Forest Ham and Gruyere vs. Cucumber and Watercress with lemon chive butter.) So if you must eat a sandwich, you have options. But I can’t vouch for them, as I only came to get Baconery.

Baconery shares a display case with the sweets from e.e. cookies, so with these space restrictions they are not able to offer their full line at this location. I was still able to get 7 items (and I skipped the two doggie biscuits.)

The Bacon Pretzel Rods ($3) were exactly as good as you think they will be. I have always thought that chocolate over pretzels was pretty brilliant, and bacon takes the salty-sweet combo to the next level with additional salt and the smokey bacon taste. The White Chocolate version didn’t do anything for me, but that is surely because I don’t care for white chocolate, so I am going to stick with the regular chocolate. As you my be able to see from the photo, after a little travel with me, they did start to lose their bacon coating, so if you want to experience them as intended, try to eat them asap.

The Bacon Marshmallow Bar ($4) was underwhelming. It wasn’t bad for a rice crispy treat, but the bacon didn’t stand out or even really add much flavor. It reminded me of, years ago, when I tried to make nutella rice crispy treats but mixed the nutella in with the “batter”. The flavor got completely lost. It was much better when I spread the nutella on top of the squares. I think this item would be outstanding if they did a heavier drizzle of the chocolate and then dipped the top into broken bits of bacon.

The cookies had two hits and a miss. The Chocolate Chip Bacon cookie ($4) lacked in interesting flavors, textures, or really much bacon. All-round a pretty generic cookie. On the other hand, the Peanut Butter Chocolate Bacon cookie ($4) was the best thing I had from Baconery, and probably one of the better cookies I have had…EVER! The peanut butter and bacon combo was so complimentary to each other and to the chocolate in the cookie…this is why everyone is obsessed with Elvis, right? All we are missing is a little banana.

The Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Bacon cookie ($4) was also outstanding with very hearty oats (instead of some places that say oatmeal and end up being mostly regular cookie batter with a few oats thrown in.) This cookie also had a great bacon to cookie ratio, with the bacon flavor consistent through the whole cookie. When I want a “healthy” chocolate chip bacon cookie, this is it! Right? Whole oats are healthy, right?

Last but not least was the Bacon Brownie ($4). The brownie veered towards the cake-ier side of the cake vs. fudge side of the brownie debate, which isn’t normally my preference, but it was still plenty chewy and it held together well. Most importantly, huge pieces of bacon were scattered throughout the brownie. The bacon flavor permeated every bite, but then spiked when I came across full pieces (like the one dangling near the bottom of this photo.)

If you work the 2 for 1 system properly (on May 4th only), you can get all of the above items for just $10.25. Granted, it is over the ML budget, but I hope none of you complain.

The + (What somebody who likes this place would say)

• I love Bacon, and I want it in everything.
• As an adult, I choose dessert for lunch
• I appreciate the use of Bacon in all these sweets.

The – (What somebody who doesn’t like this place would say)

• I won’t stoop to having dessert for lunch. I want lunch and dessert.
• A children’s bookstore? I hate kids so I won’t go in.
• I prefer my desserts un-fussed with.

Baconery, 18 West 18th Street btw 5th+6th Aves, (212) 989-3270