Culture Espresso continues to give me more reasons to love them. First, their awesome freshly baked chocolate chip cookies, then they started “importing” SCRATCHbread scones from Brooklyn and now they are getting deliveries of my favorite doughnuts in the city. That’s right you can get Dough doughnuts in midtown!

If you follow Blondie and Brownie (or read the Midtown Lunch contributor stalking column) you probably are aware that Dough is my current doughnut obsession. Dough’s doughnuts are yeast raised, soft, pillowy, and seriously addictive. As much as I love Dough, it’s not easy or me to get to Bed Stuy or even the Flea to get my fix, so I’m very excited that Culture is getting Dough deliveries. Right now the doughnuts get delivered on Monday and Friday mornings. They are $3, that’s one buck more than in Brooklyn, but worth it for the convenience in my opinion and on par with what you’d pay for Doughnut Plant doughnuts around midtown.

The early bird definitely gets the doughnut, I arrived a little before 10 on Monday and they were already sold out of my two favorite flavors: Earl Grey Chocolate Frosted and Blood Orange. I still managed to score a Hibiscus Doughnut which washed down with an excellent latte ($4). I think I’m going to be paying a lot more visits to Culture…

Culture Espresso Bar, 72 West 38th Street (btw. 5+6th) 212-302-0200

SCRATCHbread has quite a following in Brooklyn, but there are few places that you can get their goodies in Manhattan. Fortunately midtown has become one of them. Now in addition to good sandwiches, cold brew ice coffee, and awesome chocolate chip cookies, you can also get SCRATCHbread scones at Culture Espresso Bar (on 38th btw. 5+6th).

Right now they carry three varieties of scones: citrus, rosemary, olive oil & grey salt, bitter chocolate & dried currant, and Danish blue, toasted oat & date. On a recent trip I picked up one of the Danish blue scones. For those who are used to sweet scones of the Starbucks variety, the scones from SCRATCHbread are more buttery and savory. The owner and baker, Matthew Tilden says: “I use really, really good butter, fold everything by hand with classic techniques, and you get a flaky, buttery, almost dry creamy scone that explodes when you get the garnish of bitter chocolate and tangy currant, or rosemary, citrus, olive oil and coarse grey salt.”

The Danish Blue scone had a touch of orange oil. As promised it was intensely buttery, and a bit drier than I’m used to. An unconventional combo, but the sweetness of the orange oil/date/oats balances nicely with the sharpness of the blue cheese. If you like salty/sweet treats this is worth giving a shot. Next time I’m going for the currant and chocolate.

Culture Espresso Bar, 72 West 38th Street (btw. 5+6th) 212-302-0200

Not much has changed since Zach’s initial visit. They still brew Intelligentsia and they still serve fancy coffee shop sandwiches made on bread from Sullivan St. Bakery.

I tried the tuna sandwich ($7.50) topped with tomato, house pickles, radishes, and mixed greens. Kind of pricey for a sandwich, but the tuna wasn’t too heavy on the mayo and the sandwich was pretty well stuffed with goodies though mine was missing the housemade pickles (sniffle).

The real star of my visit, and the subsequent visits since, was the cold brew iced coffee ($2.95). I love coffee, but I wouldn’t consider myself a coffee aficionado. That said, this iced coffee was strong and super smooth.

It’s best paired with one of their intensely chocolatey housemade chocolate chip cookies ($2.95). The cookies are chewy and chock full of semi-sweet chocolate chips with just a touch of salt.

I understand that they make two batches a day and according to the gentleman that I spoke with, if you get there at around noon or 3:00pm you should be able to score one that’s still hot from the oven. That alone is worth a repeat visit.

Culture Espresso Bar, 72 West 38th Street (btw. 5+6th) 212-302-0200

I will fully admit to being a Sullivan Street Bakery/Jim Lahey superfan.  That’s not to say I know anything about bread.  In fact, not only am I not a bread aficionado by any means, I never really even thought about bread as something that could be revered… until I tried the bread at Sullivan St. Bakery.  Now, if I’m out somewhere and have an out of control good sandwich, I’ll ask where the bread came from.  Invariably I know the answer is going to always be Sullivan St. Bakery.  Because if it’s good enough to ask where it came from, it means it probably came from there.

If you feel like me, than you probably have made the trek out to 47th Street btw. 10+11th for a sandwich at lunch. I admit the sandwiches are on the small side, and totally expensive for what you get (especially if you follow the Midtown Lunch mentality), but the bread makes it all worth it.   But I also understand that not everybody has that kind of time, which makes finds like Culture Espresso Bar (on 38th btw. 5+6th) that much more exciting. They follow a similiar mentality (smallish sandwiches for the price), but there is something in me that forgets to be a cheapass when staring down the barrel of a sandwich on Sullivan St. Bakery bread.

Yesterday I stopped by Culture Espresso Bar, and helped myself to three different kinds…

The Figgy ($7.25) – Fig jam, proscuitto, and goat cheese. This probably comes closest to the regular sandwiches at Sullivan St. Bakery, since they’re on the same exact bread and uses very little filling.  More like an expensive snack, than a filling lunch, but if you like sweeet/salty/tangy combo of figs, prosciutto, and goat cheese you’re gonna like the taste of this one.

Carribean Chicken Salad ($9).  I’m a big fan of this curry chicken salad, and this one takes the genre a bit farther with the addition of ginger and a mango chutney.  Less curry flavor than some people will like, but the mayo levels are not bad and for me it was a hit.  Sadly it’s also pretty small, especially for $9.

Porchetta ($9) – Chipotle pork, tomato, onion, avocado, greens.  This is probably the best value.  I’m all about avocado in sandwiches; in fact it’s the only way I’ll eat non-Thanksgiving turkey.  Add it to pork, and it’s a home run.  The only way you won’t like this sandwich is if you expect hot porchetta with crispy bits (like they serve in the East Village.)  Sadly, this is the old school cold cuts porchetta.  But like a pig flying through the air on a BBQ, “it’s still good, it’s still good!”

They’ve got about 10 sandwiches on the menu, so there’s probably something for everyone… although the only other one that looked good to me was a proscuitto/salami/mozzarella/pesto number that cost $10.25! (And as you know that’s out of my price range.)   In other words, the sandwiches are all small for the price.  But if you love Sullivan St. Bakery as much as I do, it’s better than walking to 10th Ave.

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

• I freaking love Sullivan St. Bakery bread, but don’t feel like walking to 10th Ave.

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

• There is no way I’m paying $7-9 on a tiny-ass sandwich.  (I don’t care where the bread comes from

Culture Espresso Bar, 72 West 38th Street (btw. 5+6th) 212-302-0200

Clearly I don’t really know that much about coffee, considering I’m addicted to Tim Hortons iced cappuccino, but I do know this… when I went to Chicago last year, I went to Intelligentsia and it was really good.  So I’m guessing coffee fanatics in the area will be excited to hear that the newly opened Culture Espresso Bar (in the old Starwich location on 6th Ave. and 38th Street) is now open, and they are using Intelligentsia coffee.  They also have a nice selection of baked goods from various NYC bakeries like Sullivan St. Bakery & Ceci Cela (although if the Treats Truck is parked on 38th & 5th, like they are today, I’d hit that up instead.)  Now if we could only get some Stumptown up in here…  (did that just make it sound like I know what I’m talking about?)

Culture Espresso Bar, 72 West 38th Street (btw. 5+6th)