Midtown Lunch

Pick a day of the year and it’s some sort of National [enter food/beverage] Day. But on National Coffee Day Sept. 29, there will be free and discounted caffeine, and we thought you may like to know where to get a cup. Financier locations around the city will be giving out free small cups of their new dark roast with any purchase, and Grand Central has several options. Irving Farm on the dining concourse has a cup of iced coffee involving maple for $2 from 7-9 a.m. and $4 after; Cafe Grumpy in the Lexington Passage is doing a tasting of two coffees from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.; Zaro’s Bakery in the Shuttle Passage has free upgrades on coffee sizes all day (medium for price of a small, etc.).

Just a few weeks ago, Andrea reported that a new Financier Patisserie opened on Fulton Street downtown – that makes 3 in the FiDi. Well, now we discovered (thanks to an email from Tom) that a new location looks to be opening at 245 Park Avenue. The storefront is on 47th Street in the same building as ‘Wichcraft, Oaxaca, and Yushi. There’s no official word on their website about this new location, but I think it’s pretty clear this will be their next (and fifth!) location in Midtown.

The recent winner of the 2010 ‘Best Coffee As Voted On By You’ (and my personal favorite cup of Joe), Financier Patisserie recently contacted us to give a heads up that they’re now carrying retail tins of coffee at all nine of their locations. The coffee is roasted daily in Park Slope, Brooklyn, and is available in either their original blend, or their single origin fair trade espresso roast. Both flavors come in 8 oz tins ($8.50), and be purchased as either pre-ground or whole bean. Decaf is also available for the pre-ground versions.

To promote this new launch, they offered to give us free gift baskets to sample, but we’d rather hand these out to the loyal readers of Midtown lunch!  All you have to do is reply in the comments and tell us what goes wrong with your day if you don’t get your coffee fix?

The contest rules, plus a photo of what you’ll win is after the jump.
Read more »

Lunch’er “Hightemp” checked in again today to let us know that the Financier Patisserie that he told us about back in September (on 59th and 3rd) is now open. “Its very small (any more than 4 people in there at a time would be uncomfortable) but looks like it has the full line of pastries.  Looks like they have a refrigerator case for pre-made salads and sandwiches but it was generally empty when I went in this morning.”

Lunch’er “Hightemp” checked in this morning to let us know that Financier Patisserie will soon be opening a small shop on 59th Street and 3rd Ave. “Its a somewhat isolated/non-obvious location (it used to be a tassel store) [but] between Macaron Cafe at 59 & Madison, Sprinkles Cupcakes opening (in February) at 60th and Lex and now Financier we’ve got a little dessert/pastry renaissance happening up here.” This will be the fourth Financier to open in Midtown in the past two years. (There’s one in Grand Central, one on 48th underneath the FoxNews Building, one on 1st Ave. and 54th, and now this one.)

I haven’t had a chance to check out either of the two new Financier Patisserie locations (there is now one in Grand Central, and another in the walkway beneath the Fox News Building) but this might speed things up… a pistachio eclair, filled with pistachio cream. Oh my.

Thanks to Lunch’er Nick for sending over this photo from this morning.  It looks like the new location of Financier Patisserie has opened in the walkway that goes through the Fox News Building (on 6th Ave. btw. 47+48th).  The best way to access it is on 48th btw. 6+7th.  In addition to pastries they also have hot sandwiches, salads, quiche, and soups.  Also open is the new 99 Cent Pizza place on 3rd Ave on Lex btw. 45+46th.  Not surprisingly it is pretty much an exact rip-off of 99 Cent Fresh Pizza because it was opened by a former employee.  Thanks to Lunch’er Larry for sending in that photo.

Got news to report?  An opening, closing, or recommendation? Email it to zach@midtownlunch.com

It looks like Financier Patisserie is continuing their Midtown expansion. Lunch’er “cync76” sends word that they will be taking over the Grand Central Terminal location of Oren’s, which closed last week.  This new location will be the third Midtown spot this year for Financier (which has three other locations downtown).  There’s the one on First Ave. and 54th Street (which opened back in August), and another on 48th Street under the Fox News Building- which they hope to have open in the next two to three weeks.  The Grand Central location should open shortly after that…

Related:
Financier Patisserie Open on 1st Ave (6th Ave. Coming Soon)

Between the two new locations of Financier Patisserie coming to Midtown the one coming soon to the walkway beneath the Fox News Building (on 6th Ave. btw. 447+48th) is more of a Midtown Lunch destination.  But for those of you on the East side of Midtown TONY is reporting that their 1st Ave. location (on 54th) is now open. They’re hoping to open the 6th Ave. location in “a month to a month in a half.”

Related:
Financier Patisserie to Open Two New Midtown Locations