The old Piece of Chicken [spot] has been signed by the cookie outfit Schmackary’s, which will be their first storefront. Probably not as affordable as the Treats Truck (we miss you Kim!), but I’m interested in a new sugar fix near my office in Times Square.

In case you don’t remember, Piece of Chicken, was that very affordable but out-of-bounds fried chicken joint at 630 Ninth Avenue that closed in 2010. It’s a bit of a hike to get there, but we are excited to potentially have a new reason to walk all the way to Ninth!

For years I was an avowed coconut hater. I studiously avoided anything with coconut. Over time, however, I’ve discovered that I don’t really hate coconut. I hate people who make horrible things with coconut. Coconut in the right hands can be exceptionally delicious. Take for example the macaroons from Danny Macaroons that I finally tried at Choice Eats. Blondie had been singing their praises forever, but I couldn’t see past my deep dislike of coconut to give them a shot. When I finally did, man, oh, man, they were so good, so, so habit-forming that I had to seek them out in the city and I found them I midtown at a most unexpected location: Bergdorf Goodman’s.

Now, I’ll admit that I’ve never gone to Bergdorf’s. They have lovely windows. I’m sure the clothes are fabulous, but I’d rather, you know, pay my bills and buy food than stock up on Manolos. But these macaroons were so stalk-worthy, that I braved the Bergdorf blue hairs and Missoni-clad mamas to get my fix.

The macaroons are up on the 5th floor in their little cafe known as 5F (where you can also get Robicelli’s cupcakes). There aren’t many things on the 5F menu that qualify as ML friendly. Even their fro-yo is $5.25, add to that a dollar for each topping. But the macaroons retail for $2, the same price as elsewhere in the city. They had a few flavors–I spied chocolate, almond, original, and the salted caramel. I’m a salted caramel gal all the way. That little touch of saltiness is great with the sweet and chewy macaroon. If you love macaroons, skip those sad canned excuses for cookies are popping up at grocery stores in advance of Passover and give these a shot. I’m already plotting a return visit, stat.

Bar 5F (inside Bergdorf Goodman), 754 5th Ave at 58th St, 5th floor

A belated Happy Purim to those who celebrated! A side trip to Grand Central yesterday revealed that Chocolate Hamantaschen are back. At $3.25 each, they don’t come cheap, but they are sizable (and sharable, I suppose). Zaro’s also sells the more traditional apricot, prune and poppy hamantaschen, but the chocolate ones have always been my favorite, the cookie part is like a light, slightly lemony shortbread and the filling has a similarly shortbready texture but it’s nice and chocolately. Even though Purim has ended, the lady at Zaro’s in Grand Central promised they would have these today.

Before Thanksgiving, Dylan’s Candy Bar opened a pop-up store on the SW corner of 42nd and 6th, and apparently all of you did what we did: avoid the area at all costs until after the holidays. Well if you still want to stop by, the Pop-Up is going on through this Saturday. I checked it out only to find out that us lunch’ers have been missing out on Sprinkles cupcakes, and also the apocalypse is totally happening.

Located on the far side of the registers by the front door is a Lego-inspired cupcake cart for Sprinkles. They have a good range of flavors for $3.50 each.

The rest of the store does have a good selection of pricey candy with most of it running $13 a pound. If you’re a candy fanatic who needs to stock up their office drawers, it might be a good idea to stop by since Dylan’s does have a different selection than downtown’s Economy Candy. There’s also this excellent gingerbread house in the back, next to the upside down Christmas tree.

Also there’s this sure sign of the impending apocalypse: Angry Birds candy. Perfect for in-office depictions of the game.

Dylan’s Candy Bar Pop-Up, SW corner of 42nd St and 6th Ave

The first stop for anyone looking for anything holiday is Grand Central Market, specifically the new Zabar’s area. They have quite the impressive holiday hand decorated cookie display complete with a hipster Santa and penguins. For the Jews among us, they only have menorahs, but you can head a few booths over….

To Zaro’s and their dreidel cookies. Zaro’s also has gingerbread men and Christmas tree cookies, as well as the requisite packs of blue-and-white cookies, which can also be found at Junior’s on the other side of GCT.

If you really want people to like you, you should head downstairs to the food court and pick up some Flex Donuts. Chef Zac Young was hopeful that they’d be doing some special holiday flavors this week, but even if they don’t, a box of these is a sure to be hit. Just don’t bring the Maple Bourbon Bacon to a kosher household, but I’m sure you already know that.

Those of you looking for authentic sufganiyot, head on over to Ess-a-Bagel (3rd btw 50th+51st). As you can see $1.75 each for jelly-filled or chocolate-covered custard. No, they’re not labeled “sufganiyot” because let’s seriously imagine the tourists dealing with that. Added bonus: they’re kosher!

Anyone in need of an impressive fancy dessert should head to their nearest Financier, or fight the crowds at Bouchon Bakery in Rockefeller Center or Columbus Circle. Both bakeries are making French Bûche de Noëls. The cakes consist of Génoise, a sponge cake, and good French buttercream. At Bouchon, you can get excellent miniature versions for $6.95 in the two flavors they have this year: chocolate/hazelnut and vanilla/orange. Financier has a wider range of flavors for the yule logs. Both places also have other cakes available, like a chestnut cake at Financier, and actual delicious-looking fruit cakes at Bouchon.

In Midtown West, your choices are more limited. Donna Bell’s (49th btw 8th+9th) is hoping to have a few special holiday treats, other than the seasonal items they have now like their marshmallow sweet potato bar. You can also keep an eye on Sweetery’s Twitter, @SweeteryNYC (also on the ML Twitter Tracker) to see if they’ll be around; it looks like they might be roaming Midtown West during the evening all week. They’ll be having a variety of hand decorated sugar and gingerbread cookies available on the truck.

The out-of-bounds Leon Bakery (9th Ave. btw 47+48th), one of the greater Midtown area’s premiere purveyors of tamales (not to mention their selection of baked goods), is currently closed for renovations. From what I could see of the interior, the changes are extensive and the space will probably look much different. As long as there is still a barrel of tamales in the back, I’ll be happy. One of the workers told me they should reopen in the next few weeks. Can’t wait!

After tasting two of Potbelly’s three dessert options–I’m not counting the mini cookies as a real option–and being greatly surprised with the taste and quality of their cookies, I was anxious to try out the last dessert, the Dreambar. The Dreambar is a bar equivalent of their Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie in that it’s filled with chocolate chips and rolled oats. But there are some major differences that will steer you towards one or the other.

First, the bar is partly held together near the edge by some gooey apple taffy that tastes almost like an apple caramel. This gives the bar a distinctly, and almost overwhelming, sweet taste. Another difference is the use of shortening in the bar. When you use shortening in desserts, it stops the dessert from spreading, but it coats the inside of your mouth leaving you with a greasy mouth feel. Some people don’t mind this, some people even like this. The Dreambar isn’t heavy on the shortening, but it’s definitely there. I don’t know if it’s from the shortening, or simply the dense mass of the bar, but the whole bar felt heavy to me, like lead in my stomach. This is a dessert that I would probably stop eating halfway through, but not because it doesn’t taste good. If you’re a fan of bars or the oatmeal chocolate chip combination, this is definitely something to try out. But if you’re more of a cookie person, like myself, you’ll want to stick with those.

Potbelly Sandwich Shop has two locations in Midtown.  One on 44th btw. Lex+3rd and one in the Rock Center Concourse.

When I first heard about Schweddy Balls, Ben & Jerry’s latest Limited Edition flavor named for the classic Alec Baldwin SNL sketch, I had to go check the Rock Center shop to see if they had scoops. And come on, Schweddy Balls are tailor made for amusing interactions.

Me: “hi, I’d like a cup of Schweddy Balls.”
Woman in business suit next to me: “Getting some Schweddy Balls today?”
Me: “Yup.”
Woman in business suit next to me: “Me, too. Those are some good Schweddy Balls.”

Described as “Fair Trade vanilla ice cream with a hint of rum and loaded with fudge covered rum and milk chocolate malt balls.” I didn’t taste much rum in the actual ice cream base–tasted more than a rich vanilla to me–but the chewy mini rum balls delivered some boozy flavor. Not sure what the rum to malt ball ratio was supposed to be, but it seemed like in the cup that I had the there were way more rum balls than malt balls. If you look forward to the holidays for chocolate rum balls then you’ll be a fan.

Ben & Jerry’s, Rock Center Concourse, 212-218-7843