Midtown Lunch

When Oceana (49th btw 6+7th) opened their lobster cart last week, I was less interested in the lobster roll (too expensive!) and more interested in the cookie they’re serving! I stopped by the other day just in time to snag one- it turns out the cart closes up promptly at 2 o’clock. The “Smooshed” cookie ($2) is a mix of oatmeal cookie dough and chocolate-chocolate chip cookie dough smooshed together before baking. As a long-time fan of oatmeal chocolate-chip cookies, I figured this would be good.

The cookie is full of butter making it large in diameter, but thin from spreading. Even with the thin-ness, the cookie is chewy and quite toothsome from the oats. The chocolate dough isn’t very heavy on the cocoa or the chips leaving the oatmeal to be the prevalent flavor. Considering the size and price of the cookie, I’d say this is the perfect deal for an afternoon snack, or REALLY good for making into a ice cream sandwich!  It’s a little too late to score one of these today, but I know where I’ll be just before 2pm tomorrow.

After heading out of Keen’s the other day, I passed by the pizza shop on the corner and discovered a brand new snack option: A gelato stand up and running just in time for summer. I didn’t have a chance to try it out, but check out the price list after the jump.

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If you follow Momofuku Milkbar on Twitter, it does sort of seem like the original bakery in the East Village gets all the fun. They’re bigger (and they just expanded!) so they can carry more items. Perhaps the biggest rub (at least for me) was that the East Village soft serve menu rotates while the midtown location has been serving the same cereal milk and salty pistachio since they launched. This week however, that’s all about to change. According to Eater “the soft serve flavors will rotate at all of the Milk Bars at the same time, once every three months” and according to @momomilkbar they now have blackberry/kaffir lime soft serve. Can’t wait to try it out. Early adopters, let us know what you think in the comments.

Ma Peche and Milk Bar, 15 W. 56th St. btw 5th+6th Ave, 212-555-1212

This week’s Twitter Tracker has been abuzz with news of W&D’s new speculoos ice cream. Seeing as Blondie and I were among the original proponents of ice cream dinges back in the day, I had to go check this out.

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Today Robicelli’s is debuting “Pizza Grana” a cupcake take on the traditional Italian dish “Pastiera di Grano” or “Grain Pie” which is basically an orange-scented ricotta cheesecake filled with cooked wheatberries and a must for the traditional Italian Easter table. The cupcake is composed of Italian citrus cake, ricotta & wheatberry buttercream, pie crust shards. They’ll be delivering to Schnitzel & Things (the brick & morter on 3rd btw. 45+46th) and Joe GCT. Call ahead to Joe because of space they get a limited selection of the cupcakes, usually two of the four flavors.

A month or so ago, Sweetery NYC (formerly Street Sweets) begun carrying ice cream sandwiches. This ice cream sandwich expert saw the flavor combinations and knew that the sandwiches were coming from Melt Bakery. If any of you stopped by the Hester Street Fair last summer, you might have stopped by their booth. And even though the weather hasn’t fully turned to wonderful out, it’s always the time for ice cream. Even if that ice cream comes completely frozen and will set you back a pretty penny.

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This year tax day is a few days later than the usual April 15th deadline and if you kick it old school and mail in an actual copy of your return you may find yourself taking a trip to the James Farley Post Office (on 8th Ave. btw. 31+32nd). My last year’s recommendation of NY Pizza Suprema still holds, but if you need something sweet to dull the pain of having to pay more taxes (or celebrate your refund!) then you might consider a stroll down the block to D’Aiuto’s.

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For those of you who looked forward to Lily O’Brien’s Monday and Friday Robicelli’s deliveries, effective this week, the Robicelli’s have terminated their relationship. The  good news is their cupcakes are now available at Joe the Art of Coffee in Grand Central Terminal. Joe gets delivers on Monday, Wednesday and Friday (so they’ll be fresher mid-week) and best of all, they are selling the cupcakes for $3 instead of $3.50 at Lily’s. For flavor schedule, you can follow Robicelli’s Tumblr, though be aware that because of space constraints Joe doesn’t get all of their flavors… so if you’re very particular about which one you want, you may want to call ahead.

Joe The Art of Coffee, Graybar Passage (off Lex.) in Grand Central Terminal, 212-661-8580

We get a lot of press releases in the ML inbox–most of which we ignore, especially if they have to do with “Sandra Lee, world-famous food personality”.  But I am a sucker for a bake sale, and tomorrow Pyrex is sponsoring the World’s Largest Bake Sale to benefit The Food Bank of New York. It will feature “sweet and savory baked goods from 30 of New York’s most well-respected chefs and restaurants, including: Ciao Bella Gelato, Junior’s Restaurant, Magnolia, Manhattan Chili Company, Murray’s, Zaro’s as well as Del Posto and Fresco by Scotto. The bake sale will be in Vanderbilt Hall at Grand Central Terminal from 11:30 to 7pm.

It’s St. Patrick’s Day! Timing for the eating o’ the green treats. If you’re courageous enough to brave the emerald clad revelers, there are some St. Patty’s Day treats awaiting you at Treats Truck including: cupcakes, crispy treats, and four leaf clover sugar cookies. And Robicellis is now delivering to Joe the Art of Coffee in Grand Central on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so Joe should have a selection of their holiday cupcakes: Irish Soda Bread (with a clotted cream buttercream & Drambuie soaked raisins), Irish Coffee (Bailey’s-espresso cake & buttercream, ganache, crushed white chocolate) and the Car Bomb (Chocolate Guinness stout cake, Bailey’s buttercream, Jameson whiskey ganache). Lily O’Brien’s will be getting a delivery of these flavors tomorrow for those of you still celebrating on Friday (or needing something to get over your hangover).

Also Shake Shack is serving up Mint Chocolate Chip Custard, and if you tell your server “Get Lucky” at The Counter in Times Square they’ll give you a green beer or green shake for just $3. “Like” The Counter on Facebook and show it to them (on your phone or a printout) they’ll give you the shake for free.