Archive for 'Free Stuff'

City Kitchen Celebrates Its First Birthday!

From my inbox, open to the public:

Join us at City Kitchen on Thursday, March 31st for a birthday celebration!

New York City’s favorite food hall is celebrating its first full year of operation with the patrons that made it all possible. Each City Kitchen vendor will be passing out complimentary appetizer that will include Luke’s Lobster mini shrimp rolls, Gabriela’s mini tacos, Whitman’s upstate sliders, Dough’s mini doughnut holes, and an assortment of Azuki sushi samples. Vendors like Kuro Obi will also be creating specials in honor of the big day. Come to City Kitchen to taste them before they are off the menu! Guests who attend the event will enjoy cake, entertainment and more!

We hope you can make it!

WHO: City Kitchen & Row NYC
WHAT: City Kitchen’s 1st Birthday
WHERE: City Kitchen at Row NYC
700 8th Avenue
New York, NY 10036
WHEN: Thursday, March 31st
5:00-9:00pm

Freeloaders, engage!

Free Hot Beverages, Citi Sweet Treats NYC, and the NY Mets

Monday-Friday now through December 21, visit www.citi.com/desserts for locations where you can meet Mets players and score a free beverage (and sometimes sweet snacks) (if you show them your Citi card, debit or credit).

Right now, they’re parked outside 399 Park Ave (in front of the Citi branch there) with Dub Pies, Kimchi Taco, Red Hook Lobster Pound and… JOHN FRANCO!! New York City boy through and through.

I’ll be there! Will you?

Keep checking www.citi.com/desserts for when they’ll be near you – they’re going to be all over Manhattan including Union Square, Bryant Park, and perhaps farther downtown.

FREELOADERS ENGAGE.

Edit: check out pics from my visit at the trucks, after the jump!

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Free Orange Chicken Is Coming to Midtown (And Panda Express is Bringing Me Along With Them)

It might have taken years, but Panda Express has finally listened to my plea! This week the New York Times reported that Panda Express is coming to NYC.  They have plans to open up locations on the Upper East Side (69th and 1st) followed by the Bronx, and then potentially Midtown next year (on 8th Ave. and 31st).  My love of Chinese steam tables is well documented, and here in Los Angeles Panda Express is hands down the best there is (see: orange chicken burrito). Some are skeptical (I’m looking at you Chang + Sietsema) and I admit that Panda will probably not replace your favorite egg roll/pork fried rice/general tso’s delivery spot.  But they’ve perfected the Chinese food fast food point-to-what-you-want model, specifically the orange chicken/chow mein combo that so few steam tables manage to get right.

Anyway, when I saw that they’d be bringing a food truck to Midtown to hand out free orange chicken in my favorite neighborhood in the country I begged them to take me with… and they agreed! (What can I say.  I miss you guys… and if shilling for my favorite fast food place in L.A. gets me a trip to hang with you, I’ll take it.)

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Honorary Good Humor Man Keith Hernandez Serving Up Free Ice Cream

Baseball legend Keith Hernandez will be joined by Mr. and Mrs. Met tomorrow at the SNY Plaza on 51st Street between 5th and 6th Avenue to kick off the Good Humor Summer of Joy campaign by giving out free frozen treats. In their mission to bring joy across the neighborhoods of NYC, there will also be chances to win Mets tickets and take Joy Rides in Good Humor Pedicabs.

After today, the Good Humor Joy Squad will roam the city for the next 3 weeks with more free frozen treats and surprises. Check out their twitter @GoodHumor for details, though here is their schedule for the next three days:

Looks like this is the only day this week they’re in Midtown, but… freeloaders, engage!

(PS Hatred and verbal abuse of the Mets will not be tolerated here!)

Here’s Where We’re Getting our Free Donut Today

Dough Doughnuts at CultureI don’t condone making sweets your entire lunch, but don’t waste free food opportunities! Today is National Donut Day, which means you can score a free Krispy Kreme flavor of your choice. Unfortunately, at Dunkin’ you have to first pay for a drink, before receiving a free donut (though if you already run on Dunkin’ coffee, this one’s a no brainer.)
If you’re more for “artisanal” New York-based donuts, head to Dough inside the newish City Kitchen. Dough blows the competition away with amazingly airy texture and unique flavors, including a new matcha flavor launching today. Sorry, it’s not free, but if you buy 6, you’re entered to win a year’s supply of donuts. Now THAT wouldn’t be diabetes-inducing at all. Hope you get your donut fix today!

Free Peanut Butter and Stumptown Alert

Today (March 31) & Tomorrow (April 1) between 7:30 am and 1:30pm, and 4pm – 7pm at The Corner at the Roger Smith Hotel (47th St and Lexington Avenue), the peanut people will be hosting a pop-up with actual peanut farmers, breakfast and snack samples, and much more. If you missed the promo of free Peanut Butter & Co. pb&j sandwiches being delivered to your office on Monday, this is your opportunity to grab some other goodies. Details here.

If that isn’t enough freebies for you, you can also score a free 12 oz Stumptown coffee from the Shake Shack in Grand Central Terminal with purchase of a breakfast sandwich on Tuesday, 3/31 only, from 7am – 10:30am.

Freeloaders, engage!

Wasabi Sushi & Bento Celebrates Anniversary With Free Onigiri: Wasabi Sushi & Bento (on 7th Ave. and 40th Street) is celebrating their first NYC birthday. To commemorate the occasion – through February 28th – they'll be giving away one seaweed or salmon onigiri to any customer who tags @Wasabi_NYC on any of their social media accounts (Instagram/Facebook/Twitter).  All you have to do is show your post at checkout. Freeloaders, engage!

Nutella & Dominique Ansel Team Up to Celebrate International Pancake Day

AKA Mardi Gras, you know, Fat Tuesday.

From 11am until 4pm today at Vanderbilt Hall in Grand Central Terminal, there will be complimentary samples of Nutella with pancakes, a custom Nutella pancake bar, and photo opps with Nutella props. Chef Ansel also designed the limited edition Pancake Cone (pictured) to help celebrate. Freeloaders, engage!

Update: At 1:25pm, there was no line for silver dollar pancakes with Nutella nor the pancake bar with customizable toppings. There was a line of roughly 50-75 people for the Pancake Cones being served by Chef Dominique himself, and I was told there were about 350 more to go (Chef will leave once they’re done). I think if you ask nicely, he’ll even pose for a picture with you…

Japan Week at Grand Central Means Food Samples: Starting Wednesday, Japan Week comes to Vanderbilt Hall. It's mostly an event to drive tourism, but what we care about are the foods on offer in their version of a Japanese department store food market. You can sample ramen and mazeman noodles, miso soup, tofu and takoyaki, as well as some sweets. Hours are 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday, and 1o a.m. to 7 p.m. Friday, but you might want to go early to avoid the masses and ensure you get some samples.

Get Free Nutelasagna Today at 4pm

The incredible Robicelli’s have created a new dessert mash-up that puts that over-hyped cronut to shame. Normally, their Nutelasagna (a baked lasagna made with Nutella, cannoli cream, chopped chocolate, and marshmallows) is only available at their Bay Ridge bakery, which is a bit far for most of us in Midtown.

But the amazing news is that today you can get a taste of this for free in Midtown. They will be giving out 200 free half portions of the creation at the Renaissance Hotel (48th and 7th) today beginning at 4pm. I’d get there early if possible because it can’t last long.