Midtown Lunch

I don’t know how we missed out on this one but Oscar Meyer was giving away free hot dogs in Times Square today, and apparently Mario Lopez was here as well! He’s appearing in A Chorus Line half a block away, so
it’s unclear whether he was here as part of the promotion or he just wanted a free hot dog. Either way, he was gone by the time I got here, and the wienermobile is pulling away now. Damn you A.C. Slater!!!

The new location of Joe and the Art of Coffee is scheduled to open tomorrow (6/11) in the graybar passage of Grand Central (enter off of Lex).  But according to an email they sent to “regular customers” they’ll be doing a “dress rehearsal” from 4 to 6pm today (Tuesday, 6/10) where they’ll be serving FREE coffee drinks and snacks.” 

Photo courtesy of Blondie and Brownie, the tip came courtesy of Tina “The Wandering Eater“.

Sorry for the spam, but as long as people want to give you guys free stuff, I will keep posting about it.  Tomorrow (Friday) is National Doughnut Day, and in honor of this most exciting occasion (I’m sorry but I freakin’ love doughnuts more than anything) the Krispy Kreme in Penn Station will be giving away free doughnuts all day long.  They’re open from 6am to 10pm.  [NYMag] 

(Photo courtesy of Roboppy)

Tomorrow is the grand opening of the new (enormous) Starbucks inside the (I can’t believe you’re doing this to the) Empire State Building (entrance on 34th St. btw. 5+6th), and it looks like alot of people are leaving with free stuff. I got this email from Midtown Lunch’er Claire:

They’re giving away free everything at the brand new Empire St. building Starbucks, according to my co-workers who keep streaming past me with all their big Starbucks cups. I’m going now, hoping to score some kind of brownie!

Not so fast freeloaders… the promotion is an invite only friends and family thing, which they have opened up to the tenants of the Empire State Building.  So, if you work in that building (350 5th Ave.), grab your ID and head down from some free stuff. The rest of us will just have to wait until tomorrow don’t care.

After yesterdays “free cake” lameness we need a bonafide free food day!  Better yet- how about a double free food day!  Got two messages in the old Inbox with news of free lunches…

Even though Golden Krust (on 8th Ave. btw. 39+40th) opened back in March, there is a sign at the restaurant advertising some kind of Grand Opening celebration taking place on Friday from 12-4pm, including a promise of free food. I didn’t stop in to ask what that will consist of… but the sign promised music, giveaways, and free food.

And if that wasn’t enough, there is new Pret a Manger opening up, also looking to give out some free food tomorrow.  The email about that, after the jump…     Read more »

Gothamist broke the news late yesterday, and the details are confirmed on the Pillsbury Website… Today from 11am to 2pm on Park Ave. btw. 50+51st the Pillsbury Dough Boy will be giving out free slices of a gigantic cake shaped like the United States.  It’s part of some sort of charity tour organized by Pillsbury, and as silly as the whole thing sounds, when free cake is involved, I try not to ask too many questions.  [Pillsbury Website via Gothamist]

Apparently free cuban food is more of a draw than free frozen yogurt… it’s almost halfway through organic’s free frozen yogurt day (it ends at 3pm), and the scene is oddly calm. There’s more of a line over at Pampano Taqueria.

Wait time at 1pm was under 5 minutes, but they still managed to make it annoying by saying “Welcome to Yorganic, where the toppings are organic” when you order, *and* when they hand you your free frozen
yogurt. Yeah, we get it. It’s organic.

Avoid this by ordering one of the non-organic toppings. I got a pretty surly “Not organic capn crunch.”

On Thursday from 11am to 3pm, Yorganic, a new frozen yogurt place in the same basement food court as Pampano Taqueria, and the new Sophie’s Cuban (which had their own free food day a month ago), will be giving out free servings of their frozen yogurt. 

As you know, we’ve been burned by offers of “free yogurt” before, so I confirmed with the owner- it’s a 5oz serving of yogurt with one topping.  (I don’t know if that’s alot, but i’m pretty sure it’s more than a thimble full.)  As you can see from the flier above, they’ll have another free yogurt day on May 27th from 11am to 3pm, exclusively for the tenants of the building- but it’s unclear exactly how they are going to differentiate from the average freeloaders (check building IDs perhaps?)  Might be worth a shot on the 27th if you work in the building next door- but if you don’t want to chance it, tomorrow is the day.

Thanks to Gracenotes NYC for the orginal heads up…

UPDATE: Plus I totally forgot to mention that our Downtown Lunch Correspondent Daniel Krieger took some sweet ass yogurt photos, and forwarded them along (did we mention he does weddings too?).  Check out the yogurt w/ topping porn, after the jump   Read more »

Just got this from the Volstead (on 54th btw. Park+Lex), the restaurant which has been giving away free lunches to Midtown Lunch readers every Tuesday this month:

Wanted to give you a heads up that we have to postpone today’s free lunch for two weeks. The water department has shut down the water for the entire block and a few blocks of Lexington! Since we can’t get a straight answer as to when it will be turned back on, and we’re completely booked for next week we will honor all of today’s reservations in two weeks, Tuesday June 3rd. We’re trying to contact as many people as humanly possible that have reservations today.

This probably has something to do with yesterdays water main break on 57th btw. 5+6th, although strangely enough, it’s business as usual at most of the restaurants in the vicinity- including the Cosi (on 56th btw. Mad+Park), La Strada (on 56th btw. Lex+Park), Fika Espresso Bar (58th btw. 5+6th), Tina’s Restaurant (56th btw. 5+6th) & the Burger Joint (56th btw. 6+7th).