Midtown Lunch

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.

Earlier this week we heard the new that Hello Pasta will launch its fast food pasta empire in Midtown this June, and was so distracted by the imminent arrival of “the Starbucks or Pinkberry of pasta” we neglected to mention Nooï, a French import and the OTHER fast food pasta chain that’s moving in this summer. Early reports place the soon-to-come Nooï at 41st and Lexington so, naturally, I went looking for it. With Pret a Manger dominating one corner and Cafe Metro, Barami clothing store, and Everyday Gourmet Deli swallowing the others, it was hard to tell where French pasta would fit in. The only vacant-looking spot was the recently shuttered Zaro’s Bakery location on 41st btw. Lex & Park, which looked pretty sad under scaffolding. We’ll keep our eyes peeled for the new place, but let us know if you find it first. In any case, prepare yourself for a fast food pasta face-off! (Yum?)

One of my very first Zaro’s memories is having Chocolate Hamantaschen for breakfast after training into the city from Connecticut to decide if I wanted to attend NYU.  I can’t say that the hamantaschen were so good that they tipped the scales, but they certainly didn’t hurt.  Sadly, for the past couple of years I’ve had a hard time finding Zaro’s chocolate hamantaschen, but this year they are back!

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