Why Cosi doesn’t want you to eat their bread, Midtown Links, & the end of the week wrap up

Yesterday I decided to bring my lunch to work.  (Oh, the horror!)  I know, I’m a traitor… but I’ve gotta do it.  A few days a week, I attempt to eat healthier and save a little money by bringing food from home.  Usually it’s a salami sandwich, or peanut butter and jelly (cute, right?)… yesterday, it was some leftover lamb stew that I had made for dinner on Tuesday night.  But you can’t eat stew without bread, so before I nuked that sucker, I went across the street to the Hidden Cosi to get a piece of their delcious, freshly baked bread.

Figuring it would cost a buck, I was shocked when I went to pay, and I was charged $2 (plus tax!!!)  For a piece of bread.  I figured it would cost a buck.  That makes sense, right?  No meat.  No cheese, or veggies.  Just a plain piece of bread.  The difference between $1 and $2 is not the end of the world- but I expected to pay a dollar. 

Now, there are a lot of reasons I shouldn’t mind paying Cosi $2 for a piece of bread… 

    1. Their bread is awesome
    2. It’s fresh out of the oven
    3. It’s New York City.  Shit is expensive.  Deal with it.

But I’ve got one reason Cosi shoudn’t charge me $2 whole bucks for a plain piece of bread:

 

 

That’s right.  They give it away for free while you wait online!!!  Granted it’s only a piece, but imagine how much bread they give away every minute they’re open.  Everyone on line takes a piece (it’s part of the fun of eating at Cosi).  Then of course there’s that lady who is real slow in line so she can finish the first piece she took quick enough to take a second piece before the bowl is behind her.  And my favorite- the guy who takes a piece AFTER he’s already eaten his sandwich and is on the way out (classy!). 

But my real point is this…  don’t be greedy Cosi.  You could afford to charge just $1 for a piece of bread…  Why not let your customers feel like their getting a bargain.

And then I realized it…  they don’t want you to buy a piece of bread.  Not for a buck.  Not for $2.  If they could charge $5, they probably would.  They want you to buy their $8 sandwiches.  This is their worst nightmare:

 

 

Sell bread for a buck, and you’ll have guys like me- buying the bread and taking it back to their desk to enjoy with something they brought from home.  The best part of Cosi, without having to pay $8 for a whole sandwich.  Hell, I could even buy the bread, and build my own sandwich at my desk with turkey I bring from home.  Now that’s a brilliant idea.  I’m onto you Cosi… consider yourself warned (I don’t even know what that means.)

The best Midtown Soups, free food at work, the loss of two fancy Midtown spots & a preview of next week’s posts- after the jump…

MIDTOWN LINKS

Finally… if you haven’t heard already, Midtown is home to one of the greatest battles to ever be waged in the history of New York City restaurants.  Kobe Club, a new swanky Midtown steakhouse on 58th St. btw. 5+6th was given a Zero by the New York Times last week.  This week, all hell broke loose when the owner took out a full page ad in the Times Food Section going to town on their food reviewer, Frank Bruni.  If your company doesn’t give you an expense account, you probably won’t be eating at Kobe Club anytime soon- but it’s still pretty funny, and right in our hood!  Here’s the letter/ad that appear in the Times and then hop over to Eater for the full coverage- including the newly kindled fight between Kobe Club, and Quality Meats- another steak house, right across the street.

Coming up in the next week or two on Midtown Lunch… an Indian Buffet that is under $10, a Chinese buffet that is under $8, and of course… more fried chicken!  See you next week…

 

4 Comments

  • Now I am onto Cosi as well. Ha!
    Tangent: That was a great article on free food… I brought some Dunkin Donuts to work here the 2nd month I was here. I had not really seen anyone else bring in treats, but it’s a regualar part of office life… so I thought! People acted like I had dark ulterior motives. “Why did you bring those? You BOUGHT them? For work?! Hmph.”
    It’s kind of sad. But now I feel better for sharing. Happy Friday!

  • As someone who often brings a partial lunch to work, this Cosi piece hit close to home. I sometimes get bread at Mangia 47th (b/w madison and 5th). One very large slice of whole wheat is 50 cents and can be cut in half for a perfectly decent sized sandwich, toasted in my kitchen at work. Yes I’m aware this is very sad… At least the very nice woman at the bread counter has stopped giving me strange looks…

  • Yum…. I do love their bread. Hey, if you want to be really chintzy, you can always just steal from that bread bowl. Haha see how they like that!

  • That is hilarious. I love Cosi bread too but wouldn’t pay $2 for it either!!

    On tuesdays and thursdays, Cosi puts a coupon that lets you take off $2 for pizza, salad or sandwiches in AM New York (free newspaper for commuters).

    That’s the only reason I go there – a sandwich for less than $6 is a pretty good deal. haha!

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