I saw a fairly large fire on my way to see the fireworks tonight. It was in an industrial building at the corner of North 9th Street and Wythe Avenue in Williamsburg.
That's right... It's the strange result of Dunkin' Donuts owning the Togo's chain of sandwich shops, which has free-standing locations on the West Coast. Here in the East, Togo's apparently was dual- or triple-branded with Dunkin' Donuts and Baskin-Robins. In the late 1990s the name "Dunkin' Deli" replaced Togo's in these locations.
From the outside, apart from some Dunkin' Deli labeling, this looks like an average Dunkin' Donuts. On the inside, for the most part, this still looks like an average Dunkin' Donuts, especially now that practically all Dunkin' Donuts' offer hot food items. However, the menu board is extended to include the deli sandwiches, with selections such as a Chicken Bruschetta Sandwich and a Turkey and Bacon Club Sandwich.
I've had both the chicken bruschetta and turkey/bacon club sandwiches. Both had the hot toasted taste of Quiznos, and both were loaded with onions. The tomatoes on my recent turkey/bacon club had no flavor.
Boston Market, with only two locations, is extremely rare in Manhattan. The location I visited was directly outside the 23rd Street Station of the 8th Avenue Subway (C,E).
Boston Market, like many other chains, has recently lowered its prices, with many lunches and dinners now costing around five dollars. For a mere $5.23 (including tax), I received half a chicken sandwich, a decent serving of stuffing, and a medium beverage (free refills). However, a friend of mine, an experienced Boston Market guest, did note that the serving size has decreased over the years. Nevertheless, my lunch cost me a good three dollars less than I expected.
Boston Market also provides catering. This card on the table provided for some good laughs. Note the primary upsell item of the different packages is the level of dinnerware included. The Silver Package comes with disposable dinnerware, the Gold Package comes with "upgraded disposable dinnerware", while the Platinum Package comes with china. That's right, you can have your Boston Market on China!
Inside NYU's Weinstein Residence Hall, 5-11 University Place (northeast corner of Washington Square). Closed on Sundays and possibly during the summer and other times when classes are not in session.New York City's only Chick-Fil-A is in the Weinstein Residence Hall of NYU, right off Washington Square. It is part of a food court near the entrance that is open to the public. To get to the food court, go straight in until you reach the dining area and then pass through a turnstile to the right. If you hit the Kosher area, you've gone too far!
While it's true that this is a heat-lamped "express" location, I doubt my sandwich was out for more than five minutes since I went during lunch time. The easily accessible items were fried and grilled chicken sandwiches, some kind of chicken nugget-style items in boxes, and waffle fries. There was also a sign to ask if you were looking for something else. My fries were made on demand.
The special sauces were passed out under the watchful control of the staff. It appeared the limit was two. I took one barbecue sauce an I thought it was plenty. Mints, mayonnaise, and mustard were on the customer side of the counter, so I took a bunch.
Since this is a college food court, all counters share the same beverage selection, as well as big ketchup and mustard pumps past the registers.
This was the first time I had Chick-Fil-A and I found the fried chicken sandwich quite tasty. It had rather thin breading, and lots of chicken, which was to my liking. I also like the fact that it's just chicken and a couple pickle pieces, allowing you full control of the rest. (It appears McDonalds and KFC have copied this concept recently).
Price: $6.12 including tax for fried chicken sandwich, waffle fries, and a medium soda. A trip to NYC's only Chick-Fil-A is definitely worth it.
It took five minutes for service to arrive. I could have walked over to the Nathan's counter, but I was curious how long it would take. I ordered a Gold Rush Chicken Sandwich combo and was given the choice of several sides such as fries, cold slaw, and mashed potatoes. I chose fries. My soda was also served to me and I made my way over to the cashier.
...At least what that this flyer sent to me by a San Francisco wireless carrier called CREDO Mobile claims. I find that rather disturbing, but who am I to tell my phone how to vote?
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A federal appeals court said on Tuesday that a new rule requiring New York City fast food restaurants to post calorie information on menu boards is effective immediately.
It's a done deal: NYC calorie-count rule effective immediately: court
I've already become used to these menu boards at Subway, which has had them for over a year because they have nothing to hide:
The slightly more-caloric chains fought the legislation since it might cause customers to reconsider their choice:
One of the claims was that adding the calorie information would the make the menu impossible to read. Here is what Dunkin' Donuts presented:
And here is how New York City responded:
Just another health-inspired law from the first major city to ban smoking and trans fats!
Photo Credit: Most of these photos are from Menu Board Calories Arrive in New York on "Weighty Matters" where they are licensed under a Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Canada license.
While the newkai.com domain will be sticking around, I killed the over-eight-year-old "The New Kai" concept of this website. Not only was it horribly out of date content and design-wise, much of it was broken!
"The New Kai" concept was based on fifteen-to-eighteen-year-old me and simply had to be discarded of. I now work about fifty hours a week, spend six-plus hours in the gym, enjoy nightlife, and sleep most of the weekend to recuperate from the previous three. It was time for me to upgrade to a much simpler content management system.
Any of the worthy content from the old site will be carried over here eventually. You'll already find a link to my two photo sites in the "pages" section of the main page. I might even bring back the KaiCams sometime, although I think they'll be a little more outdoors oriented this time! They certainly did a lot for the uniqueness of this site.
Even maintaining a website in this age of Facebook is a struggle. See my post about this last year.
Here are images I dug up of newkai.com versions 1 & 2:
I'm finally freeing myself of frames on newkai.com. While they improved the site's appearance back in the day, there's no use for them in 2008. And last but not least, there's no more 18-year-old me frozen all over the screen!
One of the first things you learn upon arriving in New York City is that Starbucks contain the quasi-public bathrooms of this epicenter of Western civilization. There are two major reason for this:
The "Starbucks law" will help you out a lot. However, if you find yourself in a pedestrian-heavy areas, you might find yourself in a ridiculously long line several times longer than the coffee line.
That's where the New York City Public Toilet Map comes in... The preview on the site doesn't show you too many examples, but it does mention the SoHo Apple Store. I've been in there at least a dozen times and never even realized it had a public bathroom.
I don't own this map (yet), but happened to find myself in SoHo on Saturday, when it was packed by European tourists spending the formerly valuable currency known as the dollar. There was a line of about 20 at Starbucks on Spring Street by Lafayette Street. Fortunately I remembered that there's a Bloomingdales around the corner with three sets of bathrooms. There was no line.
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