About a month ago, I headed into the city to take care of some business (read: go on an interview of sorts). After my interview, I went to bid Matsugen farewell, had a lovely lunch, then continued northwards to Convivio for dinner with the ladies of FBM. Yes, you read that right: I went to two different restaurants in one day that both wound up closing a few days later (one expected, one completely unexpected). In any case, on my way to Convivio, I met up with TC, who decided to buy me a congratulatory treat because…
I got the job! 🙂
Since March 7th, I’ve been writing a daily column for CBS New York called “Today’s Lunch Break” – spotlighting three places for lunch, giving you ideas as to what you should eat for lunch. You can find it here under the tag “lunch break” usually, but always under “best of” – though you’ll have to shuffle through some other articles as well. But if you want to keep up always, I post a link on my Facebook fan page every day, and on my Twitter – so why aren’t you a fan or following me?! 😉 The column covers the tristate area, and I am always looking for new places, so if you have any suggestions, recommendations, places you’d like to see up there – let me know!
As for the treat – we hit up Lily O’Brien’s, ostensibly to pick up some Robicelli’s cupcakes, but they only had two in the case, and they both looked rather sad. Given that they weren’t the flavors I knew the Robicelli’s had dropped off that day (from their Twitter), I opted out and then noticed…
Macarons! You know how I adore macarons, right? I had an idea that these wouldn’t be bisous ciao caliber – after all, those are, in my humblest opinion, the very best in all of the city (and I’ve had macarons from nearly every single place that does them), and, well, they only do macarons. You know the saying “learn how to do one thing, and do it well”? bisous ciao really takes that to heart. But I’m not here to tell you about them, sorry –
You want to know about these. Well, I was pleasantly surprised when the blue-gray one, the special flavor of the day, was Earl Grey. I thought it might be blueberry, but nope! I have this weird fondness for Earl Grey tea flavored desserts, even though the tea itself has long ago fallen out of my favor (seriously, after being gifted so much Earl Grey tea that I could set up shop myself, I’m done). The other was caramel.
Unfortunately, I didn’t manage to get any cross-section photos… mostly because as soon as we bit into these, they sort of exploded. The shell wasn’t quite as delicate as I equate to being a macaron; the inside schmear wasn’t chewy, just buttery, a little greasy, and heavy. Actually, as they warmed up from chilled to room temperature, the middle part melted, leaving the cookie halves to slide apart and together in a complete mess.
The Earl Grey flavor was pronounced in the filling, and really was quite nice, even though it was not macaron-filling-texture. The cookie part of the Earl Grey was muted in terms of flavor, but with a strongly-flavored filling, that worked. But as I already said, the overall texture just wasn’t right. Sadface.
As for the caramel one, biting into that at room temperature, the filling squished out and reminded me of eating warm butter. In a bad way. Because it tasted like warm butter and sugar, and nothing else. Eek.
TC and I both agreed that these were not very good macarons, though I thanked him profusely for being so sweet. (I’m not ungrateful, the thought was much appreciated, and I chose them; gift or not, however, I cannot lie and say these were amazing!)
Yvo says: Unfortunately, the macarons are a solid pass. If this was your first experience with a macaron, it would make me very, very sad. There are plenty of other offerings at Lily O’Brien’s that it doesn’t mean you should skip over them – they have chocolates, coffee drinks, chocolate drinks, but you should definitely avoid the macarons. Maybe they’ll stop making those if no one buys them… or figure out what’s wrong with their recipe and fix it! (Macarons are NOT easy to make properly! It truly is an art form.)
macarons are not recommended
Lily O’Brien’s
36 W. 40th Street
New York, NY 10018
(212) 575-0631
http://www.lilyscafenyc.com/
TT says
Did you hear that Robicelli’s dumped Lily? I guess Matt & Allison heard enough of the poor care of the cupcakes by Lily staff. Boo to frozen then defrosted cupcakes sold as “fresh.”
Feisty Foodie says
I didn’t know how the ‘break up’ happened, but I knew they were no longer being served, yes. I am happy in that now Robicelli’s cupcakes are no longer being served as defrosted sad versions of themselves.
T.C. says
The Earl Grey was just okay. Wasn’t Tea-licious enough for me.
The only things I like about Lily’s are their dark hot chocolate and illy’s coffee.
And Robicelli’s does have a new home – Joe The Art of Coffee in Grand Central. Maybe enough people complained and/or they wanted to pair up with Doughnut Plant. 😛
Congrats again with the new job.
Feisty Foodie says
Thanks again TC! Yay for the new home of Robicelli’s, can’t wait to check them out at Joe.
Hungry says
Would you call yourself a macaron snob?
Feisty Foodie says
Depends what you mean by snob. I don’t care where you came from or who made you, if they are French or not. I just want you to taste good, taste the way a macaron is supposed to taste, feel the way it should, or call yourself a sandwich cookie.
Case in point: I had macarons last night from a caterer. They were really good texturally. The flavor was a little too dense/chocolatey for me, but they were spot on with how to make a macaron.
TT says
Uncle David makes a mean macaron!
rosemary says
I just had these yesterday and thought they were very good…in fact excellent. They are not made by Lily O’Brien’s but Macaron Parlour ..I had the earl gray, peanut butter, red velvet, nutella flavors. I would get them again…I can understand the cupcakes not liking how they were handled as the one guy behind the counter had no clue to much in the store. Pretty sad I thought considering the prices of the chocolates and such…….
Feisty Foodie says
Perhaps I went on an off day? The ones I had were terrible. The texture was completely off from what I know a macaron should be, and the filling was just buttery in a bad way. If I pass by again, I might drop in for another one. Thanks for the info!