Maury Rubin Returns to Union Square with a "Chilly Mocha"
For the month of May, City Bakery will be popping up on West 16th Street with guests like Anne Rosenzweig!
City Bakery was the OG of everything people love right now – it was the busiest, buziest, most delicious bakery downtown (if not the entire city) serving crazy good croissants (and the original pretzel croissant), crispy craggly chocolate white chocolate chip cookies, and epic hot chocolates bobbing with homemade marshmallows, among other delicacies born of sugar and butter. The brainchild of baker and chocolate lover Maury Rubin, it opened in 1990, an age absent the viral frenzy of social media; imagine that: no Instagram, noTikTok, and the lines still formed. It was built on the considerable talents of its founding father, Maury Rubin.
I was a regular back in the day; I lived on 17th Street just off Irving Place in a tiny studio then, and I would pop in a couple of times a week for coffee and a croissant for breakfast, or a plate of salami and eggs for lunch, or mac and cheese, or whatever soup and salad Maury’s fantastic savory chef Ilene Rosen had whipped up from the nearby Union Square Greenmarket. The place was big and bright, with sky high ceilings and windows that stretched from sidewalk to the ceiling. It was always bustling, always with a que of folks waiting on their cookies, croissants and creamy hot chocolate, but it was a neighborhood place, so it was also easy to make a friend or two while waiting, and then sit awhile and listen to the conversations swirling around, to watch the world go by. It was a wonderful place.
Maury’s legendary Union Square bakery closed in 2019, but I’m happy to share that Maury (who I ran into at an event a few weeks ago, pictured below), is popping up starting Friday morning May 1 at at Another Country (10 East 16th Street, between Union Square and 5th Avenue) for the entire month, serving chilled chocolate drinks, a few cookies, puddings and pastries. Interestingly, Another Country is the same location as the bygone Chat N’ Chew, and just around the corner from the ORIGINAL City Bakery at 22 East 17th Street.
“This is my first time back to the neighborhood since I closed the bakery,” he wrote on Instagram. “This will be a one month residency of old and new food and drinks that I’m excited to get started serving. I’ve recently been preoccupied with chocolate and coffee, hence the morning hours, the better to shine a spotlight on “My Chilly Mocha”, and I promise for the month of May, this will be the tastiest mocha in and around Union Square.”
Maury won’t have an oven on site, so baking is limited though there will be a few blasts from the City Bakery past. To fill up his pastry case, he’s inviting in friends from the business “whose pastry I admire, love and/or crave,” he said.
Kicking off the month in style, is the legendary Anne Rosenzweig (!), who is reviving her Chocolate Bread Pudding that once ruled the dining room at her restaurant Arcadia. “Many moons ago I ate that very Chocolate Bread Pudding at Arcadia before I ever began baking,” Murray said. Expect Anne at the start of the month and again during the second half. Follow Maury, The Color of Chocolate, on Instagram for further details on hours and guest chefs. Can’t wait!!
While I have you here, I wanted to share my most recent piece for Eater, a piece exploring DIY design hacks used by restaurateurs trying to save some cash in tight times. It’s pretty amazing what they’re doing with a can of spray paint and some old plumbing pipe.
Also, a reminder that paid subscribers to The Strong Buzz have access to the Restaurant Help Line — a private email that goes straight to me to help you sort out your dining questions— where to go for your daughter’s Sweet 16 dinner, where to reserve for a boozy celebration lunch with your gluten-free pals, what bars have the best snacks, and on and on. Paid subscribers also get tickets to The Strong Buzz Salon, intimate events hosted by me with some of my favorite chefs, somms, and restaurateurs. Sign up now and be the first to access tickets for the next Salon at ChaCha Tang on May 20th.
OMG! I loved City Bakery. I didn’t live nearby, but I was often in the area and went every chance I got. Your photo brought back so many memories of that space—the vibrancy, the tall ceilings. A friend and I had a yearly tradition: we’d go just for the hot chocolate with the enormous marshmallow. I could never finish it, so I’d take it home and eat it like pudding the next day.