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New York’s bodegas already excel at feeding us quickly, affordably and at nearly any hour. But on September 17, five Manhattan shops are getting some unusually decorated guest cooks—and handing out their food for free.
Eight award-winning chefs and culinary personalities will step behind the counters of bodegas, delis and corner stores for “The Most Legendary Lunch Break,” a one-day CookUnity pop-up running from 11:30am to 2:30pm. The lineup includes Rocco DiSpirito, José Garces, Einat Admony, Antony Nassif, Vikas Khanna, John DeLucie, Andrew Rea (better known as Babish) and Miriam Milord.
Each chef has selected two CookUnity dishes designed to feel at home in the grab-and-go setting. The options include DiSpirito’s Bronx Bomb Burrito and saffron shrimp risotto, Khanna’s paneer makhani and roasted butter chicken, Rea’s spicy chili-garlic noodles and Guinness shepherd’s pie and Admony’s Middle Eastern chicken shawarma and flat iron steak adobo.
Garces will contribute a mission-style vegetable burrito and Cuban-style beef picadillo, while DeLucie’s menu includes Mom’s Sunday Sauce Rigatoni and a grilled rack of lamb. Nassif is bringing pork pernil and a farro-and-kale Mediterranean bowl and Milord rounds out the roster with Ghanaian chicken peanut stew and pumpkin spice cake jars. The full meals will be packaged cold to go, while hot samples will be served on-site. (Self-service microwaves will also be available.)
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The participating locations are Bari Bodega at 873 Broadway in Flatiron; Madison Square Deli & Convenience at 266 West 23rd Street in Chelsea; New York Pizza and Cafe at 369 Madison Avenue in Midtown; Sam’s Deli at 275 West Fourth Street in the West Village; and Slice N’ Spice Deli & Grill at 451 Third Avenue in Murray Hill.
CookUnity, which was founded in New York in 2016 and remains headquartered in Brooklyn, conceived the event as a tribute to its hometown—and to the neighborhood shops that can do everything from remembering your coffee order to safeguarding your spare keys. While the celebrity chefs will depart at 2:30pm, the bodegas, naturally, will still be holding down the block the next morning.