to move up and down
Flavors: 11/11/11
I totally had a long post planned for today since I kinda phoned it in all week (I’m tired- I’m sorry!), plus the Union Square Holiday Market starts up next week, so there’s going to be LOTS more half-assing on this blog between now and the end of the holidays. Buuuutttt…..
TODAY’S 11-11-11!!!!
Maybe it’s lucky or something- I have no freaking clue. What I DO know is that it’s a perfect excuse to post THIS!
If you feel that wasn’t enough, here’s a longer collection of Spinal Tap highlights. It’s Friday- you can probably get away with watching the whole thing without anyone noticing.
And now for the cupcakes! These cupcakes will give you armadillos in your pants!
Clockwise from front: Chai Latte, Chocolate Pumpkin Cheesecake, Butterbeer, The Breucklen
Chai Latte: Chai spiced cake, mascarpone buttercream, toasted chai spices
Chocolate Pumpkin Cheesecake: Pumpkin cake, cheesecake buttercream, chocolate fudge dip
Butterbeer: Butterscotch soaked cake, butterscotch buttercream, edible gold dust
The Breucklen: Apple cake, cinnamon caramel buttercream, Good Batch stroopwaffel, cinnamon caramel drizzle
Available at:
Robicelli’s at DeKalb Market: Corner of Flatbush & Willoughby, Downtown Brooklyn
Cafe at Sam’s Bakery: 94th Street off Third Avenue, Bay Ridge
Aloha Grinds: 76th and Third Ave, Bay Ridge
Bagel Schmagel: 76th and Third Ave, Bay Ridge
Tazza: Clark Street off Henry AND Henry off Atlantic, Brooklyn Heights
Blue Apron Foods: Union Street off 7th Avenue, Park Slope
Court Street Grocers: Court Street off Luquer, Carroll Gardens
The West: 379 Union Avenue, Williamsburg
Eastern District: Manhattan Ave off Eagle Street, Greenpoint
Brooklyn Standard: Nassau & Jewel, Greenpoint
Cake Shop: Ludlow St btwn Standon & Rivington, LES
Joe Columbia University: West 120th btwn Broadway & Amsterdam, Morningside Heights
Queen City Cupcakes: 62 West Main Street, Patchogue, Long Island
Red Hook Lobster Pound: Van Brunt Street, Red Hook; Brooklyn Flea; Smorgasburg; Roving Food Truck (Whoopie Pies Only)
Flavors: Wednesday, November 9th
So I fell asleep while doing the Tumblr last night and once again I have to write something in two seconds. Then while I was asleep, for the second night in a row my kids climbed into our bed and forced me out, so I ended up curled up at the foot of the bed like a dog.
Can any parents out there tell me if I’m ever going to have a decent night of sleep again? Please?
*sigh*
Tonight I’ll be speaking on a panel for Work It Brooklyn about using social media to grow your small business. Obviously, I’ll be pointing out stellar examples such as this one. Regardless, I’m incredibly honored to be asked, and very very stoked to meet lots of you there, so grab your tickets while you still can. I’ve been told I’m very entertaining in person, regardless of my children’s best efforts to derail it. Plus, there’s wine!
Time for cupcakes! Today’s the last time the Pecan Pie will be released into the rotation (though we’ll have it at DeKalb for a bit), and I heavily suggest you grab one, as Matt swears up and down it’s his favorite cupcake of all time. I don’t blame him.
Clockwise from front: The Breucklen, Pecan Pie, Car Bomb, Chocolate Pumpkin Cheesecake
The Breucklen: Apple cake, cinnamon caramel buttertcream, Good Batch stroopwaffel, cinnamon caramel drizzle
Pecan Pie: Pecan molasses cake, vanilla buttercream, butter molasses glazed pecan
Car Bomb: Chocolate Guinness Stout cake, Jameson Whiskey ganache, Bailey’s Irish Cream buttercream
Chocolate Pumpkin Cheesecake: Pumpkin cake, cheesecake buttercream, chocolate fudge glaze
Available at:
Hom: Third Avenue and 88th Street, Bay Ridge
Cafe at Sam’s Bakery: 94th Street off Third Avenue, Bay Ridge
Tazza: Clark Street off Henry AND Henry off Atlantic, Brooklyn Heights
Radish: Bedford Avenue off North 8th, Williamsburg
Jem: Broadway off Franklin Street, Tribeca
Red Hook Lobster Pound *Whoopie pies only*
Queen City Cupcakes: 62 West Main Street, Patchogue, Long Island
Flavors: Monday, October 17th
Lots of things change the moment you become a parent. Some people gain weight, others immediately ten years in our faces. We always look tired. But one universal thing that happens to just about all of us: We cry at everything. For real, before I had kids I could probably count the number of movies I’d cried at on one hand. Now? Movies, television, shadow puppets- I can’t even make it through five minutes of the evening news. And the thing that always makes me cry the most? Commercials. Pampers commercials, Barbie commmericals, Mr T Cereal commercials- thirty seconds, and I’m a weepy hysterical mess.
I had a moment like that this weekend at the Food Film Fesitval, where our film was preceded by a commercial which was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. As I have an image of total awesomeness to uphold, I was doing my best to suck it up and not make a scene. Then I got a text from Matt who was in the back of the theater saying he was crying. I looked around, and EVERYONE was crying. And instead of talking about it, I want, nay I NEED you to watch this. Turn the sound on and enjoy. It’s only two minutes:
HOW AMAZING WAS THAT!!!! SERIOUSLY!!!!
I’m not a preachy farm to table type (in fact, with my schedule almost all my meals are take-out), and I’m not a Chipotle customer (though I will be now). But this commercial just blew me away. Then I got to thinking about how I wished every person in America could see this. Think about the Super Bowl commercials we see every year- big corporations throwing away millions and millions of dollars on abject crap. Wouldn’t it be amazing if instead of seeing a spot for a remake of a beloved childhood film that Hollywood has unnecessarily destroyed because they’re out of good ideas, the biggest commercial of the year was this one?
I immediately pulled out my phone and looked up Chipotle on Twitter, and found a listing for Chris Arnold, aka
, spokesperson for the brand. I just wanted to send a passionate message in the moment, to let them know that their commercial had been effective and they had gained a new fan.
@robicellis
Dear @ChipotleMedia: I just saw your commercial at #foodfilmfest. PLEASE air this during the Super Bowl.
(I apologize for the formatting here- can’t get the tweets to copy and paste well into Tumblr, and am waaaay to tired to figure out how to fix this.)
And I got a response from Chipotle in less than ten minutes. On a Saturday.
@ChipotleMedia@robicellis I like that idea. But Super Bowl ads are terribly expensive, and that’s a long spot (more than two minutes).
First off, Bravo to Chris Arnold for blowing me away with the customer service. We’ve been back and forth tweeting for two days, and I don’t feel like I’m talking to a company but rather a real person. At this point I had not tasted a single thing that Chipotle has made, but I immediately fell so in love with the brand that even if the burritos are filled with asbestos I’d probably still eat them. No wonder my imaginary food boyfriend Nate Appleman went to work for you, Chipotle.
I also understand why they wouldn’t put this up during the Super Bowl. For them to air the entire commercial, it would cost them well over $12 million dollars, which is the is about the yearly salaries of 240 Chipotle managers. I’d much rather have them putting that cash towards jobs than commercials myself.
Fortunately, we live in a golden age where we do not need 12 million dollars for the world to see this! We can post this on Facebook, share on Twitter, tell our friends (Get the linkage an embed codes HERE). We can send a message to @ChipotleMedia and tell them how much we’ve enjoyed it. Or you can patronize Chipotle, and hope that their success leads to more fast food companies changing their operating practices.
Image of the founder of Chipotle on one of their farms with a future taco courtesy of ABC News
As silly as it is, I just think I’m so amped up because this is something I have believed in and have fought for my entire career. When I was in fine dining, I couldn’t stand the idea that only rich people were allowed to eat well, while people like me were eating mass produced burgers and hot dogs. Robicelli’s is founded on the principle that EVERYBODY, no matter what their class or how much money they have in their pocket, deserves to eat well. Chipotle seems to get that too, and even though only a few years ago it seemed like an impossible idea, they’re actually changing fast food. I hope one day we reach as many people as they do.
After the commercial, the tweets, the films, I finally had my first Chipotle taco at Matt Timm’s Taco Takedown, and you know what? It was the best “fast food dish” I’ve ever tried. Hit me up on Facebook and tell me what else I need to try, particularly any “healthy options”, since my fat ass gained about 10 pounds from Madison Square Eats.
I want to stress at this moment that I have not received any sort of incentives from Chipotle to write this post. Except for a “Free Burrito” coupon in my Film Festival gift bag. I also got a pair of socks from Google and you don’t see me writing about how great those are (yet). I also got a slinky from Bloomberg that I manged to get caught in my hair.
Clockwise from front: Chocolate Pumpkin Cheesecake, Bea Arthur, The Breucklen, Maple Walnut
Chocolate Pumpkin Cheesecake: Pumpkin cake, cheesecake buttercream, chocolate fudge dip
Bea Arthur: Black coffee infused chocolate cake, cheesecake buttercream, espresso ganache
The Breucklen: Apple cake, cinnamon caramel buttercream, Good Batch stroopwaffel
Maple Walnut: Maple walnut cake, vanilla buttercream, maple glazed walnuts
Available at:
Robicelli’s at DeKalb Market: Flatbush Avenue Extension & Willoughby Street, Downtown Brooklyn
Robicelli’s at Madison Square Eats: Corner of 25th Street & 5th Avenue
Cafe at Sam’s Bakery: 94th Street off Third Avenue, Bay Ridge
Aloha Grinds: 76th Street and 3rd Avenue, Bay Ridge
Bagel Schmagel: 76th Street and 3rd Avenue, Bay Ridge
Crespella: 7th Avenue off 9th Street, Park Slope
Tazza: Clark Street off Henry AND Henry Street off Atlantic, Brooklyn Heights
Jem: Broadway off Franklin Street, TriBeCa
Cake Shop: Ludlow Street btwn Stanton & Rivington, LES
Joe Columbia University: W 120th btwn Broadway & Amsterdam, Morningside Heights
Queen City Cupcakes (Closed Monday- Flavors for Tuesday): 62 West Main Street, Patchouge, Long Island
Red Hook Lobster Pound: 284 Van Brunt Street, Red Hook (Whoopie Pies Only)
Flavors: Friday, September 30
Today, I bought Pajama Jeans.
Go ahead and laugh. I’ve seen the commercial for them about a billion times, and though I was insanely curious, I couldn’t bring myself to order them. Funny thing about women- we’ll wear shoes that contort our feet into unnatural shapes, lifting us 6” into the air and creating the illusion of pointy elf feet, which after years and years leads to chronic pain and permanent disfigurement. We’ll wear pants so tight that if we stand at the wrong angle, we’ll leave nothing to the imagination. We squeeze ourselves into all sorts of “shapewear” that’s so constricting that we can’t eat or have problems breathing. This is all totally normal, and not only that, admirable. But a pair of “pajama jeans”?!?!?! EEEWWWW!!! How lazy can you get, America?!?!
I don’t know why we weren’t born with feet this shape. I can certainly envision the cavemen outrunning vicious bears in a pair of these.
This afternoon, as I was picking up a prescription at Walgreen’s, I saw them in a box in the “As Seen On TV” section and had to touch them. As wonderful as they felt, I still couldn’t commit to buying them, so I just held them and walked around the store for a bit. Then when I was paying for Toby’s medicine, the cashier just grabbed them and rung them up. I wasn’t going to stop him and say “Oh no- I have too much pride to be buying a boxed pair of pants from a pharmacy! I was just carrying them around the store for no good reason except for the fact that I’m a woman and I’m crazy, and if you were one of us that statement would totally have made sense to you!”.
Don’t pretend you haven’t walked around a store with something you’ve secretly wanted before, just to put it back before you checked out. We’ve all done it. And I suppose it was divine intervention that forced me to buy these pants because OH MY GOD THEY ARE SO COMFORTABLE.
I owned it. I went on Twitter and said I bought Pajama Jeans. I’m writing a book, and I think that Pajama Jeans by nature are perfect book-writing attire. They fit better than normal jeans, two guys checked our my ass today, and since I’ve put them on, my writers block has been lifted and I banged out a whole new section of the first draft of the book. I may only wear boxed pharmacy pants for the rest of my life.
But if you guys see me wearing mom-pants or holiday-themed sweater vests, you have total permission to punch me in the face as hard as you possibly can.
Another nice thing about these pants? You can eat as many cupcakes as you’d like without it getting uncomfortable. It’s things like this that make America great.
Clockwise from front: Chai Latte, Brandy Alexander, L’Shanah Tovah, Chocolate Pumpkin Cheesecake
Last Appearance Until Next September!
L’Shanah Tovah: Apple cake, honey vanilla buttercream, roasted apple, honey drizzle
Returning from the vault after two years!
Chai Latte: Chai spiced cake, mascarpone buttercream, toasted chai spices
Brandy Alexander: Chocolate brandy cake, brandy buttercream, chocolate dipped brandy snap cookie
Chocolate Pumpkin Cheesecake: Pumpkin cake, cheesecake buttercream, chocolate fudge
Available at:
Robicelli’s at DeKalb Market: Corner of Flatbush & Willoughby, Downtown Brooklyn
Robicelli’s at Madison Square Eats: Corner of 25th Street & 5th Avenue, Flatiron District
Cafe at Sam’s Bakery: 94th Street off Third Avenue, Bay Ridge
Aloha Grinds: 76th and Third Ave, Bay Ridge
Bagel Schmagel: 76th and Third Ave, Bay Ridge
Crespella: 7th Ave off 9th Street, Park Slope
Blue Apron Foods: Union Street off 7th Avenue, Park Slope
Court Street Grocers: Court Street off Luquer, Carroll Gardens
Flying Saucer Cafe: Atlantic Avenue btwn 3rd Ave & Nevins Street, Boerum Hill
Eastern District: Manhattan Ave off Eagle Street, Greenpoint
Brooklyn Standard: Nassau & Jewel, Greenpoint
Cake Shop: Ludlow St btwn Standon & Rivington, LES
Battery Place Market: 77 Battery Place, Battery Park City
Joe Columbia University: West 120th btwn Broadway & Amsterdam, Morningside Heights
Queen City Cupcakes: 62 West Main Street, Patchogue, Long Island
Red Hook Lobster Pound: Van Brunt Street, Red Hook; Brooklyn Flea; Smorgasburg; Roving Food Truck (Whoopie Pies Only)
Wednesday, September 28th
L’Shanah Tovah to all our amazing Jewish friends out there! And for everyone who doesn’t know what that means, it’s “Happy New Year” in Hebrew- it’s Rosh Hashanah! THAT means it’s time for the once a year appearance of our “L’Shanah Tovah” cupcake- an apple cake topped with a honey-vanilla buttercream, roasted apple and drizzled with honey.
Neither Matt and I are remotely Jewish, but I’ve always felt drawn to Jewish cooking for two reasons:
Reason Number One: Jewish food doesn’t just happen. EVERYTHING has a reason or a symbolism- food is an essential form of storytelling, which I absolutely love. You don’t just eat a meal- every single dish, every ingredient has a rich subtext that connects you to your ancestors or some sort of mythology. For this cake, the apples and honey represent the sweetness we hope the new year will bring. Also, in Jewish mysticism, apples are a symbol of “Shekhinah”, or the feminine side of God, who is supposed to look down on everyone at the New Year and judge them for the behavior they had over the past year. In eating apples and honey, it’s thought that Shekinah will look at people more kindly.
See, and you thought it was just a cupcake.
Reason Number Two: I kinda sorta messed up this whole blessing ritual dealie at a bar mitzvah that was my first ever catering gig about ten years ago. I blame this on my Italian Catholic upbringing in South Brooklyn, and not being invited to the bar mitzvah of the one Jewish kid that went to McKinley Junior High School. I have some guilt issues about it.
Anyway, long story short there’s a set of twins from Brooklyn Heights, about 23 years old, that may not technically be men from a religious standpoint. My bad.
Chocolate Pumpkin Cheesecake also returns today! I’ve never ruined a religious ceremony with that one!
Clockwise from front: The Julia, L’Shanah Tovah, Car Bomb, Chocolate Pumpkin Cheesecake
L’Shanah Tovah: Apple spice cake, honey vanilla buttercream, roasted apple, honey drizzle
The Julia: Pear brandy cake, brandy buttercream, brandy snap cookie
Car Bomb: Chocolate Guinness stout cake, Jameson whiskey ganache, Bailey’s buttercream
Chocolate Pumpkin Cheesecake: Pumpkin cake, cheesecake buttercream, chocolate fudge
Available at:
Robicelli’s at DeKalb Market: Corner of Flatbush & Willoughby, Downtown Brooklyn
Robicelli’s at Madison Square Eats: Corner of 25th Street & 5th Avenue, Flatiron District
Hom: 88th Street & Third Avenue, Bay Ridge
Blue Apron: Union Street off 7th Avenue, Park Slope
Tazza: Clark Street off Henry AND Henry Street off Atlantic, Brooklyn Heights
Radish: North 8th off Bedford Ave, Williamsburg
Joe Columbia University: West 120th btwn Broadway & Amsterdam, Morningside Heights
Queen City Cupcakes: 62 West Main Street, Patchogue, Long Island (Available Thursday)
Red Hook Lobster Pound: Roving Food Truck (whoopie pies only)
Flavors- November 24th
Thanksgiving has finally arrived, and so marks the unofficial end of fall. We’ve had good one, filled with lots of happy memories, and lots of great seasonal flavors. This is the last time you’ll be seeing most of these until next year, so make sure you enjoy them before they go back in the vault!
We are doing ALL of our deliveries today, so that we can spend the next few days with our kids putting up the tree, hanging our stockings, and stuffing our faces before the madness of the holiday season begins. We’ll be back to our normal delivery schedule on Monday, and posting our holiday market schedule very soon (you’ll be seeing TONS of us from now until Christmas).
Aaaannnnd I forgot to take pictures of these before I left the kitchen tonight. I had a really long day. I mean, we did six flavors and close to 1,000 cupcakes, just the two of us! It’s a miracle I’m typing relatively coherently right now. I fully expected this post to be 95% misspelled, peppered with curse words and threats against the Church of Scientology (you know, for funzies). Just close your eyes and envision the beauty of the cupcakes- trust me, they’re sexy as all hell.
CHOCOLATE PUMPKIN CHEESECAKE: pumpkin cake, cheesecake buttercream, chocolate ganache dip
SWEET POTATO PIE: sweet potato cake, vanilla buttercream, bourbon glazed pecans
MAPLE WALNUT: maple walnut cake, maple-spiked buttercream, maple glazed walnuts
BUTTERNUT SPICE: butternut squash cake, vanilla buttercream, spiced pumpkin seeds, butternut squash seed oil
APPLE MAPLE CRISP: apple spice cake, vanilla buttercream, roasted apple butter, oat crisp, pure Vermont maple syrup
BEA ARTHUR: black coffee infused chocolate cake, cheesecake buttercream, espresso ganache
Available at:
HOM- 88th St and 3rd Ave, Bay Ridge
CAFE AT SAM’S BAKERY- 94th Street off 3rd Ave, Bay Ridge
BLUE APRON FOODS- Union St. off 7th Ave, Park Slope
CAFE 474- 4th Ave off 11th St, Park Slope
CRESPELLA CREPE & ESPRESSO BAR- 321 7th Avenue at 9th Street, Park Slope
MARKET- Cortelyou Road btwn Westminster & Argyle, Ditmas Park
FARMACY- Corner of Henry and Sackett, Carroll Gardens
TAZZA CAFES- Henry off Atlantic and Clark off Henry, Brooklyn Heights
CAKESHOP- Ludlow btwn Stanton & Rivington, Lower East Side
LILY O’BRIEN’S AT BRYANT PARK- E40th btwn 5th and 6th, Midtown
Flavors- November 11th & 12th
We’re doing a kinda new flavor this week……as you may know, every week we spike some of our cupcakes with booze for our friends at Cakeshop on the LES. A few weeks ago when we did our Caramel Apple cupcake we spiked it with some bourbon and HOLY CRAP IT WAS GOOD. At first we weren’t sure about having two caramel apple cupcakes, but then we realized that we have over 100 cupcakes and running at this point, so who really cares? Behold, Bourbon Caramel Apple!!!
*KINDA* NEW…….Bhttp://www.tumblr.com/new/textourbon Caramel Apple: Apple cake, bourbon caramel buttercream, apple chip, bourbon caramel drizzle
Chocolate Pumpkin Cheesecake: Pumpkin cake, cheesecake buttercream, chocolate ganache
The Tina: Chocolate almond cake, vanilla buttercream, ganache drizzle, roasted almonds
Tres Leches: Three milk soaked brown butter cake, dulce de leche buttercream, caramel shards
Available Thursday at:
HOM- 88th St and 3rd Ave, Bay Ridge
CAFE AT SAM’S BAKERY- 94th Street off 3rd Ave, Bay Ridge
BLUE APRON FOODS- Union St. off 7th Ave, Park Slope
CAFE 474- 4th Ave off 11th St, Park Slope
CRESPELLA CREPE & ESPRESSO BAR- 321 7th Avenue at 9th Street, Park Slope
FARMACY- Corner of Henry and Sackett, Carroll Gardens
TAZZA CAFES- Henry off Atlantic and Clark off Henry, Brooklyn Heights
Available Friday at:
MARKET- Cortelyou Road btwn Westminster & Argyle, Ditmas Park
RADISH- Bedford Ave off N8th, Williamsburg
CAKESHOP- Ludlow btwn Stanton & Rivington, Lower East Side
LILY O’BRIEN’S AT BRYANT PARK- E40th btwn 5th and 6th, Midtown
Thanksgiving Menu- Preorders Starting Soon!
The holidays are beginning, meaning it’s menu planning time! And what better way to celebrate Thanksgiving than with an assortment of our seasonal cupcakes? Thanksgiving will the the last hurrah for many of these flavors, so grab a few dozen and stuff your gobs!
Chocolate Pumpkin Cheesecake: Pumpkin cake with cheesecake buttercream, dipped in chocolate ganache
Sweet Potato Pie: Sweet potato cake with vanilla buttercream and brown butter-bourbon pecans
Butternut Spice: Butternut squash cake with vanilla buttercream and spiced pumpkin seeds
Apple Maple Crisp: Apple spice cake with vanilla buttercream, roasted apple butter, oat crisp and locally sourced maple syrup
Bea Arthur: Black coffee infused chocolate cake with cheesecake buttercream and espresso ganache
Tomorrow we’ll be celebrating all things autumn at MeanRed’s OKTOBERFEST on Governor’s Island! We’ll be pulling some old seasonal favorites out of the vault, introducing a new flavors, and of COURSE, we’ll be doing our infamous CHICKEN N’WAFFLES cupcake! (We know we said the last time would be at PARKED, but we sold out so quick we didn’t think it would be fair).
Here’s the lineup!
NEW! Sweet Potato Pie: Sweet potato cake with vanilla buttercream and maple-bourbon coated pecans
Caramel Apple: apple spice cake with salted caramel buttercream and cinnamon sugar roasted apple
Chocolate Pumpkin Cheesecake: pumpkin cake with cheesecake buttercream, dipped in chocolate ganache
Bea Arthur: Black coffee infused chocolate cake with cheesecake buttercream and espresso ganache
Chicken n’Waffles: Vanilla “waffle” cake with vanilla buttercream and a hunk of buttermilk soaked fried chicken dipped in pure Vermont maple syrup
Click on the photo for directions and details!
