fro-yo in the 'hood

the latest development in the financial district is the opening of a place called yorganic. a fro-yo place!

this is a watershed moment. for those of you not in the know, dining down here is equivalent to searching for the holy grail. there are a few okay eateries, but the quest for an appetizing lunch begins around 11:30, as i compile options.

there is always the well-subsidized cafeteria, which is not a bad option most of the time, but gets a little tired. the highlights of the cafeteria, however, are: good views (but i miss out on these, since i eat at my desk, hunched over the NYT, reading the news by the time it's over), freshly squeezed orange juice & butterscotch pudding. i don't think anyone else eats the butterscotch pudding, but they have it there every day of the week. god bless.

other options go two ways: cheap & less cheap. best of less cheap is all on stone street, my favorite (if you have an hour or three) is a "fancy" pizza place (i use the word fancy loosely; we're not talking babbo here). there are also some good steak places around (dining at which is sure to result in frantic blackberry checking & post-lunch slumber under one's desk to be followed by frantic blackberry checking). the cheap options range from au bon pain to subway to streetcart vendors. i like to change it up. but still, this is not an ideal lunching situation. nothing is appetizing after 4 years of lunching in the same locale.

the summer associates who flock our ranks to be wined & dined all summer long offer a semi-legit opportunity to dine outside the nabe, but those lunches tend to go for hours & also result in frantic blackberry checking. i have bad nerves, so frantic anything is not a happy situation. but, lo & behold, something new to munch on is now around the corner (practically). yorganic just opened at 3 hanover square. here's a link to their site: www.eatyorganic.com.

i went there with E.H. yesterday for a post-lunch snack. the fro-yo was delicious. i had a plain green-tea fro-yo and really rather quite enjoyed it. E.H. topped her green tea fro-yo with pineapples. the operation is still ironing out some kinks:
(1) slooooooooooooooooowest service for fro-yo. seriously, what's the difficulty level on fro-yo? this is not iron chef people! there should be no mystery ingredient. (2) they are still doing some construction on the place. there was a large ladder with a man atop right near the entrance way. hazardous. especially since the man on the ladder dropped something (like a clunky drill) and it landed about a hair's breadth from a patron. there was a collective gasp in the restaurant. i hope they got their fro-yo free. i don't think they did.

so that's the new food buzz in the 'hood. i am somewhat comforted by the fact that fro-yo might be healthier than some of the other crap i eat. i credit this new culinary discovery to Time Out New York, which i read cover to cover on the subway, being between books. any recommendations for my next read?

P.S. D.G., when you return to our humble digs in NY, you will have a new dining experience awaiting you!