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Zagat’s Tiny Cafe Made Tiny Versions of NYC’s Most Popular Foods and I Got to Try Them

There has always been buzz around big food trends. From cronuts to the new fish-shaped ice cream cones, we are surrounded by new ideas coming out of the woodwork. And Zagat has been there to guide us in our big restaurant choices, telling us which places are most acclaimed. But for one weekend, they were the total opposite.

Tiny Cafe peanut
Ashley Steinberg

Not that they were advocating bad food, just food on a smaller scale. Zagat’s “Tiny Cafe” lasted one weekend and had huge crowds lining up to taste smaller scale versions of Zagat’s self-proclaimed “most popular restaurant dishes.”

Tiny Cafe coffee tea
Ashley Steinberg

While waiting in line, the cafe-goers could look upon and photograph displays of a variety of popular treats, like a mini GG’s lasagna or meatballs, and Magnolia cupcakes. 

Tiny Cafe cheese
Ashley Steinberg

The Tiny Cafe menu itself offered one choice per person, between Pizza Loves Emily’s Emmy Burger, Luca Pizza, Jacque Torres’ cookies or The Adobado Taco from Los Tacos. To say they were bite size would make them seem too big.

Tiny Cafe bacon
Ashley Steinberg

These treats may have been mistaken as made for mice. Before picking your tiny treat, you could even watch the real-sized chefs cook up your treats in a small exhibition kitchen like the videos you might see of tiny kitchens on Tastemade. The four dishes were so tiny, in fact, that they could all be held at once in the palm of your hand, and were so cute served on their tiny plates. Hard as we may try to recreate it, I don’t think even we could get foods this small.

The whole experience was based on Zagat’s new app which will offer 75-word “bite-sized” reviews of the best restaurants for people based on their preference in the type of meal. It’s more personalized to your exact preference and, like the bites, you hold the power in the palm of your hand. 

Sometimes bigger isn’t always better.

My name is Ashley and I am a food-a-holic. While all my friends went through high school following shows like Gossip Girl and the OC, I spent my nights watching Top Chef and Masterchef. I am always looking for new recipes (mostly sweets to try out). That said, buying sweets is my biggest weakness. I can’t resist a good candy bar and I usually buy at least one snack food a day, be it a Hershey’s bar (dark chocolate, please!), Ring Ding, or Froyo (my kryptonite).

As a native New Yorker, I take advantage of the fact that we have a ton of bests when it comes to food. Best bagels. We’ve got em. Best black and white cookies. We’ve got em. Best Olive Gardens? Well…. Maybe we don’t have those. But I pledge to do my best to find the bests of every type of food and snack, both homemade and in stores, and share them with you.

I love trying new things and telling other people about them so they can share in my joy (and weight gain). I want to share my food finds with others to save them the hassle of sifting through the duds along the way. I hope you enjoy my writing as much as I will enjoy writing it!