Cute Alert: Sweet'N Low Dollhouse Miniature

One of the most satisfying toys I had as a child was a huge victorian style dollhouse that my mother and I assembled together from a kit.  I loved the tiny miniature furniture and accessories.  Tiny toilets, tiny lamps, tiny silverware.  There was a store a few towns over that sold exclusively dollhouse items, and it was like Mecca for me.

I think a large part of what I loved so much about dollhouse miniatures was simply the shock value that you couldn't believe someone would think of some of making them, the more banal the item the more shocking. 

And here this is exactly what I love about this Sweet'N Low miniature is exactly that.  Sure, a tiny tea set is predictable, but a sugar substitute to go along with the tea set?  That's just genius.  Perhaps there is a diabetic in the dollhouse family?  Perhaps they're on a diet? 


Currently being sold on eBay for $2.29.

Epic Win: Cafe Metro

Let me let you in on the most important part of my day:  deciding what to eat for lunch.  The website Midtown Lunch really changed my whole attitude about lunch in midtown where I work from considering it a wasteland of overpriced chains to an adventure of weird, ethnic, or greasy food.  It shames me that in the interest of being healthy, I do end up eating boring choose-your-own salads quite often.  What really gets me about these is that not only are they boring, but they're always expensive - around $8, when a pile of street meat in creamy white sauce over rice is only $5.

Then I discovered that the chain Cafe Metro offers really good deals if you order over it's website - $6 instead of $8 for a salad, and you can pay online and just walk in and pick it up.  More convenient AND cheaper!  So I order online often, then walk half a block to go pick it up.  Feel free to ask me more about my exciting life.

There's only one hitch:  sometimes I like a little midday ice coffee pick-me-up. The convenience of online lunch shopping is that you can order the ice coffee and select from a menu what kind of milk and sweetener you want.


Although I know from experience that Cafe Metro has Sweet'N Low available at all their locations,  there was no option on their site for it:


So I wrote an email to their customer service, with a suggestion that they add Sweet'N Low as an option.  A day later, I got a reply from their head of E-Commerce that not only are they going to implement my suggestion right away, but they were also going to give me a coupon for a FREE SANDWICH!

I bet you thought this story was going to be boring right?  You had no idea a free sandwich twist was comin' at ya!

Moral of the story is: I guess maybe it's better to politely suggest instead of angrily complain on the void of the internet.  Nah....

The National - Lower East Side

An anonymous tipster sent in this photo of the sweetener selection at The National Cafe.  Sigh sigh sigh sy sperling.

8 Rivington St  (between Bowery and Christie Street) 

Sweet'N Low Found at OB-GYN Exam Room at Woodhull Hospital

An anonymous tipster just sent me this cameraphone pic taken inside the exam room at her OB/GYN appointment at Woodhull Hospital in Brooklyn. 

Note the familiar pink packet nestled right next to the stethoscope and a big box of something that reads "Disposable Vaginal Speculum".  Thanks, doc, for preparing your morning coffee right near where you are going to stick stuff in a vagina.

Breadbox, Long Island City: A Lovely Sight

Breadbox Cafe
47-11 11th Street, Long Island City
This place opened very recently in an old gas station. While it was under construction, I would drive by almost every day on my way to work, and had a bet going as to whether it was going to be a coffee shop or a rims shop, since it looked like it could go either way. It seems perfectly nice inside, although apparently there's a cockamamie scheme to decorate the entire outdoor facade in wooden rolling pins. Whatevs. Most interesting is this beautiful display area for the sweeteners. Lovely, eh?

On the other hand:

 

T&A Deli
Corner of Bushwick Ave. and Grand St.

Breaking News: Beaner Bar Now Carries Sweet'N Low!

HUGE NEWS!   The high-pitched whine of the anonymous internet ranker has spoken, and for once, someone actually took it seriously!! Beaner Bar has now converted to Sweet'N Low-friendly, thanks to this very blog.

Someone from the Beaner Bar website just posted a comment on my post about them with a link to their own blog, where they proudly display their new addition to the sweetener station:


On 2/10/10, they write"

"Sorry for not having Sweet n Low, we’re not complete haters. (Lori is a Splenda fan.;
2/22/10 UPDATE: You asked for it, you got it, sweet n low down reviewer!"

Beaner Bar, you have made my day!

Now, everyone go there and order tons of expensive drinks and buy a muffin to go along with it and let them know how happy you are!  Whether you use Sweet'N Low or not, the real key here is that this is an establishment that really cares about making their customers happy and wants to make sure they're really enjoying their coffee.

ONE LOVE, BEANER BAR. ONE LOVE.

Reader Report: Boqueria - Flatiron District

A tipsters reports via cameraphone picture of a deficient sweetener arrangement at his business lunch:

I do a lot of searching around Flickr, looking at strangers' pictures. And I've noticed that so many people take pictures of their plate at a restaurant. It's kind of like taking a picture of the animals at the zoo - what, are you never going to see another photo of a lion in your life? I understand if you cooked it yourself and you're proud of it, but in a restaurant? "This is to remember the meal a Guatemalan man prepared for me!!!"

My distaste for restaurant meal photography makes me feel awkward and uncomfortable whipping out my camera or phone to snap a pic, but this I approve of. Well done!

Boqueria
53 W. 19th St.
New York, NY 10011