AWESOME DEAL: Pay What You Wish at Just Salad Today

Wallet feeling kind of light? (Or even kind of heavy?) Just Salad, a fast casual restaurant concept serving healthy food--including, yes, salad--at 315 Park Ave South is allowing customers to pay what they wish for any salad or wrap at both lunch (12-1:30pm) and dinner (6-7:30pm) today 4/9.

All proceeds from the event will be donated to the Food Bank For NYC. Limit 1 wrap or salad (valued up to $10) per person and in-store only.

Madison Square BBQ

Note: Don't you hate it when you start something and then get too distracted to finish it? Unfortunately that non-awesome situation happened to me with this post. It's a tad delayed but still super delicious. Enjoy!

When I think "New York," I don't usually think of "finger-lickin' good" (with the exception of an experience at Hill Country). However, for one weekend every summer, Madison Square Park becomes charcoal grilling, hickory smoking and pork 'n beans central wend the Big Apple BBQ takes over. At $8 a plate, patrons can gorge themselves with the best BBQ from across the country. All proceeds benefited the Madison Square Park Conservancy.

It was a slightly cloudy day, but that didn't stop the masses from donning their bibs and nibbling their ribs from a selection of more than 15 pitmasters, each with their own unique styles. All sorts of BBQ specialties were represented, including St. Louis Style Ribs, Pulled Pork Shoulder and Smoked Sausage.

Yup, that's a whole hog

We kicked off the event with a visit to the pop-up beer garden within the boundaries of the park. Goose Island was the beer sponsor, and I was a happy camper with a glass of their refreshing IPA.

After completing a once-over of all of the food options up and down Madison Avenue, we decided to try two different types of ribs. Ultimately this was decided by the which booths had the shortest lines. The smart folks had paid for an event fastpass well in advance. They were able to have special access to visit each of the booths from behind and skip all the lines and hullabaloo I had to wade through. Definitely doing that next time.

We visited the booth of the famed Gramercy joint, Blue Smoke for their Texas Salt n' Pepper Beef Ribs. Having never experience this kind of rib before, I was pleasantly surprised by how moist they were. Not only did the meat fall right off the bone, but they were full of flavor. We also tried the Baby Back Ribs from Rack & Soul, also in NYC. The sauce on these babies was out of this world, and they came with a side of BBQ beans that left me in BBQ heaven. In the end, I think the consensus was that Blue Smoke's ribs were better.

Rack & Soul's  Baby Back Ribs and BBQ Beans

Blue Smoke's Texas Salt n' Pepper Beef Ribs

This event puts Madison Square Park even higher up on my awesome list. For such a small park (in comparison to others...ahem...Central Park...), the conservancy does a great job of jam-packing it with wonderful activities, interesting art pieces and stellar events. The Shake Shack doesn't hurt either...

Frolicking in Flatiron

Everyone knows Madison Square Park for Shake Shack, but I've fallen in love with its beauty on a summer's eve. It was my boyfriend's birthday last week and we had a bit of photo fun after dinner at Primehouse. I have a thing for sunset lighting :)

I love open space anywhere on this island.

The sheer fact that this building was built when 

Teddy Roosevelt was President astounds me.

You can never not know the time in MSP.

The Empire State Building will always 

steal some attention.

Having some fun with the public art.

More fun. In a past life maybe they were cousins?

Let it be known that, without even a dime, you can find awesome in this city simply by walking around and occasionally looking up. I'd love to hear where you find it. Leave a comment and let me know.