By Bob Eckstein
Having previously awarded prized Mitchum Stars to Upper West Side pizza establishments, we are turning our eyes and appetites to the food sensation that has recently taken over the neighborhood, the pumpkin.
For a nation generally adverse to vegetables, the fascination with the pumpkin is remarkable. No other food is so closely associated with an entire season. (You can all battle it out in the comment section regarding us getting it wrong about a pumpkin not being a fruit.)
Armed with large appetites and a sketch pad, we (WSR contributors and pumpkin pundits, Richard Robbins and Bob Eckstein) set off to sample the wide range of pumpkin treats in our neighborhood. It’s the most fun we ever had taking a half a bottle of Lactaid pills.
The Mitchum Star was named after actor Robert Mitchum, who famously loved pizza and beer, and may have liked pumpkin spice. Mitchum Stars were rewarded for taste, presentation, and meeting a pumpkin spice lover’s craving.
Silver Moon Bakery, 2664 Broadway
★★★★ Mini Pumpkin Tart ($10.50) – If this were 1972, my mom would have sliced this 4” tart into six slices. We’re doing that now, to savor every bite bursting with nutmeg and we don’t want it to end. Mom could never make pumpkin pie this good. Hey, let’s leave my mother out of this. The crazy lady right now is blowing my inheritance at some poker table in Vegas. Really, really good tart. (And yes, commenters, the Mitchum scale only goes up to 3 stars.)
Dough Doughnuts UWS, 133 W 72nd St
★★★ Pumpkin Glaze Donut with Candied Pumpkin Seeds ($6.95) – Can we just put aside our differences for a moment and would those opposed to our whole pumpkin-flavored obsession just take a bite into this donut? Easily the best value of the season. You got a jumbo donut. It’s covered with pumpkin glaze. But what puts this on the Mount Rushmore of Pumpkin-Spiced Desserts, are the fun crunchy pumpkin seeds planted on top. For reasons even they don’t understand, a different cook stuffed the hole with some kind of fried dough. Not everything has to make sense.
Épices Bakery, 104 W 70th St.
★★★ Pumpkin Cake with Cream Cheese Filling ($8) This place is having fun. The second time I was in there, everything was different. They don’t even have a name for anything—they don’t care—this is old school. You point at something. It goes in a bag. This pumpkin doodad looked like it was made from a bakery in outer space. Now, we could have said it tasted out of this world. Okay, we’ll go with that. Right now we are both high as a kite from all the sugar we’ve been eating. We highly recommend you just go there to find out what they made next. Just point at something. It will be good.
Broad Nosh Bagels, 2350 Broadway
★★ Pumpkin Spice Bagel ($2.05) – 1) Yes, it’s delicious. 2) it’s the size of a catcher’s mitt. 3) you could’ve told us it was any other flavor and we would have believed you. As Meatloaf said, two out of three ain’t bad.
CARROT, 2169 Broadway
★★ (Add a star if you’re an insomniac) Pumpkin Chai Donut ($5) – So, you are super careful about what you’re eating? No gluten, no sugar, no diary, no alcohol, no sex, but you’re still thinking doughnuts? On the left side of the doughnut there’s some kind of party going on. It’s covered with some kind of edible confetti. Yes, we know it’s making a political statement but I’m not bright enough to figure out what the message is. All I know is that side of the politically-charged doughnut is pro-pumpkin or health insurance and the other side is conservative or maybe liberal. This conceptual doughnut definitely gave us a lot to think about. And isn’t that what pumpkin season is all about?
Van Leeuwen Ice Cream, 448 Amsterdam Avenue
★★ 1/2 Pumpkin Cheesecake Ice Cream ($6.95 small cup) – These people worked their ass off to give you, the critical Upper West Sider, the best pumpkin-flavored ice cream experience you could imagine. While tasting this buttery, nutmegy, creamy treat, we bumped into pieces of graham cracker, and we think cake. It was actually probably cheesecake…because there was a big poster on the window that had the words, Pumpkin Cheesecake Ice Cream.
Magnolia Bakery, 200 Columbus Ave
★★★★ Pumpkin Spice Cake with Biscoff® ($9) Me; Single 55+ Foodie with a sweet tooth and a pumpkin face. You: a sumptuous slice of pumpkin spice cake looking for love handles in all the wrong places. Sure, you’re pricey. Sure, you’re about 160,000 calories. Sure, you’re the only pumpkin dessert we tried with a product placement (it’s flanked by those Biscoff® cookies you get in coach). But I’m in love. Love is strange—what part of “it’s pumpkin season” don’t you understand?
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