Oser Communications Group

GOURMET NEWS JULY 2015 GENERAL NEWS 8 Taste the Cheesecake New York Loves Best BY LORRIE BAUMANN Renowned New York bakery Junior's Cheesecake and Desserts has just opened a 103,000 square-foot baking facility in Burlington, New Jersey that provides the company with enough capacity to supply the best cheesecake in New York to the nation. "We are happy to announce that Junior's Cheesecake is now available to the retail trade across the globe. Everyone will be able to taste what New Yorkers have known for almost 65 years – that you haven't really lived before you've tried Junior's Cheesecake," says Alan Rosen, the company's third-generation owner. "We're pretty excited about it, to say the least." New York has voted Junior's cheesecakes the best their city has to offer every year since the early 1970s, and Junior's is still using the same cheesecake recipe devel- oped by Rosen's grandfather, Harry Rosen, who opened his first restaurant on election day of 1950 with the idea that if Junior's was going to be a great New York restau- rant, it needed to serve a great cheesecake. It took him a few years to perfect a recipe so good that there's been no need to change it in 65 years. "That recipe hasn't changed one ounce," Rosen says. Junior's still operates four restaurants as well as the bakery. Three are in New York city: one in Brooklyn, one in Times Square and one in Grand Central Termi- nal. The fourth is in Foxwoods, Con- necticut. Junior's also has satellites in South Korea and in the Barclay's Center in Brooklyn. The chocolate mousse version is then enrobed in chocolate ganache, Rosen says. "The Devil's food cheesecake is ac- tually a 10-inch cheesecake inside a chocolate layer cake. It weighs 12 pounds," he adds. "We also do those in smaller sizes for retail." In addition to cheesecakes, Junior's Cheesecake and Desserts also offers layer cakes, loaf cakes, shortcakes and tiramisu as well as seasonal specialties for any sweet occasion. "We are a full line bakery. We even customize items for special cus- tomers," Rosen says. For more information, visit www .juniorscheesecake.com. GN New York: City of the Empty Refrigerator The city that never sleeps might actually be staying up nights worrying "what's for din- ner?" A new study conducted by KRC Re- search on behalf of online grocer Peapod.com reveals that, when compared to other major cities such as Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia and Washington, DC, New Yorkers are the least likely to have common things like produce, meat and seafood, deli items and frozen foods stocked in their refrigerator. In fact, more New Yorkers (80 percent) have condiments than meat or seafood (59 percent), and close to half of them admit to having ex- pired food lurking in their refrigerators. It's no wonder that 41 percent, the highest in any city polled, say they prefer take-out/de- livery or dining out. It seems the barrier to a fully stocked fridge comes with the harrowing New York City grocery store experience. Eighty one percent of New York City residents report city food shopping woes, most commonly very long lines (48 percent), followed by crowded aisles (45 percent), sticker shock at prices (38 percent) and less-than-fresh produce (32 percent). Shoppers who think they're in the clear once they leave the gro- cery aisles and hit the checkout line are mistaken - nearly a quarter of their shop- ping trip is spent waiting in line and check- ing out. New Yorkers also report carrying an av- erage of nearly 19 pounds per grocery trip, turning their errands, and almost two thirds of them report that "I shop fre- quently so that I don't have to carry too many groceries home at once." When asked how long they could sur- vive on fridge contents alone, New Yorkers could only last an average of 6.6 days which is one to two days less than residents of other cities. This is likely because New Yorkers have gone the longest - an average of 26.9 days - without fully restocking their fridge. This is a week longer than Philadel- phians, who, coincidentally, buy a whop- ping 31.4 pounds of groceries during the average trip and would be able to last the longest off of the contents of their fridge. To help these city residents, Peapod by Stop & Shop now offers the ease and con- venience of online grocery delivery to all zip codes in the five boroughs of New York City. "From the long lines and crowded aisles in the store, to the schlepp to get it home, New Yorkers have a particularly hard time accomplishing their grocery shopping needs," said Peg Merzbacher, Vice President of Regional Marketing for Peapod. "With Peapod grocery delivery, New Yorkers can skip the lines and headaches and have pantry essentials, fresh produce, meats, seafood and more all deliv- ered with the click of a button, or swipe of a finger with our convenient Peapod app." Peapod offers a full grocery store assort- ment from grocery basics to farm-fresh pro- duce; top quality meats and seafood; prepared foods and party trays; deli meats and cheeses that are sliced to order; kosher, organic and specialty foods; time savers like rotisserie chickens; office, school, health & beauty and pet supplies as well as value store-brand products like Simply Enjoy and Nature's Promise naturals and organics. In New York, specialty items from local pur- veyors like Balthazar Bakery, Brooklyn Bread, Gotham Greens, D'Artagnan gour- met meats and more are offered. GN

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