Issues > July/August 2005 (#109) > City Bakery Goes Bicoastal and Stays Local: An Interview with Maury Rubin

City Bakery Goes Bicoastal and Stays Local: An Interview with Maury Rubin

by Mindy Pennybacker

A Savory Midsummer Dish: Cherry Tomatoes, Lime Onions and Bok Choy

Make the lime onions one day ahead, mixing together
1 large yellow onion, halved and sliced
Grated zest and juice of 5 limes (discard pulp)
1/4 cup canola oil
Allow to marinate overnight. When ready to serve, toss together with 1 quart cherry tomatoes, halved, and 1 pound small sturdy Asian greens such as bok choy or tat soi, cleaned, leaves separated. Season with salt and pepper.

I started eating at City Bakery in New York City one winter fourteen years ago, when as a freelance writer I needed to get out of my apartment at least once a day and go somewhere. The bakery then was on 17th Street half a block from Union Square and its farmers' market, and within easy walking distance of my home. Every day there were sandwiches on whole-grain bread, hot tomato/vegetable soup, two kinds of pizzas and two salads, and, best of all, Maury Rubin's elegant tarts: lemon (my favorite), chocolate and white chocolate, each bearing on its surface a single chocolate beauty mark. In the morning there were real croissants and pain au chocolat and apple turnovers made with Greenmarket fruit. Some days, I went to City Bakery for breakfast, lunch and tea. I loved the long banquettes faced with small round tables that echoed the shape of the tarts.

Every day, too, there was Maury, the owner and shopkeeper, a handsome man with leonine, swept-back hair and a quiet, thoughtful mien. He seemed to be constantly swooping in a preoccupied state from the kitchen in back to the register in front, with brief pauses to say hello to customers with his quick merry smile. One freezing cold February evening, when I was feeling desolate, I ducked into a news vendor's and someone said my name. It was Maury. He handed me a card. "It's an invitation to the opening of our first hot-chocolate festival," he said, and the mere thought of it completely thawed my mood.

Of course, after this my husband and I made sure that our son went to a school near City Bakery, so that we could stop in both before and after school for breakfast and hot chocolate, respectively. When it was time for me to get a regular job, it was in an office only three short blocks from my lemon tart. I had a brief moment of panic when Maury told me that the bakery had outgrown its premises and would be moving, but, as it turned out, its lofty new space was a block closer to my home.

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Green Guide 109 | July/August 2005 | For Your Community