If you’re sitting down, you should know that it’s Macaron Day. In Paris, where holidays are done right, it’s Jour du Macaron, and about eight hours ago, hundreds of thousands of schoolchildren woke up singing a lovely song about pastel-colored magic then promptly flooded les rues with their best patisserie-heat-seeking game in tow. More important for our purposes, today in NYC twelve participating merchants of sweets will hand over a free macaron if you use this code phrase: “I am here for Macaron Day NYC.” Try this out at Bouchon Bakery, Cannelle Patisserie, Epicerie Boulud, Dominique Ansel Bakery, and a bunch of other participating locations listed here.
This crazy holiday of all holidays was created by the Yoda of the modern macaron, Pierre Hermé. Two years ago, our own meringue ambassador François Payard enlisted a few confectionery friends in order to spread the message in the States. A portion of all the day’s macaron sales generated in association with the promotion will be donated to City Harvest.
We’ve been told that supplies are limited at each location, but you should also know there’s a gauntlet of sorts: Pick up a punch card at the François Payard Bakery at 116 West Houston, visit 12 out of the 21 participating merchants (excluding Macaron Cafe), then return to Payard to redeem the card for your complimentary six-piece macaron assortment box. Good luck out there, everybody.
Macaron Day NYC 2012 [Official site]
Earlier: Your Macaron Fix: Now Mapped
