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Vino e Tarallucci (north side of 18th, between Broadway and 5th) has them sometimes, and on the occasions I've had them they've been quite good.

Anyone know of any pick-your-own orchards that are accessible to those of us relying on public transportation? OK, not right next to a train station, but within striking distance?

My husband and I enjoyed beignets from a few different shops while in New Orleans. We did the Cafe du Monde thing and then we hit a couple of other coffee & beignet shops and thought the little coffee shops sometimes made a better product. Anyway, we did the tourist thing and we bought two boxes of Cafe du Monde's beignet mix. We were pretty disappointed with the end result. So I googled beignet recipes and found two totally different recipes that produced very good results. One recipe was yeast based, the other was very buttery and eggy, both were delicious. I do not recommend the box mix, make your own, it's cheaper and tastier.

Collegekid19 asked for an Italian restaurant. Del Posto is nice. I don't know exactly why, but, while there and even later, I kept thinking "nice!".

My favorite was Mesa Grill, Aureole was fine but they run a summer special throughout the summer, they may not even officially participate. Trying to get into Gramercy Tavern and Eleven Madison Park is just an exercise in frustration for me. I would've called a month in advance but just forgot about it and now both places are booked solid. This year I am going to Tabla with my sister, not my original choice but like others I feel Danny Meyer does the most honorable job with RW. We'll see how it goes.

Restaurant Week is indeed a great *idea* but you need to be aware of the pitfalls:
- huge crowds and rushed service
- restaurants that cut corners (i.e., chicken and fish, none of the signature dishes, etc.)
- getting shut out of reservations since you didn't call 28, 30, or 31 days in advance
- the *really* high quality and popular restaurants usually do not participate
- restaurants that already have a prix fixe deal that is in that price range (Devi, Tocqueville, etc.)

I've always had a good experience at any Danny Meyer restaurant. As well as restaurants that typically don't have a large lunch crowd but are popular for dinner.