MIDTOWN — Macarons flew off the shelves Thursday as fans with a sweet tooth made a pilgrimage to the more than a dozen bakeries doling out the free delicacies as part of the annual Macaron Day NYC.
“This is our fifth stop,” said Melina Ho, who spent the morning traveling to participating patry shops with her friend Miranda Chang in search of dark chocolate or pistachio-flavored treats.
Macaron Day NYC, a celebration of the fluffy French pastry, was created five years ago by chef Francois Payard in honor of the Parisian Jour du Macaron. Patrons each get a free macaron in honor of the day, officials said.
Here in NY, the macaron crawl is designed to raise money for City Harvest, as a portion of macaron sales above the ones that are free are donated to the hunger-fighting nonprofit agency, officials said.
Among the participating bakeries included Bouchon Bakery in the Time Warner Center in Columbus Circle. The bakery quickly ran out of their multi-flavored macarons, and only had only Nutella macarons left by noon.
Tolly Wright, a fan of the maple candy macaron, and Mary Lane Townsend, who was excited about the blood orange macaron, were happy to snap up treats from Francois Payard Bakery at 58th and Broadway, and added that they were looking forward to hunting down the two dozen flavors on sale at the Macaron Café.
“They have so many flavors,” Wright said.
Donna Holzer, who traveled to Manhattan from New Jersey specifically to take part in Macaron Day, her third time taking part in the annual treats extravaganza.
She bought a number of goodies from Francois Payard Bakery on 58th Street and Broadway, including an apron for $10, the proceeds of which go to City Harvest.
“We have nineteen stops today,” Holzer said. “We come in just for this.”
