Two iconic Big Apple institutions are teaming up to celebrate 210 total years in business — with cookies and bagels for everyone.
Zabar’s will hand out its legendary black and white cookies on Oct. 22 to commuters in the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens to celebrate its 90th anniversary this year, officials said. The MTA, meanwhile, turns 120 on Oct. 27.
The gourmet emporium on Broadway on the Upper West Side has been entwined with the MTA for nearly a century — with Stanley Zabar, the 92-year-old son of founder Louis Zabar, saying that his dad purposely placed his business within walking distance of the underground.
“My father told us if you open a store within two blocks of a subway station, you become a rich store,” Zabar said at a Tuesday press conference outside the Broadway location. “I can tell you this is true!”
“We settled here within two blocks of the subway station, I still live around the block!”
The exact locations of the cookie giveaway weren’t divulged Tuesday.
From Oct. 24 to Oct. 27, Zabar’s will knock its prices down from 8 to 11 a.m. each day: A bagel with schmear will cost $1.20, a bagel with schmear and a coffee will cost $2.90, and a bagel with cream cheese and lox will go for $9.90, she said.
“We look forward to our customers getting in on the deal and joining us for these two iconic birthday celebrations,” said Shanifah Rieara, the MTA’s Chief Customer Officer.
Demetrius Crichlow, NYC Transit’s interim president, said the agency was thrilled to recognize two Big Apple institutions: The transit system that the city is built upon, and a Depression-era store that’s endured for decades.
“Zabar’s … has been here for 90 years!” he said. “Ninety years that people have come to enjoy a bagel and schmear, a black and white cookie and some hot coffee.”
“That has been what New York is about — it’s about institutions like this that make this city as great as it is.”
He compared their shared birthday to the collaboration between Aerosmith and Run DMC in 1986, earning a few laughs from the gathered crowd.
“This is gonna’ be great!” he said with a smile. “I might be biased, but I think it’s pretty awesome.”