Friday, March 2, 2007

Freegan Sites in NYC

Manhattan
This directory is organized from north to south. Keep scrolling down to find more neighborhoods and more stuff.

Inwood
Know what's happening here? Have ideas for a trailblaze? Send your ideas to ask@freegan.info.

Washington Heights

Bravo Supermarket
Broadway near 181st
Good selection of produce, includes some Latin American specialty items

Mike’s Bagels
4033 Broadway at W 168th Street

Harlem and East Harlem
Know what's happening here? Have ideas for a trailblaze? Send your ideas to ask@freegan.info.

Morningside Heights

Morton-Williams
Broadway and 115th Street. When I've gone the staff have been in the process of throwing stuff out, so 9 or 9:30, and they were friendly enough about letting us dive away. It's a very busy corner, and well-lit, so its high-profile dumpster diving, not for the shy.

Dagostino
Broadway and 110th Street. I'm not sure what the best time is, but I think 9-9:30 is when I've had good luck there.
Absolute Bagel
Broadway and 108th St. The usual bagel abundance, plenty fresh.

Garden of Eden
Broadway between 108th and 109th Streets. One of the best diving sites in the city—super-high end fresh produce in huge plastic barrels, bags of fresh-made packaged entrees, loose buffet bar food, lots more. Enormous volume. Lots of exotic produce. You'll find stuff there from 9:30 or 10 on.


Upper West Side

Silver Moon Bakery
Broadway and 105th Street
We found meat and cheese sandwiches as well as bread.

Hot and Crusty
2 Broadway locations: at 105th St, and between 87th and 88th Sts.
All the bready stuff-- muffins, pizza slices, rolls, croissants, etc. We had more luck with the store in the 80s.

Gristedes
Broadway and 103rd St.
Normal supermarket stuff, although we didn't find much produce. Lots of eggs and bread though.

Health Nuts
Broadway between 98th and 99th Sts.
We found mostly prepared foods, some vegetarian and vegan, some not.

West Side Health Food
Broadway between 96th and 97th Sts.
We had good luck with packaged foods.

Gourmet Garage
Broadway and 96th St., next to West Side Health Food
In the Village and Soho you can't get food from Gourmet Garage any more, but this outlet has fresh produce and packaged goods in abundance in their small, easy-to-unload dumpsters. On the night we went we found an abundance of fresh fettucini and ravioli in perfect condition.,P. Gary Null's Uptown Whole Foods
Broadway and 89th Street
Produce, pretty much. Food's out by 10:30 pm, perhaps earlier.

Barzini's
Broadway between 90th and 91st
Lots of good produce.

Supersol
Amsterdam betwen 85th and 86h, west side
Kosher supermarket. On 2 trips, we found many non-vegan protein staples not often found elsewhere, such as whitefish and cheese, plus dry macaroni, etc.

Godiva
Broadway at 84th Street
Often throws out fancy quality strawberries that they dip in chocolate. Sometimes chocolate as well.

Barnes & Noble
Broadway at 82nd Street
Barnes & Noble recently instituted a country-wide recycling policy, so their dumpster may no longer hold loads of "stripped" magazines and paperbacks. Direct reuse is always more resource-efficient than recycle, so if the books are still there it's worth saving them. In the past we have also occasionally found sealed boxes of hardcover books at this location. If you're in the neighborhood, please check and let us know what you find. Boxcutter recommended.

Zabars and Fairway would seem like sure bets, but we haven't seen anything there yet. If anyone does, please email us.


Upper East Side

In our experience, the goods get fancier and fresher as you go south.

Key Food
2nd Avenue and 92nd Street, in the Rupert Towers building
On our first foray, we found only some shrink-wrapped produce, plus local street people hanging out seemed hungry. If folks find more another time, please email us.

Patak's (Gourmet Deli)
Madison Avenue between 89th and 90th Streets
Lots of black bags, but comparatively little good food. Some pre-made sandwiches and bread.

Patak's (Gourmet Deli)
Madison Avenue between 89th and 90th Streets
Lots of black bags, but comparatively little good food. Some pre-made sandwiches and bread.

Gristedes
Lexington Avenue and 89th Street
Dairy and eggs galore, a little not-so-great quality produce.

Eli's
3rd Avenue between 80th and 81st Sts.
Most of their trash goes through a compressor, but on our first dive we found about five bags of uncompressed food including yogurt, almonds and butter.

Associated
1st Avenue between 81st and 82nd Sts.
Produce, bread and more.

Gristedes
2nd Avenue between 75th & 76th
Huge piles of bags on blindingly lit stretch of 2nd Avenue-- not for the shy. Similar to what's found at Gristedes in other parts of town, including produce, bread, dairy and more.

Grace's Market
71st and 3rd Avenue: (north east corner)
This is a large gourmet supermarket with wonderful and copious food thrown out. When the trailblaze team visited in September 06, there were citrus fruits (grapefruit and oranges), a great deal of good corn on the cob, plenty of good bread and good bagels. And there were cute little pineapples, the size of a baseball.

Really Cool Foods
3rd Avenue between 62 and 63rd, east side
Fantastic location for prepared organic foods that were wildly overpriced. We found shrimp in various forms, portobello mushrooms in a vinagrette seasoning, packaged peas, organic muffins and other cakes, loads of organic goat's milk ice cream and some other gelatos with flavors like mocha and butterscotch, croissants (chocolate!), chicken meals in individual packages, sauces (Asian sweet and sour,lobster, some kind of cream sauces).

Food Emporium
63rd and and 3rd Avenue, north west corner
In September 06 we found loads of packaged foods: foie gras (several), many cookies and crackers (Triscuits, Wheat Thins, Doritos, boxes of individually wrapped bags of 100 calories in the bag cookies), candies , chocolates.

Midtown East

D'Agostino
1st Avenue and 56th
Bread and good produce in large quantities, including bananas, spinach, and citrus.

Café Europa
42nd Street between 5th and Madison
Pizza, salads, sandwiches

Midtown West

D'Agostinos
57th Street and 9th Avenue, on the northeast corner
Gray garbage cans and bags are in front of the store on 57th Street.
We found lots of good veggies, a bunch of dairy products, and some bags of kitty litter.

Bread Factory Cafe
8th Avenue between 55th and 56th Streets
Bagels galore.

Gristedes
8th Avenue and 54th Street
Black plastic bags of veggies, bread and cookies, plus the usual supermarket assortment of packaged goods. We found loads of tofu and "cookie kits."

Bagel Stix
8th Avenue and 53rd Street
Bagels plus breakfasty muffins

Food Emporium
Dumpsters are on 49th Street just east of 8th Avenue
Loads of stuff. We found veggies, tofu, bread, dairy, nuts and seeds.

Hale and Heary Soup
42nd between 5th and 6th
Bread, salads.


Pret A Manger
42nd Street between 5th and 6th Aves (north side of Street)
Large volumes of really fancy prepackaged sandwiches and salads. Bags of loaves of sliced seven grain bread. Enormous volumes of fresh squeezed juices (not every night).

Pax
42nd Street between 7th and 8th.
Wrap sandwiches, pizza, baked goods.
Fairly narrow time window—stuff goes out late and is picked up by 1:30 AM or so.

Pax
40th Street and 6th Avenue
Bagels, rolls, variety of other stuff. Less consistent than other Pax stores.

Midtown Comics
W. 40th Street at 7th Avenue
Comics books, magazines, paperback novels, comic book protective bags and boards. Check the black bags and the sealed cardboard boxes. With the store to your back (entrance on 40th St, NOT 7th Ave), you will see a street sign right in front of you. Everything to the immediate right of the sign pole is Midtown Comics trash. Everything to the left is their neighbors’.

Pax
Broadway between W 35th and W 36th Streets
LOTS of really expensive sandwiches, esp. wraps. Muffins, bagels. Very popular, so sometimes stuff is gone by the time you get there.

Hale and Hearty Soup
35th and 7th Avenue
Entire bag of cut romaine lettuce, prepacked mixed salads in plastic sealed bowls. Soup veggies and beans sometimes.

Chinatown Express
7th Avenue 32nd Street and 33rd Street
Bags and bags of Chinese buffet food. All food is discarded at the end of the day. The stuff is still hot for hours, even on cold nights.

Murray Hill/Kips Bay

Gristedes
460 Third Avenue & 32nd Street
Quite a lot of packaged, precooked food, including deli cheeses and meats, in 2 large dumpsters on the 32nd Street side. Easy location to sort through without being harassed. Well known to neighborhood regulars.

Gristedes
Third Avenue between 36th and 37th Streets
On the avenue, generally tolerant and sometimes chatty management.

D’Agostino’s
528 Third Avenue & 35th Street


D’Agostino’s 578 Third Avenue and 38th Street

Both D’ags are on the west side of 3rd Avenue, with their trash right outside the stores. Both put out lots of produce, much of it very high quality; the northern store puts out lots of excellent bread. They tend to have a very short window between putting out and having their private trash carrier pick up; arrive by 9pm for best results.

Chelsea

Garden of Eden
162 West 23rd Street
Yupscale NYC based chain that specializes in produce, prepared foods and luxury products.

Guy and Gallard
29th Street at 7th Ave
Dumpster on 29th Street side
Bagels, bread, salads, fruit salads, sandwiches, prepared gourmet meal thingees, fresh squeezed juice, yogurt and granola, etc. Kind of have to really reach in the bags to find good stuff sometimes, but there’s lots of it.

Krispy Crème
W 23rd Street between 7th and 8th Avenues
Donuts, of course.

Flower market
28th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues
Stores throughout the block.The stores all close by 6pm; regulars check early, but there are still flowers and plants for all until late at night.

Chelsea Piers
West Side Highway at 20th St
There are a lot of TV and film productions at their Silver Screen Studios building, which means a lot of catered food thrown out. Some other stuff, too. Come late at night and look for the dumpsters facing the bike path.

Gramercy/Flatiron

Garden of Eden
310 3rd Avenue at 23rd Street
Yupscale NYC based chain that specializes in produce, prepared foods and luxury products.

Zaro's
920 Broadway between 20th and 21st; dumpsters are on the south side of 21st St just east of Broadway
Tip came in from a worker there: "Every night, a huge load of bread and pastries from that morning are discarded. Last night, I put out two bags of bread so heavy I could hardly lift them. I try to put the bags of clean food on the right or left side of the dumpsters rather than IN them." It's worth checking other Zaro's locations as well, including Penn Station and Grand Central.

Associated Supermarket
Park Ave around 22nd
mainly produce

Natural Green Market
16th at 3rd Ave
health food store
closes at 10:30, collects after 12:30

David’s Bagels
1st Avenue between 19th and 20th Streets


Gramercy Bagels
3rd Avenue and 20th Street

Around Union Square

Profiting from the success of the farmers market (which collaborates with City Harvest to find homes for the farm-fresh produce), upscale chains are moving in.

Garden of Eden
14th Street between 5th and University
In addition to their bags, which sometimes bear meat and fish, check the large rolling garbage containers, which hold all the deli hot food (a specialty of this chain; may contain cooked chickens) as well as salad bar.

Gristedes
14th Street between 5th and 6th Aves
Recently (autumn '06) this store either has its trash picked up very early, or it's not putting it out any more.


Au Bon Pain
Park Ave and 14th Street by Union Square
Bread and pastry chain. Lots of sweets, bagels, rolls, breadsticks, etc.
also--
Au Bon Pain
5th Avenue and 16th Street


Petco
Union Square North and Broadway
Lots of companion animal food.
(Keep in mind that carnivorous companions generally love the meat and fish “fit for human consumption” that all the supermarkets throw out. With a little care – don’t take animal products that are not quite cold or quite hot; wash everything in cold water and wrap in clean packaging; freeze what you can’t use right way; always cook before you serve it—your companions need never eat overprocessed byproduct kibble again.)

Zen Palate
Lots of cooked soup stock veggies. Not exactly amazing stuff, but it’ll do in a pinch.

West Village

Bagelry
14th Street and 7th Ave
Puts out more bagels than Bagel Bob's, and sometimes Krispy Kreme donuts or salads as well


Food Emporium
6th Ave below 12th
upscale supermarket chain
Now puts out between 10:00 and 11:30 pm, earlier than they used to. Recently (autumn '06) this location has become somewhat less wasteful. There are seldom the entire cases of produce there used to be. Very popular, because of its former hyper-wastefulness, but still seldom gets completely cleaned out, especially if you dig deep in the miscellaneous bags. Stuff is in bags on several large rolling carts. They are open still at 11pm and the night manager often talks with folks. Be especially careful about putting stuff back neatly.

Lifethyme Natural Market
6th Ave between 8th and 9th
Large health food store
Closes at 10. Those who are feeling bold and polite can go into the store at 9:45 pm to ask for food from the organic hot food bar. Be sure to thank the manager on duty and the workers who empty the food trays and will wait until you're done, within reason. Store personnel will want you to use their packaging since they don't want to alienate "regular" customers still in the store. If you don't want to use their packaging or you get there later, feel for the hot trash bag, which has only stuff from the hot food bar. Brown rice, vegan chili, sweet potatoes, steamed veggies, plus chicken and turkey, although at that point everything's mixed together. Their other black bags yield packs of nuts, vegan baked goods, dried fruit, small amounts of produce, lots of patches of cut live wheatgrass, and lots more.

Gourmet Garage
7th Ave at W. 10th Street
Perhaps the neighbors complained, because the dumpsters that used to sit outside this yuppie store are no longer there. If you notice the situation change, email us.

Gristedes
Barrow between 7th Avenue and W. 4th Street.
The trash is around the corner from the market itself, next to a parking garage, across from “One if By Land” (fancy restaurant) and west of the trash for the apartment building. Lotsa stuff, not often seriously dived.

Gristedes
Trash also around the corner from the market, on Bank St west of Hudson.
The usual Gristedes assortment.

Le Pain Quotidien
8th St just west of 5th Ave
Huge rounds of crusty whole grain sourdough bread, stays moist inside for many days after being tossed. Even on days when the whole loaves aren't there, you'll find quarter and half loaves. Also some baguettes and occasionally sweets.

Integral Yoga
13th Street between 7th and 8th Avenues
small health food store; no produce.

Unnamed shop (no sign)
Sells chinese buns and smoothies
West 3rd just east of 6th Ave, north side
After 10:30 or 11, you'll find one or more bags of various buns filled with meat or vegetables, still warm. Vegetarians beware, as the meat and veggie buns often look the same.

Temple in the Village
3rd St. east of Thompson, below Washington Sq. Park
vegan restaurant
Whole bag of stir-fried Asian food after 10 every night

Jamaican Flavors
3rd St. and Sullivan, below Washington Sq. Park
Caribbean restaurant
Every day, throws out a bag of nothing but beans and rice, and another bag of meat and veggie rotis (pouches)

Peanut Butter and Co.
3rd St. and Sullivan, below Washington Sq. Park
Peanut butter and banana sandwiches, whole grain bread, celery and carrot sticks, cups of peanut butter

produce market (large, I forget the name)
Carmine at Varick St.
Several cartons of very good produce

East Village

fruit stand
University below Union Square, next to Amazing Savings
Several black bags of good produce, stuff is usually available as early as 6 PM.


Produce stand
Northeast corner of 7th Street and 1st Avenue

Lime Tree
1st Avenue and 9th Street
fruit and vegetable store


Gristedes
University Place between 8th and 9th Street
This one is a little more abundant with produce and less with packaged food than most of this chain.
Puts out at about 8:30, collects early, well-frequented.

Gristedes
14th Street between 1st and 2nd Aves

Gristedes
Mercer St and 3nd St
Lots of fruit and other produce. Bread, hummus, other packaged foods.

Gracefully
Avenue A between 3rd and 4th
upscale produce and grocery store

Caravan of Dreams
6th St east of 1st Ave
vegan restaurant
Not much to be found, but what is there is really good
closes at 11 most days

Counter
1st Ave around 7th St
vegan restaurant/lounge
closes late (after 12:30)- good stuff my be disguised in other bags
open 24 hours, had stuff out around 7:30/8; others say to check barrels around 10pm.

Commodities
1st Ave and 10th St
health food store
seldom anything good, but others beg to differ

Urban Roots
Avenue A between 3rd and 4th Streets
Small health food store


Healthfully
4th Street between 1st and 2nd Avenue
Small health food store


Bagel Bob's
University between 9th and 10th
An East Village freegan legend; out of the many bags of plain old trash, feel for the one to three bags that contains obvious bagel and bialy shapes. Huge bags of bagels, mini bagels, bagel bits (sort of like Munchkins, but bagels), cinnamon buns, struedels, and bialys not intermingled with other food and garbage Very popular. Don’t bother on Mondays.

David’s Bagels
1st Avenue between 14th and 13th St

The Black Hound
2nd Avenue between 10th & 11th Streets
decadent desserts

Dean & De Luca
11th Street and University

Taylors
2nd Avenue between 10th and 11th Streets
tray of sandwiches every night, around 10pm

Au Bon Pain
3rd Street between Broadway and Lafayette
Bread and pastry chain. This one tosses lots of pastries when it closes around 11:30 pm. Also, bagels, rolls, breadsticks, etc.

Au Bon Pain
8th Street and Mercer


Dunkin’ Donuts
1st Avenue between 12th and 13th Streets

Old Fashion Donuts
1st Avenue between 13th and 14th Streets

Soho

Gourmet Garage
453 Broome Street at Mercer
This is the flagship store, so when you can get at it, it’s a motherlode. Several giant dumpsters on the Mercer Street side. Rumor has it that these dumpsters are sometimes locked; it is more likely that security or a night manager will yell at you and/or chase you away. Go after 11pm.

Dean & Deluca
450 Broadway between Prince and Spring Sts
sushi, pastries, etc

produce stand
Southeast corner of Houston and Broadway
Gray barrels have compostable food.

Tribeca


Food Emporium
316 Greenwich St at Duane St
Massive quantities of produce, fancy cakes, and all manner of other items in dumpsters in front of the store.

Lower East Side

Essex Street Market
Essex between Rivington and Delancey
Large indoor market; check dumpsters in the afternoon.

Economy Candy
Rivington between Essex and Ludlow
Candy and nuts.

Earth Matters
Ludlow between Houston and Stanton
Small health food store.

Chinatown

Fay Da Bakery
82 Elizabeth St. between Hester & Grand
Mott & Canal
Sweet & meaty baked goods.

Financial District/Battery Park City
Know what's happening here? Have ideas for a trailblaze? Send your ideas to ask@freegan.info.

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