Billie's Grocery

Billie's Grocery reads like a bakery case until you actually order. The pastry row is the hook, gorgeous enough to stop foot traffic, but the kitchen behind it is doing real work. The salmon mezze bowl and the beet burger are the proof: substantial, savory, built for people who came for lunch rather than a treat. Vegetarians who've eaten around town rank that beet burger among the best they've had anywhere.

The bakery side isn't an afterthought either. The gluten-free, dairy-free program is executed well enough that the restriction disappears — the Blue Majik bar, tinted with blue spirulina, and the candy-bar riffs taste like indulgence, not substitution. That's the harder trick, and Billie's pulls it off in both directions: dressed-up pastry case and legitimate breakfast-and-lunch kitchen, working at the same level.

Local press has kept Billie's on its list of standouts, and it's turned up on national recognition as well. Both are confirmation, not the case. The bowls and the burger already made it — this is a Midtown spot worth building a day around, not just passing through for coffee.