One Lucky Duck - Chelsea Market, New York

Local produce, artisan breads and cute boutique stores, what’s not to love about fancy city markets? New York’s Chelsea Market has all of these things and is even home to a raw vegan takeout shop. We visited this popular NYC market twice during our stay. The first time, we came across it by chance. We popped in, took a quick look around, noted the free wifi, and decided we needed to return for afternoon snack and internet hangout session.

One Lucky Duck - Chelsea Market, New York

At the Chelsea Market, you can find one of the two One Lucky Duck locations. Before visiting NYC, I’d heard so much about them, as well as the upscale Pure Food and Wine restaurant, which is under the same ownership. Both places were on my list of restaurants to visit. But once you arrive in New York, you start to run into vegan restaurants by accident, you discover restaurants and bakeries you hadn’t heard about, and your friends tell you about their favourite places. There’s so much good food to be eaten and it’s a constant struggle to work up and appetite after each indulgence. There’s also the small matter of keeping sane about the amount of money you’re spending. You may find that what you thought you wanted to eat while drooling over reviews and pictures online doesn’t match up with what you feel once you’ve made it to the big apple.

One Lucky Duck - Chelsea Market, New York

At One Lukcy Duck, you can find lots of raw vegan takeout items. They’ve got salads, burgers, falafels, chocolate bars, cakes, cookies, smoothies and more. Above and beyond the food, one thing that really stood out for me ways how incredibly expensive everything was. I understand they use high quality organic ingredients, and I don’t doubt their food is great, but, at the time, I just couldn’t bring myself to pay $15 for a tiny piece of Tiramisu cake or a takeout burger. This was my sentiment after leaving there empty handed after our first visit.

One Lucky Duck - Chelsea Market, New York

One Lucky Duck - Chelsea Market, New York

On our second visit, we were having a bad day and needed and extra special, yet healthy, pick me up. I snuck away from John for a few minutes and returned with two brightly coloured smoothies from One Lucky Duck.

One Lucky Duck Smoothies

For John, I choose the Calypso, a blend of mango, raspberry, lemonade and vanilla. For me, it had to be the Spanking, made with fresh coconut, blueberry, banana, cashew milk, cinnamon and vanilla.

One Lucky Duck Smoothie

The smoothies were great, and totally brightened our day. However, hours later, when John asked me how much they were, I had some trouble admitting the actual cost and experienced some buyers remorse. The Calypso was $9.00 USD, and the Spanking was $12.00 USD. I know, it’s crazy, isn’t it? And that doesn’t even include tax. We could have each bought a meal for that price. Easily! I’ve actually heard they have a $20+ milkshake at their other location. Insane. After all the smoothie drama, I couldn’t suggest a visit to Pure Food and Wine. I’ll have to wait until we have a special occasion to celebrate before trying to justify that price tag.

Amy's Bread - Chelsea Market

Amy's Bread - Chelsea Market

After the One Lucky Duck splurge, I only had a few pennies left for an afternoon snack. The choice wasn’t hard. John and I can’t resist an artisan bread maker. With the rest of our change, less than $2.00 USD, we picked up a couple potato dill rolls and a rosemary twist bread stick from Amy’s Bread. With full bellies, we spent the rest of the afternoon geeking out on our laptops, fully enjoying the free public wifi at the market.

Chelsea Market
75 9th Avenue (Between 15th and 16th Streets), New York, NY

Chelsea Market, New York