For years, the Imperial Tea Court has been regarded as the quintessential teahouse in Chinatown, and this new branch, set in the city's bustling cathedral to cuisine (the Marketplace houses local purveyors of every imaginable gourmet food), is a refuge for weary shoppers.
Now Pret looks the same as every artisan gastropub, gourmet coffee shop or live/work/eat/drink "space": bare bulbs, moody bar lighting levels, exposed brickwork, battered leather and mismatched wooden furniture.
They are crucial to one of Ms. Reichl's new features, Gourmet Every Day, whose goal, she says, is to show how to "get dinner on the table in 15 minutes and not be ashamed of yourself".
Though there are also plenty of sit-down restaurants and cafes serving every sort of gourmet delight.
There is the Hell's Kitchen Flea Market every weekend, with its gourmet food truck bazaar every second Sunday of the month.
I suggested they band together and get a "21st Century Limited" – a glamorous sleeping car express complete with cocktail bar, gourmet restaurant, every digital convenience and a late night party guaranteed on every trip - onto the rails between Grand Central and Chicago's LaSalle Street stations.
Number 26 Dr Staicovici Street, known as 'Ota's place', is an airy villa basement offering gourmet soups every Wednesday and warm-up sessions at the weekend.
Eat It's fitting that Puerto Vallarta welcomes chefs from around the world to its International Gourmet Festival every November.
And for a food lover, that means trying every restaurant, food stall, gourmet market, and lunch special until you can proudly proclaim you've conquered them all.
