There is such a thing as a free lunch
...if you take it one bite at a time
Among economists, there's a saying so popular that it's often abbreviated into an awkward acronym, TANSTAAFL. It stands for "There ain't no such thing as a free lunch." Well, phooey on the economists. With food prices skyrocketing, and too much of our paychecks going into our gas tanks, we've decided to prove that yes, there is so such a thing as a free lunch. Armed with nothing but a shameless sense of frugality and our bare, greedy hands, we scoured Greater Boston for free food samples. Several grocery stores, gourmet specialty shops, bakeries, and ice cream stores later, our tummies were full - and so were our wallets.
Whole Foods, no paycheck
The journey began at the organic upscale grocer Whole Foods, better known in some circles as Whole Paycheck because its gorgeous produce is pretty expensive by grocery store standards. Fortunately, the food samples are free. And Whole Foods, with 19 locations in Massachusetts, is a goldmine of samples. On a recent Saturday at the Fresh Pond location in Cambridge, the store was offering free cups of gourmet lemonade (which retails at $2.99 for a half gallon), free chunks of seedless watermelon, marinated mixed olives, little pieces of angel food cake, and free bites of shell sirloin with a spice rub.
We did way more trying than buying. And the staff at the store encouraged it.
"Since I started an hour ago, I've gone though four steaks," said Karen Baum, a demo coordinator at the store. She also let us in on a little secret: In addition to setting out platters of various samples every day, Whole Foods will give samples of pretty much anything else in the store to anyone bold enough to ask. Want to see what that guava tastes like? Ask a clerk to cut it open for you. Want to savor some salami before committing to a whole purchase? The guy behind the meat counter will be happy to oblige.
Many stores host local food nights as well (the Alewife location's is on Tuesdays), featuring area small businesses sharing free gourmet goodies.
"The main thing we like to say is you have to get something in people's mouths," Baum said.
What cost, Costco?
The giant warehouse club Costco requires a $50-per-year membership fee to shop there, so sampling wares there isn't technically free unless you accompany a friend who has a membership. But springing for the fee might be worth it. Besides offering cut-rate deals on giant jars of peanut butter and the like, Costco offers lots of little samples.
On an otherwise dismal Monday, we braved the rainy-day traffic on Route 128 and made our way to the store in Waltham. The Costco sample fest is best on Saturdays, but even on a weekday we filled up fast. Samples included Harvest of the Sea shrimp scampi, shaved honey ham, chunk turkey on warmed eight-grain bread, and Healthy Choice Fudge Bars, which a store employee cut into bite-sized pieces with office scissors. It was at Costco that a customer demonstrates his yet-to-be-patented one-handed twofer grab, wherein he palms one sample while grabbing another with his fingers.
In another section of a store, a woman offered samples of laundry detergent. She seemed to sense our mission. "Do you want some Tide?" she said. "It's not to eat. . .."
Say free cheese . . . and pasta
The gourmet cheese purveyor Formaggio Kitchen stocks hundreds of cheeses at any given time, which would be daunting to newbies if not for the friendly staff and the generous samples.
Kurt Gurdal, manager and cheese buyer at Formaggio, estimates that the Cambridge store plows through 15 to 20 pounds of cheese samples on any given weekday, and several more on the weekend. Along with goodies such as olives and pickles, the store generally displays four to six cheeses on its sampling tables, but customers can ask to try any cheese in the store, along with any of the store's cured meats. We helped ourselves to large chunks of Fontina d'Aosta Riserva (which goes for $21.95 per pound) and Robiola Fresco ($16.95 per pound.)
"We've seen some funny things," Gurdal said. "People coming in with empty coffee cups, filling them up with cheese, and then leaving."
Dave's Fresh Pasta in Somerville offers cheese samples, too. The sampling portions are stingier than those at Formaggio, but the store makes up for it with daily samples of its namesake pastas and raviolis, which include flavors such as artichoke fontina, caramelized leek, pumpkin and fresh sage, and lobster - whole portions of which retail from $4.00 to $12.50.
When pigs mooch
Many bakeries offer free slices of bread; bakers know that if you're hooked on a slice you'll probably want the whole loaf. When Pigs Fly, with locations in Somerville and Brookline, samples each of its 20 types of bread every day. Loaves go for $4-$6, but the generous samples are free. Breads include Tuscan wheat, oat and honey, chocolate, kalamata olive and roasted red pepper, and both blueberry and chocolate bread puddings.
"You could stand here all day if you wanted to," said Lisa Foti, an employee at the Brookline store. "Some people will come in and say, 'I'm here for my lunch!"'
There's an old episode of the HBO series "The Larry David Show" in which the title character scolds a woman ahead of him in line at an ice cream store. Her offense: abusing the store's sampling policy. Nobody wants to be the jerk holding up the line, but the quirky shops in Cambridge and Boston give timid cheapskates a good reason to ask for samples: The rotating flavors are so bizarre that it's impossible to gauge what something tastes like without trying it first. So we tried and tried.
Christina's in Cambridge offers exotic gems such as Adzuki Bean and Nietzsche's Chocolate Ascension. Down the road at Toscanini's you'll find flavors such as Pale Wort (a beer-based concoction) and Black Bottom (dark chocolate with rum and ginger snaps). Herrell's Ice Cream in Allston serves head-scratchers like Girlsenberry (blueberry, grape, and raspberry); as a bonus, the shop hosts an art opening every other Saturday from 7 to 9 p.m. with free coffee and cookies, and sometimes brownies. The more popular the artist, the sweeter the freebies.
"When we know there's going to be someone big, we have a huge spread," said Justin Delaet, a manager at Herrells, on a recent Saturday night. We helped ourselves to another brownie and thanked him kindly.
