Today, from 5-9pm you can pick up a free mini mango Pinkberry yogurt with toppings at participating locations (search here). You can also enter to win gift cards and prizes during a trivia event. Sounds like a great way to start off the weekend to me!

You can click the link for more information and for the full list of dishes offered by these participating restaurants:

- Au Bon Pain
- Au Mandarin
- Blockheads Burritos
- Columbus Bakery
- Devon & Blakely
- Donald Sacks
- Elixir Juice Bar
- Financier Patisserie
- Godiva Chocolatier
- The Grill Room
- Southwest NY
- P.J. Clarke’s
- Starbucks Coffee
- Yushi

While I’d love to do this again, to me it’s not worth it unless there is a special.  Enter Connect by Hertz.  Connect by Hertz is a pay as you go membership club.  Regardless if you are a current or new member, this month, Smart Car rates are only $2 an hour and include unlimited mileage.  There is no special promo code to get this deal.

Connect by Hertz offers three membership types -

• Connect Membership: $50 annual fee. Regular rates start at $10 per hour or $70 per day. Smart Car rates are $2 per hour or $48 a day for the month of March.
• Connect 50 Membership: $50 monthly fee, no annual fee.  Regular rates start at $9 per hour or $63 per day. Smart Car rates are $2 per hour or $48 a day for the month of March.
• Connect 125 Membership: $125 monthly fee, no annual fee.  Regular rates start at $8.50 per hour or $59.50 per day. Smart Car rates are $2 per hour or $48 a day for the month of March.

Before signing up for a membership, check if your building or employer offers a discount.  My building for example, waives the membership fee.  To find a garage near you, click here.  Just remember, Smart Cars aren’t huge, so a trip to Ikea may be out of the question..

As with Manhattan’s RW, reservations in advance are highly recommended and the ad/brochure says to mention that you’re coming for Dine in Brooklyn. Hmm, this concerns me a bit…why do we need to tell them from the beginning that we’re planning on doing the Dine in Brooklyn special? I hope this information doesn’t result in bad tables, etc.

Anyway, I’m quite excited to try out one or two spots. The restaurants are conveniently organized by neighborhood, but unfortunately there’s no direct link to the restaurant Web site or Dine in Brooklyn menu that will be offered, so you’ll have to get your hands dirty and do some serious Googling to compare restaurants/menus and determine which is the best fit for you.

And if $25 sounds like too much for dinner, then fear not. There are a good handful of restaurants that are offering 3 courses for $25 for TWO PEOPLE (list starts on pg. 4). That’s a pretty incredible deal to get 3 courses of food for $12.50 per person. Now you have no excuse to not venture over to Brooklyn and hit up at least one of these restaurants. Does anyone have a suggestion as to which I should try?

*Thanks to Lauren for sending this along

Photo from Yelp

We started with the summer rolls ($5) stuffed with baby spinach, rice noodles, carrots, celery and a peanut-plum dipping sauce, and they were pretty good. All appetizers menu were between $4-6, so there’s no reason not to try at least one. And if you have a hungry group, you might as well opt for the tasting menu – any three appetizers for $12.

Before we met up they were waiting for me at one of my favorite happy hour spots in the city - City Crab. So while they had a few drinks in them before dinner, I was sober and ready to go. Naturally I wanted to split a bottle of wine and they kindly obliged me. But the good news came when we checked out the wine menu – bottles ranged from $16 – 24. Yes, $24 was the most expensive bottle of wine on the menu. This was great. Beers were $5-5.50 and cocktails started at $6. Again, low on money, we went for the $16 Barefoot Pinot Grigio (despite the good wine price for a restaurant, it still killed me slightly to pay nearly three times as much for a Barefoot bottle of wine).

Since they snacked on oysters and mussels marinara at City Crab earlier, they decided to just split the vegetable pad thai and I had the chicken pad thai, both $9. The food was really good and I was happy to have some leftovers for the next day. I thought it was a good balance between sauce and chicken/noodles, as well as between spicy and sweet. I’ve had quite a few pad thai disappointments, so I was very pleased that this met if not exceeded my expectations.

We all really liked the restaurant and I will definitely be back. It had a cute décor, great prices, good food and for me personally, a very convenient location.

Looking to save some cash at another restaurant instead? Check out this deal at Patsy’s!

Macaroni and cheese is my go-to-comfort food so I was incredibly excited to discover S’MAC in the East Village. It’s an entire restaurant dedicated to making a variety of different mac and cheese recipes. They not only have 12 different types listed on the menu, but there’s also the option to make your own. And best of all — it’s not that expensive. The smallest size, nosh, is only $7.25. And trust me, you don’t need to get more than the nosh. My friends and I all made the mistake of getting the mongo ($10.75) and having to walk home with a pound of leftover mac and cheese.

I was extremely overwhelmed by all the options and finally decided on sharing with my friend. We decided on the Pariseinne (brie, figs, mushrooms, and rosemary) and my own creation (goat cheese, mozzarella, spinach, and chicken), both made with whole wheat pasta.

They were extremely good and extremely rich and I could feel my cholesterol rising with each bite I took.

And best of all, they sell lactaid pills on the counter so that everyone, including your lactose-intolerant friend who always eats dairy and then complains for 6 hours, can enjoy their meal.

This wine course is one of several that Vero began offering a few weeks ago. Hosted by their new Sommelier, each class will feature wines from their extensive wine list and either focus on a region or type of wine. And of course, if you’re looking for a deal at Vero, don’t forget about their free panini with each glass of wine special valid at both locations on Monday nights.