The clock striking midnight on January 1, 2026 was a joyous and jubilant start to a new year for most, but it was the death knell for the Metropolitan Transit Authority’s MetroCard. Launched in January of 1994, the thin plastic card facilitated payment of train and bus fare via a magnetic stripe throughout the 5 boroughs and beyond for millions upon millions of straphangers over the decades. The MTA started implementing tap-to-pay technology throughout the system a few years ago, and now John and Jane Subway Rider will exclusively pay for their trip via digital wallet, credit/debit cards, or with a refillable OMNY card purchased at an authorized vendor.

Bombastic headline aside, I am fine with the move towards tap-to-pay; its perfectly convenient for me, and if I am hosting an out of town visitor, they can hop on the subway with me without much fuss or the need to get a new MetroCard from a vending machine. I do, of course, lament the loss of a piece of New York City iconography, much in the way they mourned the loss of the subway token back in the day. Thankfully, the MTA saw fit to honor the MetroCard’s years of service with a monthslong farewell campaign featuring PSAs about the shift to OMNY and the greatest honor we can bestow in our society today: a score of baffling co-branded tie-in products with area restaurants.

I did not get to partake in the delights of the MetroCard Farewell Menu, which is appropriate given the lack of effort I put in to getting any of the items. The slate of offerings is worthy of review, however, and I shall make the effort to follow through on that, even though all these items are done and dusted.

Alidoro occupies a great place in the mind and stomach - good enough that when they order it for a catered lunch meeting at work you can get excited, but not good enough that you’d be willing to pay the airport pricing markup to have it for lunch on your own (looking at you, JFK Terminal 5). The La Tessera (which means card in Italian) featured a crispy chicken cutlet, sweet soppressata, fresh mozzarella, Calabrian chili vodka sauce and garlic pesto cream on a toasted semolina baguette for $16 at Alidoro, with the exception of the Sullivan Street location.

This sounds like it was a good sandwich. I love crispy chicken cutlets, and the chili vodka sauce with mozzarella make this seem like an involved chicken parm kind of thing. I am not fully confident I can identify semolina bread in a blind taste test, but if you tell me the bread is semolina I will 100% think it tastes better.

God, I love Carvel. I did not grow up with Carvel and I do my damndest to make up for that lost time. If anyone brings up Carvel ice cream in conversation, my eyes roll into the back of my head and I start listing their ice cream cake characters. This regional institution boasted an embarrassment of riches for the MetroCard celebration: $2 MetroCard Flying Saucers (circular ice cream sandwiches), free MetroCard sprinkles with the mention of the MetroCard on any scoop or soft serve, and ice cream cakes with edible depictions of the MetroCard and the Cardvaark.

Now hold on for a second, you’re probably saying, what is this Cardvaark of whom you speak? What are his designs and intentions for me?

The Cardvaark was a proposed mascot for the MetroCard as it was being developed, presented to MTA executives in 1993. Seen here holding a MetroCard in the old primarily blue design, he has a card swiper on his right arm, presumably to instruct New Yorkers on how this new swiping technology works. He also has something of a Mona Lisa smile; the cheeky grin, the raised brow, the slightly unfocused gaze, just what is he thinking? They started to price out costumes and discuss which stations the Cardvaark would be at to pump people up about this new transit development when an unknown executive smothered the poor Cardvaark in its cradle, never to see the light of day. To have eaten his graven image on an ice cream cake would have been a zenith of my year, and to have missed the opportunity is one of my great regrets, not just for 2025 but in life.

For four days in November, with the purchase of a Jamaican-style patty at Golden Krust, you would receive a free Jamaican coco bread. Sounds delicious, but I have to admit there is a lack of any overt tie-in to the MTA.

Gong cha is a milk and bubble tea chain that honored the MetroCard with the M Tea A: green tea, pearls, blue milk foam, and a chocolate powder MTA logo. It looks like it was quite the treat:

The blue foam drifting downward as it homogenizes into the drink is a mesmerizing effect. Well done, Gong cha!

I am admittedly not familiar with Stretch Pizza, but it seems to be the join project of chefs Wylie Dufresne and Gadi Peleg. Peleg is the proprietor of Breads Bakery, which rules, so I assume this place is decent. Their “Metro” featured vodka sauce, fior di latte, chicken cutlet, spicy Calabrian chili, garlic pesto cream and grated parmesan. This is the second time chicken cutlets, vodka sauce, garlic pesto cream, and Calabrian chili have been featured in a MetroCard Farewell Menu item. I demand to know who decided that these culinary elements would be the representative foodstuffs of the public transit system. I don’t recall seeing a ballot measure related to this matter, nor did I read any reports of this going to committee in either City Hall or Albany. The Mamdani administration will be hearing from me about this.

If you want to have a great time, I would suggest getting a babka from Zabars and a babka from Breads Bakery and eat both in their entirety to determine which one is better. Involve your family, friends, neighbors, and colleagues for a spirited discussion. NYC institution Zabar’s honored the MetroCard with MetroCard and Cardvaark cookies. Nothing crazy, but I’m sure they were delicious.

And so, we bid you a fond and belated farewell, MetroCard. Though you are cast aside into the realm of obsolescence, you will live on forever in our hearts. Goodnight, sweet prince.