On Tuesday, July 29, Harvey Bakery & Kitchen is celebrating a brand new holiday, and we couldn’t be more on board. National Midnight Cowboy Day will be an annual event on the 29th, and the accoutrements of its celebration include specialty coffee drinks, cocktails, and variations on their Midnight Cowboy Croissant, which from the day they opened, I’ve insisted is the best thing in the pastry case, largely on the strength of the chocolate frangipane and the fact that in a world of sweetness levels that make your teeth hurt, Executive Chef Alyssa Ulrich opted for semi-sweet. 

This could just be an announcement of an event I think is a great idea, but then Ulrich told me where the croissant’s name came from, and it answered a question I’ve had since they opened. It’s inevitable that naming something Midnight Cowboy will lead to questions from people about the croissant vs the 1969 movie of the same name. This next thing is going to be taken differently depending on your own biases, but I absolutely mean it as an observation, not a compliment or insult. Harvey Bakery is pretty wholesome. That my favorite of their staple pastries is named for one of the bleakest, sex-centered films I’ve ever seen always made me wonder how they chose THAT name. 

For the uninitiated, Midnight Cowboy is the only Oscar-winning film with an X rating. Before porn was everywhere, the MPAA slapped X ratings on questionable films, the vestige of which is the NC-17 rating, a designation that virtually guarantees it’s a terrible movie. Without going into too much detail, the movie featured a very young Dustin Hoffman as a hustler, and an equally young Jon Voight as a male prostitute who serviced clients of both sexes – pretty bawdy stuff for 1969. It’s a grim film tangentially about friendship, but it’s a hard watch on a level with Requiem for a Dream.

“We’ve only ever had one person I remember suggest we change the name of the croissant,” Ulrich said. “I’d never heard of the movie, and when we were naming the pastries, I just liked the name. It worked with a dark chocolate pastry. I don’t think most of our guests have seen it.”

I’m pretty sure that aside from zealous film nerds, no one under 50 has seen the movie, and even if they have, the pastry is still phenomenal and viewing the film does not affect my enjoyment, nor should the pastry inspire anyone to watch. The holiday will feature the original, of course, but Ulrich has also made two variations just for the day, both of which we’ve tasted, and Ulrich does her typically masterful job of making something great even better. 

The festivities begin at 6:00 a.m., when the Strawberries & Cream Midnight Cowboy is available. It’s straightforward whipped cream with sliced strawberries, and it’s a beautiful pairing. No, I’m not up at that time either, but some of the high performing types are, so don’t let them get all the pastries! The two all-day drinks will be available then, too: the Midnight Cowboy Cold Cloud, a cold brew topped with house-made Midnight Cowboy cold foam, and the Midnight Cowboy latte, hot or iced. 

One of the wonders of TikTok and Influencer Culture is the “discovery” of things that have been around longer than the influencers have been alive, and over the past year, they have learned that chocolate and pistachio are great together. How one gets to an age beyond 8 or 9 without learning that is a puzzle, but Dubai Chocolate has been the FOMO item of 2025 thus far. A few spots in OKC have answered the call, and on National Midnight Cowboy Day, Harvey too joins the roster. The Dubai Chocolate Midnight Cowboy Croissant features chocolate, knafeh (shredded phyllo dough), and, yes, pistachios. Unsurprisingly, it’s delicious. It drops at 10 a.m., and I expect the line outside will form well before then, so plan accordingly. 

At 2:00 p.m., there will be a “secret drop,” and I’ll just leave it at that, because that’s what secret means. 

Happy hour runs from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m., and the featured cocktails and one-and-ones are all $6, and the star is likely to be the Midnight Cowboy espresso martini, but you can also choose Ranch Water or an Old Fashioned. They’ll have special merchandise that day, including the tee shirt pictured below. Enjoy the inaugural National Midnight Cowboy Day, and try to avoid watching the movie – it’s a mood killer.