The notorious Brooklyn House of Detention – immortalized by everyone from the Beastie Boys to Jonathan Lethem – has been closed since 2003, but plans to reopen the jail at twice its previous size are still moving forward. Last year many newcomers to the steadily gentrifying neighborhood decried plans to bring back the detention center, located at the intersection of Atlantic and Smith.
Results tagged “traderjoe”
Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a double stabbing at 14-19 31 Drive in Queens, a double shooting at 138th St. and 59th Ave. in Queens, and a commercial robbery on East 12th St. between 3rd and 4th Aves. in Manhattan. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is committing millions of dollars to residents of the South Bronx, pleasing some, rankling others, and infuriating the Mayor of Caracas, which is Venezuela's desperately poor capital. Marilyn Kaytor, who...
The NY Times is hinting that Brooklyn may be so over, a theory that seems to be based around Heath Ledger leaving the borough.
What if Brooklyn’s recent cachet as the locus for what’s next is little more than a thin and fragile crust of chic, hiding the insecurity of people who constantly measure the social currency of their ZIP code by Manhattan standards? The number of trendy boutiques, bistros and music clubs in Brooklyn may have spiked in the last five years, but its infrastructure of cool still represents only a fraction of that found in Manhattan. Its new identity is moored to a finite number of shops, restaurants, luxury condominiums and, yes, celebrities. If even one leaves, a void is created. Could the borough’s new status vanish as quickly as it ascended?We think perhaps their belief is based upon a "thin and fragile" foundation. After all, if a borough's cred is based upon shops, condos and stars...Brooklyn is faring pretty well. With Trader Joe's, Urban Outfitters, an Apple Store and luxury condos flooding the market and John Turturro, Rosie Perez, Norman Mailer, Steve Buscemi, Jennifer Connelly, Paul Bettany, Paul Giammati, Adrian Grenier, Michael Pitt, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgaard calling it home -- it seems Brooklyn won't be suffering from a lack of attention anytime soon, Heath or no Heath.
Last week Racked reported that there's word of an Apple store opening in Brooklyn. The question is, which neighborhood will iNvite them in. Dumbo NYC reports that Two Trees has reached out to Apple in the past, but they "weren’t ready". If they're ready now, their options in Dumbo would include the 6600 sq.ft space at 70 Washington Street and the 6700 sq.ft space across the street at Washington and Front Street.
The NY Times takes a look at Smith Street and the corporate companies creeping into the area and setting up shop. The most recent big announcement is that Trader Joe's is taking over the old bank on Atlantic Avenue and Court Street. How long until more big fish come to feed?
Yesterday we mentioned London designer Anya Hindmarch's I'm Not A Plastic Bag was finally arriving at Whole Foods today. The canvas tote was made popular by a combination of things including celebrity and unavailability. Hindmarch told the NY Times “To create awareness you have to create scarcity by producing a limited edition. I hate the idea of making the environment trendy, but you need to make it cool and then it becomes a habit.”
After many false starts, Trader Joe's announced this week that the grocery store chain would be finally arriving in Brooklyn. The news was heralded by Brooklyn Beep Marty Markowitz, who was decked out in one of the store's highly visible Hawaiian print shirts and leading a steel drum band at Court St. and Atlantic Ave. The Brooklyn Paper reports that while the grocer will soon move into the landmark Independence Savings Bank building at Court and Atlantic, Brooklynites will be required to trek to Manhattan if they want their "Two-Buck Chuck" wine.
After a lot of speculation that the Brooklyn Trader Joe's may never happen, Racked reports that it...IS! The good news (for Brooklynites) was posted just moments ago:
Earlier this year, The Sun reported that AvalonBay Communities would "begin construction this summer on a 42-story, residential market-rate tower with approximately 600 units. The property will have ground floor retail, which could house the borough's first Trader Joe's market." And even earlier this year it was suspected that TJ's would move into One Brooklyn Bridge Park.
In a city that has everything, there are always a few things that we can use more of. For starters, maybe one or two more cheese shops, an extra beer garden wouldn’t hurt and who wouldn’t like another Trader Joe’s? Just saying. The same rule applies to wine bars. Sure we have a bunch, but after a while, the circuit gets old. Luckily, we have a new stop to add to our list.
- Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a man was killed by a 6 Train at Manhattan's Bleecker St. station, a serious multi-vehicle accident on Grand Concourse and East 168th St. in the Bronx, and an evidence search followed a shooting on Beach Channel Dr. in Queens.
- The $250 nine course tasting menu at Per Se is the caloric equivalent of 4 and a half Big Macs, although we imagine infinitely more delicious. A prost-prandial stroll would have to be 31 miles long to walk it all off.
- Curbed reports that the former Jehovah's Witness Building in Brooklyn Bridge Park is getting the borough's first Trader Joe's.
- Brooklyn blogger and bicyclst eefers relates that she was nearly run down by a red light-running police car. When she physically indicated her displeasure at nearly being another bicyclist casualty of New York's traffic, one of the officers hurled her paper cup at her before the partners sped off. Rude certainly, but we imagine some citizens have endured worse.
- Appreciators can now purchase prints of artist Noah Kalina's "everyday" project, which are digital self-portraits taken every day for six years.
- It may do a body good, but milk will also slim your wallet. The price of a gallon of milk is rising to $3.54––up $.60 over the price a year ago.
- It's estimated that subway riders save roughly $1 billion annually using unlimited monthly and weekly metrocards. Only 12% of riders pay the full $2 a trip.
- The driver of the black SUV that struck and killed a Brooklyn boy last night and then sped off was arrested. He faces multiple criminal charges, including manslaughter.
Spring appears to have, er, sprung, at least temporarily, in most of the Ist-A-Verse, so naturally, we're all feeling pretty good. (Yes, we know that spring doesn't start till later this month. Just let us enjoy our weather!) And that makes us that much more eager to share all of the nifty things we're up to...
Yesterday, Crain's reported that city pharmacy behemoth Duane Reade will take over leases of eight Gristede's locations in Manhattan. Each of the locations will converted into pharmacies, which would bring the total of Manhattan Duane Reade locations to 143.
While others are writing year end lists about their favorite restaurant openings (yeah, we know, A Voce, Little Owl, Boqueria), we thought we'd do something a bit different and highlight some of your favorite posts of the year. These are the food posts that either got you so riled up that you felt the need to put in your two cents in the comments or that, for whatever reason, you wanted to recommend to others.
Back in 2003, when Mayor Bloomberg sold the Board of Education's old headquarters at 110 Livingston Street in Brooklyn, people were fixated on the horrors of bureaucracy. Nicknamed "The Kremlin," 110 Livingston represented everything that was wrong with the city, and one person even told the NY Times, "If there is an opposite of nostalgia, you'd have to apply it to 110 Livingston Street."
THEATER: Beastie Boy Adrock (who turns 40 next month!) was but a wee homey when his father, Israel Horovitz, penned his hit play “Line” 32 years ago. That dark comedy is the longest-running play in off-off-Broadway history. It’s about five people stuck on line and their shameless machinations to get to the front. The theater’s website boasts that the play has been performed in 25 countries and split the sides of 100,000 theatergoers. Who will be 100,001? - John Del Signore
Celebrate Ben Franklin's 300th birthday with the Bikini Bandits and Phillyist! (NSFW). Speaking of Mr. Franklin, send in a picture of Ben (or Ed Rendell) with a red tongue and win a free t-shirt. And they might have the next YearlyKos in Philly.
The new city grocery chains are certainly vying for each and every single impressionable shopper with their glossy new stores and pretty, pretty produce. But Whole Foods is taking the fight into a new arena: They will be touting low prices in an upcoming ad campaign. It's practically like Every Day Low Prices - does that mean will we see BYOGOF (Buy One Get One Free), too? It seems Whole Foods is trying to extend its appeal from that "fancy organic place" to that "fancy organic place with good prices," perhaps trying to take a little from Trader Joe's lustre. The NY Times, which will be running some of the ads in The City section, analyzed prices of grocery stores in the Union Square nexus and found some interesting results:
In several cases, Whole Foods' prices were, in fact, the lowest. An 8-ounce package of Philadelphia Cream Cheese was $1.99 at Whole Foods, compared with $2.19 at Walgreen's and $2.99 at the Food Emporium. A 15-ounce box of Kashi Crunch cereal was $2.49 at Whole Foods, compared with $2.69 at Trader Joe's and $3.49 at Food Emporium.This confirms what we knew all along: Food Emporium is ridiculously overpriced. But whether or not Whole Foods' new tactic will work remains to be seen, Whole Foods does have a wider selection of products than Trader Joe's.
What lucky little New Yorkers we are. First the grand opening of the new and improved Astor Wines and Spirits and now, we get Trader Joe’s Wine Shop. It’s a wine cornucopia all packed neatly in one square mile. With such great options, so close (or conveniently located next to subways), we realized there was only one thing to do – hold a wine-off. May the best wine purveyor win.
We were fortunate this week to score an invite to a dinner, hosted by a currently unkitchened chef, where a sampling of 5 varieties of heritage-style pigs was set to take place. More on the pork served next week in a post about the evening.
As we were out enjoying the sunshine this weekend we spotted a sign at the new Union Square Trader Joe's announcing a date for the impending opening of the wine shop -- April 10th. Fans of the famous (or is it infamous) "two buck Chuck" will be rejoicing in the streets and joining their bretheren in lines down 14th Street, although rumor has it that the wine will probably cost more around three dollars (it ranges in price from $1.99 to $3.39 among the existing TJ's branches where it is currently sold) -- that's the price consumers will be paying for the prime Manhattan real estate. We can't help but be a bit skeptical, but we're reserving judgment until we've actually tasted the stuff. If it's good, we may have a bit of a potential drinking problem on our hands -- a bottle of decent wine for less than the cost of a glass anywhere else is pretty damn tempting. Has anyone out there tried it? Tell us all about it in the comments or by email!
Remember way back like twenty minutes ago when Trader Joe's opened it's "first store in the City" and Manhattan collectively Continue reading "Sorry, I Can't Hear You, I've Got A Bannana In My Ear!"
- Bruni gives Iron Chef Morimoto one star. D'oh!
Reader David writes to us:
It looks like the entire inventory is on the sidewalk outside in front of the store. Man, what kind of damage was done this weekend? The boxes have nearly taken over the entire sidewalk, with a very narrow path for people to walk by.Does anyone have photos of this carnage? Is Trader Joe's restocking after a bang-up weekend or are they making sure there are boxes outside to house customers waiting on line in the cold?
If you can't get New Yorkers to buy your expensive cigarettes, then why not sue a competitor? The supermarket chain Gristede's is suing Indian tribes for selling discounted cigarettes illegally. Gristede's seems to feel that the Indian nations, Unkechaug Poospatuck Tribe of Mastic and the Shinnecock Indian Nation in Southampton, are able to undercut other retailers because they are able to sell cigarettes without the $3 tax to Indian customers - and may sell at the same prices to non-Indian buyers. Gristede's also claims that the state hasn't been regulating the law, requiring reservations to tax non-Indian buyers carefully enough and that they are losing millions of dollars in revenue. At $3 savings a pop, Gothamist can see how a black market would emerge, and things are bound to get worse if Mayor Bloomberg gets another 50-cent tax added to cigarettes. And then there's the whole thing about the city going after residents who purchased cigarettes online without paying taxes. Of course, Indian tribal leaders think the lawsuit is frivolous and without grounds.
Brian Van headed over to Trader Joe's at Union Square this morning, and says it was "crowded as hell." He has a set of photographs on Flickr, and we asked him if people were getting green leis, due to St. Patrick's Day. Brian said no, but:
All of the staff were wearing these quirky-patterned shirts (I'd say hawaiian but I'm no authority on shirt patterns) and were happily greeting people. Balloons were everywhere, mostly green and white for St. Patty's day. And there were a TON of food handouts. So many. One guy gave me a handful of some sort of peanut mix, and I happily scarfed it down... only to find out from the searing sensation in my mouth a second later that it was Thai trail mix.Continue reading "Enter the Trader Joe's Era of Grocery Shopping"
Looks like the long anticipated opening of the Trader Joe's Wine Shop is coming nigh! Joe captured the enreddening of the awning letters, which means 2-buck-chuck is just a couple of weeks away from the shakey grasp of Union Square bums. Okay, we admit it-- Charles Shaw wine is somewhat tasty, and surprisingly, it does appear to be made from grapes. [Related: on January 18th, the NYTimes reported that the wine shop and the main Trader Joe's next door will open in NYU's Palladium building "in about three months," but Curbed is saying it could be as soon as March 17th.]
- As early subscribers to their email dispatches, we really enjoy the work done by our -ist based cousins at Thrillist. After today’s article in the NY Daily News about their “48 legit destinations, each serving 'til at least 3am on weekends”, we are inclined to love’em more.
- Yet another great story about the building of the Third Water Tunnel - the NY Times also has a slideshow to go with the article
The New York Times reports that Fresh Direct is creating a new advertising campaign featuring some rather prominent New Yorkers, Mayor Koch, Bobby Flay, and Paulina Porizkova (did you know she lived here?), to contend with the newest challenger to the New York food world, Trader Joe's. Trader Joe's advertising strategy to get back at Fresh Direct? Nothing. Well, almost nothing -- they plan on using their general advertising strategy, designed to keep their costs low, which consists of sending quarterly mailings to residents in the neighborhoods where there stores are located.


