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April 25, 2007
CT Muffin Opening in Ditmas Park
Residents of Ditmas Park/Victorian Flatbush are very excited about the new Connecticut Muffin that has just announced they are opening on Cortleyou Road. This is a clear sign that Cortelyou Road is on it's way to being a thriving shoping/eating strip. See here for more info: http://tinyurl.com/3xtmou
Comments
I just moved to Ditmas, bought one of those awesome big old houses, and would love to see property values rise, more amenities, lower crime etc. I do not however understand the bizarre excitement about a muffin shop opening. What is the big deal? Really? It's not like it's the 1st nice place that's opened up. Belle, Vox, Farm, Fence etc You should see how up in arms so many people are on the Flatbush Family Network about a Muffin Shop! As if this means the wave of gentrification is coming in like a tsunami … some freak out & others grab their surf boards. Oh the controversy! I guess we’re all nuts; in the best possible harmless way, but nuts none the less.
Posted by: Anonymous at April 26, 2007 9:53 AM
I also live in Ditmas Park, and while my roommates and I fit squarely within the gentrifying/yuppifying demographic, we are certainly not delighted to hear about either the CT Muffin OR the new "natural foods market" that's opening just down the block from the 30-year-old Flatbush Food Coop. The last thing the many residents of this neighborhood need is a new glut of yuppie shopping options.
There are already fantastic food options everywhere, and even yuppies like us can get coffee and muffins and organic spinach whenever we want. Let's not let the Park Slope-ification of Cortelyou Road distract us from the negative effects of our presence on lower-income residents who've been living and setting up businesses here for years before we drifted into town. It's important that we continue shopping at the bodegas and the Mexican, Chinese, and Pakistani joints all around.
Posted by: anonymous at April 26, 2007 10:32 AM
Who do you suppose was there before the "lower-income residents who've been living and setting up businesses here for years"? You really think things just stay the same? Should we just turn the entire area over to the "lower-income residents" maybe put up a fence of some kind, issue ID cards so you can identify the interlopers, are you kidding me? Craziness. Change happens.
Posted by: Anonymous at April 26, 2007 11:01 AM
"It's important that we continue shopping at the bodegas and the Mexican, Chinese, and Pakistani joints all around."
Not sure I get this logic. I live here too and i can pretty much guarantee you that any of the Chinese joints in this neighborhood will give you some form of food poisoning. I won't continue to shop anywhere that offers sub-par or unhealthy options.
As for Connecticut Muffin or whatever, if you don't like it don't go. But to be pissed about it coming into the neighborhood is sort of silly.
Look I understand the guilt associated with "gentrification", but there are a lot of absolute crap establishments in the greater Ditmas Park area. There is certainly no harm in newer places coming in offering higher end services. Not saying Conn. Muffin is the answer, but please, to say that the level of services currently existing in this neighborhood is adequate? I just don't see it.
Posted by: Anonymous at April 26, 2007 11:11 AM
Um excited was not my reaction, shock was more like it. I noticed a sign the other day that a new natural foods, etc. store was opening soon as I passed by on the bus. So walked over to check it out and figure out what would be different with this store then the Co-OP just down the street that sells all sorts of natural foods (and you don't have to be member).
That is when I noticed the CT Muffin sign in the space next door. I was thinking, gee need to send a photo of this into Brownstone, but didn't get back down the street with my camera yet.
I know we have chain stores over on Coney Island Ave and chain drugstore on Cortelyou, but I was not expecting a chain store like CT Muffin until the trendy mom and pop stores had moved in. That section of Cortelyou already has several new trendy shops and restaurants and figured that would be what is coming into the remaining vacant store fronts on those blocks.
And I'm wondering if the cement block behemoth going across the street will have retail on the first floor?
CT Muffin is not competing with Cinco de Mayo, you go there if you want Mexican food. They are competing with VoxPop and Giant Bagel where you go for coffee and snacky stuff. And you go to the dodgy bodegas for warm soda (why don't they keep those cases the right temp) a crapy selection of junk food and beer. And some cigarettes (not that I smoke, but that seems to be what most people are buying when I stop in for my potato chip fix).
Posted by: Anonymous at April 26, 2007 12:30 PM
"There is certainly no harm in newer places coming in offering higher end services."
That, alas, is just not true. When upscale coffee shops, restaurants and bank chains move in, they push out bodegas, hardware stores, check-cashing places, daycare centers, storefront churches and mosques, Chinese take-out spots. dollar laundry places. You may not need a check-cashing place (and it's a shame anyone does), but these places are "amenities" that serve a population. They don't own their spaces, but that doesn't mean they're not pillars of the community that allow the people who live here to stay. You don't eat their food or worship there, but somebody else does.
I moved into this neighborhood last September because it's beautiful and diverse and the rent is still somewhat reasonable, but I know it may not stay this way for long. I love places like Vox Pop because they serve a several different communities simultaneously, including my own. So does The Farm on Adderley--the food is fantastic, the prices are good, and the customers are a mixed crowd. And there's a bench out front. If I want a more upscale, less self-righteous coffee shop experience or a really fancy restaurant, I head to Park Slope. That's why God invented Park Slope! I'm glad that the neighborhood's current offerings serve me as far as they do, but I don't feel entitled to more stores that serve my needs--whether by dint of lobbying or through market forces. I'm grateful to live here, and I want to keep sharing this neighborhood with the mix of people who live in it now for as long as possible--even if that means foregoing a diverse selection of cafes, clothing stores, etc.
Posted by: Anonymous at April 26, 2007 4:00 PM
Are they selling just the tops or the hole muffin like every body else?
YADA YADA YADA
Posted by: Anonymous at April 26, 2007 7:23 PM
"I live here too and i can pretty much guarantee you that any of the Chinese joints in this neighborhood will give you some form of food poisoning. I won't continue to shop anywhere that offers sub-par or unhealthy options."
Oh, in THIS neighborhood? You mean all the Chinese take out places in the rest of the Cty in all the other neighborhoods are so much healthier?
While I do think that Cortelyou Road does not exactly need FOUR Chinese take out joints (that's the number of them that are within a four block stretch), None of them are any healthier or unhealthier than any of them in any other part of the City.
You can order healthy in any of these neighborhood joints, or you can order unhealthy. These aren't McDonalds. You can choose to order in a way that will not "poison" you.
Posted by: Anonymous at July 9, 2007 1:56 PM
I am glad CT Muffin is moving in, basically Vox Pop pretty much sucks. It's more of a bookstore/radical music hangout than a coffeeshop unless you consider a coffeeshop a place where peole go with their laptops to hang out for hours. The place is quieter than a library and there is never a seat!
As for the new co-op, it is just about the same as teh Flatbush Food co-op, which by the way is moving to where the Associated used to be. Why do we need two organic food grocery stores within four blocks? Now if you don't want to spend $2.00 for a cucumber you have to go to the Met of Cortelyou or C-Town on Coney Island Ave and both places have suckass produce.
I think there is a Thai place opening on Cortelyou now.
Posted by: Boyo at August 6, 2007 1:37 PM
The more choices the better, but I just worry that new busineses coming in are viable, have an understanding of the community and know what they're doing. I want to love Vox Pop, and I keep going back, but I am constantly disapppointed. The food has been inconsistent and terrible for the past year, at least. The counter staff, although sometimes great, are usually kind of terrible.... surly, dirty, distracted and goofy. The politics are fine, great, etc, but dammit do a the best job you can do or get out of the business. I am so glad Connecticut muffin is coming in because the more competition the better for consumers, ie., Vox Pop will now bew carrying Balthazar baked goods! No coincidence.
Posted by: guest at September 21, 2007 11:17 AM
I have been a resident of the Cortelyou Rd community for over 20 years and if there is one thing this neighborhood needs - absolutely needs - it is a high quality muffin shop. I mean, why not? What's wrong with a muffin shop? At least it's not a 99 cents muffin shop, right?. And how come more props isn't given to San Remo? It's been a family run establishment for over 20 years and not one of these posts has applauded it for serving the community high quality, fairly priced pizza/entrees. It might not serve food made with organic ingredients, but it definitely is an organic neighborhood institution and that is something worth recognizing.
Posted by: guest at September 27, 2007 11:51 AM
It is good that CT Muffing are opening a new store in Ditmas Park, because they’re expanding their business, maybe one day they’re going to be as famous as Starbucks for example, keep growing up CT Muffins, we are excited to have you here.
Candy
Connecticut Drug Addiction
Posted by: gccandy0009 at August 22, 2008 11:07 AM
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