A Sad Goodbye to Bread Stuy
Lewis Avenue mainstay Bread Stuy has shuttered, months after Brownstone Books also said goodbye to the avenue. According to this Bed Stuy Patch article, the store was closed by order of the Commissioner of Health and Mental Hygiene for operating without a permit. Shop owner Lloyd Porter has no plans to fight against the city….
Lewis Avenue mainstay Bread Stuy has shuttered, months after Brownstone Books also said goodbye to the avenue. According to this Bed Stuy Patch article, the store was closed by order of the Commissioner of Health and Mental Hygiene for operating without a permit. Shop owner Lloyd Porter has no plans to fight against the city. The coffee and pastry spot has been in the neighborhood for seven years. I think it is a staple in the community,” one regular told Patch. “There’s no other place to get good coffee and hang out.”
Breaking Bread Stuy [Bed Stuy Patch] GMAP
Photo by Eating in Translation
Why on earth would a company go through all the trouble to set up a business, work hard to develop it but not get the proper permits. This mystifies me. Same thing happened to a very good fish take out restaurant on Fulton near Vanderbilt. Huh??
I’m sorry to see Bread Stuy go – the presence of shops like it and Brownstone Books was one of the reasons I moved to the neighborhood years ago. It’s especially sad, and a bit frustrating, considering the community rallied to raise funds to help the cafe with its tax bill just last year.
That said, there’s no dearth of coffee options in the immediate area.
Saraghina opens for business at 10am and has amazing coffee (they’re Italian after all, so their standard for coffee is pretty high).
Tin City has stepped up to the early-morning plate and is now opening at 7am and sells coffee and food and has seating.
There’s also Liquid Oz for those of us near Malcolm X Ave., which is clean, well-run, and has courteous owners and staff.
Overall, the neighborhood’s services have been improving drastically in the past 5 or so years – there have been some businesses which have closed, but when I moved here there were really no restaurants to speak of.
I gather the Peaches guys have something in store for the old Brownstone Books and Lewis Gallery spaces. I’m sure the Bread Stuy space will be filled quickly.
There’s also the small space on Halsey right off Stuyvesant, where Chico of Saraghina fame is working on a new food-related venture.
There’s also (finally) a good, clean, well stocked produce stand at the corner of Lewis and Halsey.
This is all a big improvement over the services which were here a while back… anyone remember Petit Bassam (with a track record of only 1 out of every 3 orders filled) and Solomon’s Porch (where the food and service started out good but then declined steadily until they closed)?
@IronBalls – personally, I’m praying for Cafe Grumpy to take over the space. 😉
You folks should contact Pete’s. Excellent coffee. Way better than the Bucks. . . Maybe they’d consider the Sty.
I always try to support my own. Supporting bread-stuy has been very difficult though. The wife was very unpleasant. She never smile when I came and supported her business. I am sure others probably felt the same. The husband was very pleasant.
M4L- dibs should know about that.
Too bad. It was a nice spot.
are the baked goods baked on the premise or is it brought in from another location (or from someone via wholesale arrangement)?
i have family around there, sad to see it go
1. Saraghina Cafe is only two blocks away – during the day they have coffee and terrific baked goods.
2. The real problem for Bread-Stuy started when they didn’t pay sales tax to the State. They entered into a payment plan with the State.
3. If I understand the facts correctly, the City DOH recently reinspected the place and gave it a C rating, which triggered immediate payment in full under the settlement agreement with the State.
4. Because of they could not pay in full, their permit was pulled.
5. Lloyd, one of teh owners of Bread-Stuy is really friendly and the place was a real gathering spot for locals both new and old.
6. It’s a prime location for the neighborhood and I am confident that the landlord will find a great replacement (preferable another food establishment).