F. Martinella Closes After Less Than Nine Months
When you sign a lease for $125 a foot at the tippy-top of the market, your margin for error is pretty slim. The founders of F. Martinella’s, which opened last October after much speculation, have just found that out the hard way. A reader happened to be walking by the high-end deli at the corner…
When you sign a lease for $125 a foot at the tippy-top of the market, your margin for error is pretty slim. The founders of F. Martinella’s, which opened last October after much speculation, have just found that out the hard way. A reader happened to be walking by the high-end deli at the corner of Court and State last night around 10:30 p.m. and reported back to us that the entire store was being disassembled and all the fixtures and appliances loaded onto a flatbed truck outside. When we rode by a few minutes ago, the windows were papered over and the sign in the window read “Store Closed.” Update: BHB and Flappy Days also have coverage.
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Huge disappointment 🙁 Had good experiences generally, good speed on the coffee line which was priced well vs starbucks et al. Was happy to pay a (slight) premium for the selection, clean interior, fresh ingredients which unfortunately is not common in that immediate radius.
Going south and east…Chop Chop is high quality, Brooklyn Fare has great options.
Crazy. When I walked by earlier it just said “Store Closed, July 14”
It wasn’t cool, it wasn’t different, it wasn’t cheap, it was just blah. I went in there one early morning for an egg and cheese sandwich. How can a place like this not make egg sandwiches? Nope. just regular lunch stuff, at 9:00 AM? Why bother opening? They didn’t know what they were doing. they need to look at PAX or one of those types of places. Salads, soups, sandwiches and hot entrees for lunch, eggs, bagels, oatmeal, French toast, that type of thing for breakfast. Quick in and out.
I wanted this place to work so bad. Went in there a few times and every time was very stressful. Watching people not know how to make a sandwich. ANd the fact they had 15 people behind the counter not knowing what to do. The best was the 2 mangers walking around watching them struggle and never stepped in to help. Id rather make the trek down to Los Paisanos Meat Market on Smith Street. They atleast know what to do and use the best stuff.
Its a joke how poorly run that place was. It was confusing you never knew where to pay or what counter it was a mess from Day 1….Its a great location hopefully something good comes.
The Hale & Hearty on Court & Remsen also has made-to-order salads.
I’m not surprised F. Martinella closed so quickly. I went with coworkers to pick up sandwiches maybe 3 times; each time the place was more disorganized that our last visit. They tried at least two different set ups — one with the registers at the back by the soda machine, another with the register up front — but neither seemed to work.
Last time I was there, they had one kid slicing all the meat while two or three sandwich makers called out their orders. Needless to say, the kid couldn’t keep up and the scrum of people waiting for sandwiches grew and grew. After that expericnes, we’d decided we wouldn’t be going back.
Yes, Nature’s Grill is about to open between Trader Joe’s and the piano studio on Court Street. I have tried the Nature’s Grill down in Bay Ridge, and they are delish!
That’s too bad. My wife and I stopped in a couple of weeks ago for lunch, and thought the sandwiches were very good and reasonably priced (and the staff were friendly to us). They did seem to have a lot of employees, and while there were a number of customers, it was nothing like Checkers, which seemed to have a line almost out the door. I suspect that mrkknox is right — nothing but fast food will survive there.
For those of you looking for salads made for you nearby, try Court Order a few blocks down or Monty Q’s on Livingston (a bit expensive).
It looks like a new healthy option is opening up just across Atlantic, which should also help.
I never believed (and talked to a broker in the area who did not either) that “Danny’s” building ever rented any of the apartments to anyone as they were listed — it appeared that he had family, friends living there. None of the units were sold — all were for rent but occupied…