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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CG Fan…you can get that a few blocks south on Smith at Chop Chop
CGfan, I believe Lassen & Hennigs on Montague between Henry and Hicks makes the salads to order. I haven’t had one, however, and can’t attest to the quality / freshness of the ingredients.
M4L, good point. I would rather deal with someone who doesn’t know what they sell but is friendly than someone who seems to have contempt for all customers and won’t give them the time of day.
Too bad. It was one of the few places in the neighborhood where you could get a salad with ingredients to order, mixed by the counter person (and I always found the people at the salad area to be incredibly nice and helpful). Oh well — are there any other places with those kind of salad bars in the ‘hood? I hate the “make it yourself” salad bars for no good reason except the ingredients always look so worn and unappealing after dozens of customers have raked through them.
While high rent and lack of differentiated product offering from any number of delis around were likely contributing factors, I think that poorly trained staff and weak customer service were the primary culprits leading to poor sales. I do hope that something other than fast food can work on this stretch. Checkers opening was really disheartening.
It’s like Grace Under Fire on 7th Avenue back in 2003.
a cultural shift, a return to oscar meyer.
*rob*
Biff, if you see some of those former employees who were nice, tell them to apply for jobs at the BH pharmacies.
Though I don’t live around there, I’m taken aback. I walked (hobbled!) by this place just this Sunday morning and afternoon and the place was packed. I guess that was an fluke?
I really don’t think much can survive on that block besides fast food.