Bread Stuy Seized By Feds
Bad news Bed Stuy. Neighborhood fave Bread Stuy has run into trouble: According to the tipster who sent in this photo, the cafe was shuttered today and slapped with a large “Seized” sticker. The reason, according to what was posted in the window, has something to do with taxes. Very sad. GMAP
Bad news Bed Stuy. Neighborhood fave Bread Stuy has run into trouble: According to the tipster who sent in this photo, the cafe was shuttered today and slapped with a large “Seized” sticker. The reason, according to what was posted in the window, has something to do with taxes. Very sad. GMAP
Whatever, Brooklynisis – I will be happily moving on with my money to another business – one that is run well. Not going to coffeet up to pay for the taxes they didn’t pay and for the 3 houses they own.
Good luck BEG-STUY coffee shop.
Gimme a freakin’ break with the “not a charity” line – Citibank, Bank of America, and the rest of them are about as far from charity as you can get and we gave them billions. Same goes for the car companies in Detroit.
While I’m not expecting anyone on this blog to show any sympathy (based on the snarkiness you see here all the time), I’m shocked by the lack of basic humanity and the myopia of some of the comments.
Hillary and Lloyd are good people who treat their customers well and have provided a service to the community far greater than just selling coffee and baked goods.
In “business” terms, having a clean, warm, welcoming, and bustling business adds “brand value” to Bed Stuy.
Bread Stuy and the other well-run business in the neighborhood had a direct influence on my decision to buy property in the neighborhood. A community which has disposable income to keep a cafe full is one on the way up (refer to the “starbucks index” http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/19/realestate/19cov.html?_r=1).
There have been many businesses in the neighborhood which have failed through undercapitalization, lack of business savvy and training, and downright rude owners.
In “personal” terms, Bread Stuy has always provided a community hub, has been active in organizing and supporting community events, and H&L have always shown warmth toward their customers and neighbors. (That’s more than can be said of many people commenting here – funny what anonymity will make people say.)
Speaking as a small business owner myself, and knowing many others, I can say that many are in the same boat in varying degrees.
This pretty much sums it up:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/04/business/smallbusiness/04interview.html
So why should we support them?
1) In terms of neighborhood/community value, they’re “too big to fail”. Losing them would cause massive damage to the community. They sure will reciprocate a bailout a lot more than the banks have.
2) They’re our neighbors and I should hope they would do the same to help us in a time of need. If this community didn’t have this attitude, we would have have 4 empty lots MacDonough right now.
3) Do we really need any other reason?
Haters please go on vacation – they are back open. Move along nothing to see here…
I am shocked this place was shuttered and hope it will come back to life. It’s a much needed and uncommon place in the area.
Been there several times and have met and talked with owners on occassion. I don’t get it. They own 3 houses (one is a bed and breakfast biz upstate they wanted me to checkout for a retreat I mentioned) and they drive a volvo wagon. Hard to feel sorry for them for not paying their taxes when they got it like that. Hell, I’m tryin to keep up on my mortgage for just one old house that’s bleeding me dry, can I come and get free coffee to ease MY pain? Jus sayin.
Is it legal for a business to take in money without selling anything? Won’t they have to report that?
This blog is all about community and that is why i love it. So, despite the self-proclaimed mayor, corner drunk, old lady living in the past, and newcomer who thinks they know it all, brownstoner.com is a special place. And so is Bread Stuy.
I just passed by and they are inside and preparing for business tomorrow. They are humbled by the events of the past days. Not just their mistakes and the State’s actions but by their community of friends who raised enough funds to get them back in business. Those same customers/friends/neighbors have planned events at Peaches (Super Bowl Party) and Akwaaba (Cocktail Party/Concert)on Sunday and Monday respectively to help shore them up further.
Those of us who really love “community” in general and Bedford-Stuyvesant in particular, recognize this as a fine hour.
Stand up Bed-Stuy!
Wow, what a polarized discussion.
As someone who’s move to this neighborhood was partially influenced by having a community coffee shop hangout as friendly as Breadstuy, I’ll miss it if it is gone – it was the only vehicle for me to really get to know my neighbors.
The attitude of the owners that was referenced earlier – I honestly don’t know what you’re talking about as I have always found Lloyd to be one of the most friendly and charming people I’ve met. Hillary may not be the extrovert that her hubby is, but she’s never been anything but pleasant.
“Prices… Jacking the hood?” – Look at what you pay @ Starbucks, Dean & Deluca, etc. The prices seem fair to me.
“No bread” – I remember at some point last year they were selling a variety of home made breads but people just didn’t buy it and they ended up discounting it and then having to throw some significant portion of it out. Of course all food sales should have a built-in waste factor but I assume that the portion of the bread that went unsold was higher than their other products.
“Theft?” – Do you know what the exact charges were? Instead of speculation, how about doing some research? There are a lot of things that the government might do and a lot of reasons that they might do them. Please don’t play Fox news and be sensationalist, we have the courts to determine if someone did something and if that act was a crime.
Why are they suffering? I have an observation that my wife and I were discussing just a week or so ago. A lot of people use the place as their community center and WiFi access spot, without actually ever buying anything. I don’t mean nursing a coffee for an hour, I mean people taking up seats and Wireless access for hours, without spending a cent. What would have been paying customers stick their heads in, see that the place is full and walk back out.
I’ve witnessed this several times, and it is deplorable. Sadly, it is a business and not a popularity contest. That is one thing would help the business – finding a better balance between the competing forces of serving the community in the short run, being open to all, and in the long term, by being a viable business that can stick around.
The neighborhood will be less of community if they do not emerge from this – it will be our loss.
Damn, bxgrl, it’s Friday evening and you need to grab a beer and chill (which I’ll be doing as soon as I can get out of the office).
We’ll be finished after this — I hope — but I have to respond as you seemingly can’t stop with the personal attacks (now against me, as opposed to benson … guess, to answer to my own earlier question, you’ve chosen the “snarky personal attacker” option…).
First, none of what I said is hypocritical as _I_ am not espousing the “sympathetic” & “understanding” view on one hand while simultaneously launching into personal attacks on another. That’s you. I just called you out for the inconsistency. It is your pretense of sympathy/understanding (critically, a pretense I didn’t have) that makes your attacks hypocritical.
Also, it’s not really a psychological analysis (though after your last post I now have some thoughts on the state of your psyche, but I’ll refrain from sharing…), it’s analysis of your words on this board and how they serve to undermine the good/reasonable argument you were initially trying to make.
As to the stalker/fixation stuff, um, what?? That craziness doesn’t really deserve a response … all I’ll say is we crossed paths on some AY discussions and I noticed the same annoying tendency to turn things needlessly personal, but that was a while back … don’t flatter yourself into thinking I give you a second’s thought beyond these postings or that I get pleasure out of engaging in these silly rhetorical debates that you choose to escalate.
As to the “facts”, you’re the one who doesn’t seem to be bothered by them. I took your suggestion to read the whole thread again (I already read the whole thing before, but just to be sure) and here are the facts: If by “engage” first you mean benson responded directly to a post of yours, then yes, he/she did that at 11:11. However it was merely with an annecdotal story, and was NOT a personal attack on you in any way. The first attack engagement was YOU at 11:16, saying he has no cred, thinks he knows everything, etc. Nice, eh? Any subsequent posts by benson were only responses to your first attack. YOU engaged in the personal crap first.
OK, like 5 minutes to happy hour, phew…
Well, I hate to infringe upon everyone’s need to debate the morality of paying taxes, but here’s my take on Bread Stuy: I stopped going there a while ago, and perhaps others did too, once other coffee shops opened in Bed Stuy. While it’s a comfortable spot to hang out, it’s on the way to the subway, and the owners/staff are nice, I found the coffee to be sub-par, the breakfast pastries to be stale, their lunch selections unappetizing, and was always bummed they didn’t actually sell bread. It’s the closest coffee shop to my house, but I will gladly now travel east to 258 Cafe on Malcolm X and Putnam, or west a little further away for really good coffee, top-shelf pastries, fresh-baked bread, healthy and appetizing breakfast and lunch items, and truly reasonable prices at Ms. Dahlia’s Cafe on Nostrand and Halsey. There’s also a French pastry shop open on Tompkins and Putnam, and the quality and prices are great. Perhaps the lack of competition before is what made Bread Stuy solvent?