StreetLevel: Atlantic Earns Some Bread
Looks like the corner of Atlantic and Court is getting some new retail that’s all about dough. The storefront next to the Subway will soon host a bakery (if the baseball caps the workers who were rehabbing the store were wearing are any indication, the biz is going to be named “Adam’s Fresh”), while the…
Looks like the corner of Atlantic and Court is getting some new retail that’s all about dough. The storefront next to the Subway will soon host a bakery (if the baseball caps the workers who were rehabbing the store were wearing are any indication, the biz is going to be named “Adam’s Fresh”), while the plywood-encased space underneath the Blue Car & Limo sign is going to be a Bank of America branch, according to a neighborhood source. What with Trader Joe’s coming just across the street and Urban Outfitters taking space only a block away, it seems this stretch of western Atlantic is turning into more of shopping destination (though decidedly less mom-and-pop). Rumors about other retail openings making the rounds? GMAP
Both Ozzie’s are always busy.
So clearly 3:52 is not the only person who enjoys the coffee there.
I agree 3.36 about putting blood sweat and tears into a place, but — not to get too zen or anything — I think the effort put in is the payoff. You can’t control how things are going to go, you’re rarely the only person with a unique insight that a place is great, and many of the other people that also think a place is great have different trade offs and ideas about what is selling out and what is ok.
and 3.43 has it right. in a city as dense as brooklyn, if you do something well (like ozzie’s doesn’t in my opinion and NONE of the mom & pops in boerum hill do yet – though a new place is opening on atlantic between bond and hoyt i’m hopeful about) the big chains are not going to run you out.
and chains come and go, but the investment in renovations in the buildings they occupy will last a lot longer.
People have different taste buds, 3:43.
I don’t think there’s a worse tasting coffee out there, than Starbucks.
I’d take Ozzie’s, Dunkin D, Gorilla or the golden arches over Starbucks if taste were the only factor.
And then there’s the price, which is absurd.
On the coffee topic – ‘chains’ don’t put “mon&pop” shops out of buisness – quality does – a store like Ozzies is vulnerable to Starbucks for the simple fact that they have $hit coffee, and bad service. I guarantee that as long as D’amico keeps up the quality they now have, Starbucks would have little to no effect on there business.
And btw if it takes you 3min to get to the Bank of America on Montague from this corner – I promise you one thing – your RUNNING – its close to 1/2 a mile.
I suppose you’re right, 3:14, but the thing is…in New York City especially…a lot of people put a lot of blood sweat and tears into helping out a troubled neighborhood and bringing it back to life.
Some people don’t want to just up and move after all those years working at something and investing in a place that no one else cared about.
At this point, I could imagine living in Park Slope till the day I die. That’s how much I like it. While I’m fine to accept changes as they come, there are certain changes that become more bothersome than others.
I guess that’s the way of the world, though.
I guess then Parkchester (in the Bronx) has arrived – since it has a very successful Starbucks location
I personally don’t live in Brooklyn for the tantalizing prospect of having “euro tourists” come to check out my neighborhood. Neither does “street cred” make it onto my list of criteria for why I love the neighborhood.
As far as franchises vs. mom & pops goes, when all the mom & pops (not just in Brooklyn, but all across this great land of ours) imitate the big chains, what is the difference? Quality / price / experience given whether its food, gas, clothes, furniture, money, alcohlic beverages, etc. means more to me than the sign above the door.
I’d feel a lot worse if the neighborhood was going in the other direction — empty storefronts, abandoned buildings. Interest of new people, bigger businesses is a net positive.
It’s not a conspiracy, and nobody needs to educated or chastised. Once this neighborhood gets too tame, lame, or whatever tipping point adjective that has meaning for you, then you, I, we all can just… move. It’s really simple.
Hi 2:45. I was on that thread where you got yelled at for liking Ozzie’s (I didn’t yell at you though). I like Ozzie’s too, and Damicos (spelling?) on Court Street, and Court Books, etc. The thing about Starbucks, I think, is that it somehow heralds that a nabe has “arrived.” It shows that a place has tipped enough to support the $5 coffee, and if you are in a location where you are waiting for that tip from “up-and-coming” to “arrived,” I think you HOPE Starbucks will show up (even if you then complain about it). I’m over in Kensington, and let me tell you, PLENTY of people would LOVE to see a Starbucks opening on Church Ave, because it would mean that they did the right thing when they bought there, that the nabe really was changing. I rent, by the way, so while I have interest in the whole RE situation, I’m on the sidelines for now. It’s all a slippery slope, between who has, who wants, who gambled and won, who bet wrong. What I want is a cleaner kensington — less tagging, less litter, more garbage pick-up. Does that come with Starbucks? Does it start with Starbucks? I never thought so before, but now I think that just might be the price we pay.