Streetlevel: Organic Boom on Cortelyou
The changing demographics in Victorian Flatbush are having a big impact on the neighborhood’s food market scene. On the heels of a new organic market opening on the cornering Cortelyou and Stratford a couple of weeks ago (and the Green Market opening this past weekend) comes the news, via a neighborhood tipster, that the Food…
The changing demographics in Victorian Flatbush are having a big impact on the neighborhood’s food market scene. On the heels of a new organic market opening on the cornering Cortelyou and Stratford a couple of weeks ago (and the Green Market opening this past weekend) comes the news, via a neighborhood tipster, that the Food Co-op will be buying out the Associated on Cortelyou and Marlborough. According to our source, Associated owner Leon Boyer is selling because of all the “damned yuppies.” What’s the impact of this on the folks in the area who can’t afford organic fare? Do they still have other options?
Photo by Kate Leonova for Property Shark
gross! i think this confirms my idea that these basics need to be established. wine store, kiddie boutique store… nice but.. where are the things i neeeeeed?
We’re among those former Slopers (actually from the wrong side of Windsor Terrace, but, whatever), and we buy our seafood on Newkirk near E.16th I think it is. We go to Coney Island Ave below Ave. H for dried fruits that are outstanding! Further down on CIAve you can get the best Jewish deli. I think it’s called Essex on Coney? Next door-ish to Essex is an amazing bakery. We buy bags of basmati rice for a song at the Pakistani stores on CIAve. We take long walks or short bike rides to the Green Market at Grand Army Plaza year round. Fresh mozzarella from the Italian butcher shop on PPW in WT. Bagels from Terrace Bagels (the absolute best). Boxed packaged staples from Met Foods. Amazing soul food and Carib breads and patties from Church beyond Flatbush. You have to explore folks! It’s all here and it’s all incredible!
I live in a big house in Ditmas (since that seems to be an issue on this thread). Currently, I schlep to Fairway about 3x a month, which I would be doing anyway if I still lived in PS. However, now that the new organic market is here, I will be shlepping only aout 1 or 2 times per month. I would prefer not to schlep at all, but there’s not going to be a Fairway on every corner in Brooklyn, no matter how swish the ‘hood.
So, yes, I am diverting more cash towards my local high street now that the new market is here. And that’s a good thing. Organic or not.
A bank and a Post Office would be nice, too.
The fish place on Newkirk is pretty good. The butcher place on E. 16th looks OK, but the one time I bought some cold cuts there for a party, I unwrapped the wax paper and found a mouse turd on the turkey. Gwwrrxt! So I haven’t bought anything there since, sadly. I’d love to support them, but ick!
Poster 11:41: LOL I know what you mean about those auto body shops. I cringe walking past them. And I didn’t realize the C-Town renovated. How so, and when? I might have to give them a 2nd look.
I’m really curious how DP will develop. I think these organic shops may attract the park slopers who want to see some sort of semblance to their amenities, but honestly, where are the basics? DP’s structure was mainly for those in large summer houses “way out in brooklyn” and where everyone had a car to go pick up their needs in far flung places. Sorry, but there aren’t a whole lot of new multi-complex housing that I see going up in DP. A lot in Kensington, yes. But those who can afford the large DP houses are likely not doing their bulk shopping on Cortelyou. I still have’t found a decent place that has good fish and meat that looks edible on Cortelyou. So all those new bloods from the slope and such, where the heck are you buying these things? I’ll bet they’re schlepping outside the hood for those things.
Any chance Met food on Cortelyou will step up to the plate and reinvent themselves as a decent supermarket?
I am poster 11:41. Yes, the Coop by nature of its stock provides a large selection of food that gets a good patronage from Caribbean and Jewish people with dietary requirements (Kosher and Adventist). However, many of these patrons come in from surrounding areas and not the immediate neighborhood. I think it’s ironic that the larger Coop will attract more people from out of the area, meanwhile those of us who are right here may need to travel for a regular supermarket. And I meant to say that the C-town on CIA is newly “renovated”. Guess I will have to dodge traffic with my little shopping cart and walk past the leering workers at the auto body shops on my way over to C-Town. Because obviously I’m only over there to purposefully sashay past these guys.
Exploring the neato places all over this general area is fun. And walking is good exercise. I can’t imagine what could possibly be fun about driving to Red Hook to shop. I bet you can’t get Armenian rosepetal jam there. And real New Yorkers don’t drive, natch! (insert smiley emoticon here for intended good humor). Anyway, my husband just pointed out something that no one’s yet mentioned about the Co-op here: it’s often patronized by Caribbean people and Orthodox Jews. So it’s not exactly catering to “yuppies” (a largely false and misleading term, anyway). Clearly it’s serving the people who live here, and it was locally founded, and it has been here for a while.
anon 12:16: actually, i really don’t know the uproar and could care less if it’s just a bunch of people being upset that their precious DP is being mistaken for Kensington. Sorry, but I use both for whatever needs the other doesn’t have. I don’t abide to black and white rules. there are people that live very close to kensington in DP and vice versa.