Open Thread Wednesday 3/31/10

By on March 31, 2010 6:24 am in Brooklyn Heights
Flickr photo by aloucha

Flickr photo by aloucha

What’s on your mind.  Comment away!

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  • nabeguy

    Totally off the beaten trail of this thread, but can anyone suggest a good place to donate my daughter’s old toys? I have bags of them and hate to leave them on the street.. Perhaps a shelter or day-care center?

  • jorale-man

    I agree with T.K. Small’s point that the problems at Key Food start at the top. The disinterested cashiers are part and parcel of the same reason why it’s so filthy and cramped inside.

    I wonder why Food Emporium doesn’t consider opening a branch around here. There are several on the UWS and UES and they while they’re overpriced, they’re also cleaner and the staff isn’t so bad. For now, it’s TJ’s or a trek to Fairway…

  • Ellen

    Is Great Wall that place on Henry? I saw a cockroach hanging out right where they were cooking one time. I pointed it out, pointed straight at it, and they just pretended to not understand what I was saying. I pointed RIGHT AT IT. They definitely saw and knew. I am sure there are many cockroaches in hidden kitchens, but there is something extra disgusting about seeing it. I did not eat my food and have not been back since.

  • WillowtownCop

    No one has mentioned the fact that we are very close to the best supermarket ever, Fairway, which has a nice parking lot. And friendly staff.

  • Bjorn D’Angelo

    With regard to the surly cashiers……….I don’t disagree but frankly don’t expect them to be particularly chipper either. Come on folks, how happy would any of you be if you had their jobs. Granted, that doesn’t give people the right to be rude to customers, but to me there’s a fine line between someone more or less ignoring me, (which I don’t really mind that much) and someone being outright rude (which I thankfully haven’t experienced in Brooklyn Heights).

    I like Trader Joe’s as much as the next person, but the place is such a zoo and can’t keep anything in stock for more than 24 hours, the chipper staff hardly makes up for the unpleasantness of having to navigate both a stroller (yes I’m one of them!) and a shopping basket.

  • PS 8 parent

    Re the pediatrician thread, Dr. Pytlak’s partner, Dr. O’Connor, is purely wonderful.

  • Heightsman

    Thank you Jane – at least I’m not the only one. Trade Joes sucks. If you like cheap eats…god bless you but that ain’t doing it for someone who like to cook at home with good ingedients that are fresh. Fairway and the local butcher/fish store are much better. Key Food for the essintials.

    Yes, most people like to complain here too so I am used to it.

    My pediatrician is in Manhattan, Dr. Smith (UES). He was Dr. Spock’s partner and he does everthing himself. No nurses or assistants. Old school doctor who calls your house every time and knows you kids by names. Pytlak is also definitely recommended from what I hear….

  • MOT

    I was @ Key Foods on Atl earlier this week and there were many signs saying that it is recently under new management. Maybe there is hope?!?

    In my experience Key Foods staff are absolutely awful, TJ’s, Pitlak/O’Connor, Garden of Eden staff are very friendly and highly recommended.

  • JM

    Barney’s Co-op is a brand within Barney’s. It has a younger target than Barney’s and usually features newer, emerging designers as compared to Barney’s. It’s definitely not going to be featuring less expensive clothes like Filene’s.

  • http://selfabsorbedboomer.blogspot.com Claude Scales

    For my sins (I live on Montague) I’m often compelled to get daily necessities at the Montague Key Food. I’ve found that eye contact and a smile at the cashier just as s/he is starting to ring up my purchases does wonders. I often get a “Thank you” just as my change or debit card receipt is presented.

  • No One of Consequence

    I’m pretty much with Monty on each paragraph this time, although I still am not drawn to TJ’s even if the staff is nice but never offered stickers.

    The cashiers at Key Food are nice to me and my kids a majority of the time. Must be my sunny disposition.

    We’re also at Pytlak’s office but we see Dalton and like her a lot.

  • Joe

    I don’t think I expect a smile or a thanks from the key food cashiers. I’m just in and out of there but if, and its a big IF, I were to ever get a smile or a thank you I think I would pass out from shock.

    Love Trader Joes but I can’t get in since its too crazy crowded and everything is out of stock. I can’t remember the last time I even attempted to shop at TJ. We wound up making a trip to Fairway every two weeks and buy what we need every few days from Fish Tales, Sahadi’s, Atlantic Grocery and Key Food. The irony is I love certain things from TJ so I wound up stocking up in NJ when I visit relatives.

    Pytlak/O’connor gets a thumbs up from me as well.

  • redbaron

    Does anyone know what happened to Dr. Norton at Heights Veterinary (the vet on Hicks and Cranberry)??

  • redbaron

    We love Dr. Pytlak but have also heard good things about Katerina Silverblatt on Henry.

  • jorale-man

    The trick with Trader Joe’s is just to go off-hours — first thing in the morning, later in the evening, even Friday nights (I know, very uncool of me). If you show up at 3pm on a Sunday, you’re asking for it. But even the lines are worth it for their yummy 3-layer hummus and toaster-ready French toast.

  • tb

    I want to correct my above post… what I meant to say was that Heights Pediatrics are good and they ARE very busy. I didn’t mean to infer they couldnt get any business! Love Dr. Silverblatt!

  • Jim

    I must say the cashiers at Key Food are really nice to me. Think they, like most people, mirror the attitude they get from the person they are interacting with…if you are nice they are nice. A couple of them have even begun asking me about my family when I show up without them…

    Agree the owners/management at Key Food are just deplorable…

    As for peditricians – Pytlak (O’Connor and Dalton) are absolutely the best. Always have time to fit us in and they take the time to really know us….

  • Nancy

    I ve been dealing with Marty Finkelman for 16 years and he has really seen it all. Dr. Silverblatt is very good too.

  • Nabe Girl

    Gotta give a shout out to Stephen Turner. He is terrific.

  • paul

    don’t understand all the grocery store hate when fairway is but a short jog, bus ride, or bike away. free delivery if you spend more than 200 bucks, good service, good prices, great food.

    we used to shop @ gristede’s until around 3 years ago. we decided to try fairway one day, and have hardly been back to gristede’s or key foods since.

  • nabeguy

    Dr.s O’Conner and Pytlak are excellent, especially Edna. I had liked Dr. Silverblatt too, but had a very bad experience with her partner, Finkelman, who misdiagnosis of my infant daughter resulted in her having to suffer through a series of torturous and ultimately unnecessary tests.
    The gold standard is the late Dr. Weeks…as a kid, she was scary as all hell, but she could diagnose you from a half-a-block away and never rushed to conclusions.

  • Tim N.

    I’m not going to be the person who stands up for Gristede’s, but I will say this: if you think it’s bad now, you have no idea… it’s miles better than it was before the fire. I wouldn’t even go in there in a pinch before.

    I’ll second the endorsement of Fairway, especially for the big shops, but we’ve pretty much gotten used to Fresh Direct (though the loud trucks I could do without).

  • gc

    Dr Norton is doing house calls and can be reached at 347-443-0203. I think she is on call 7AM-7PM.

  • HeightsDiva

    Yeah Moms with huge strollers anywhere annoy me, but im obvo not a kid person. We should have restricted child free areas. Just because you chose to have a screaming brat doesn’t mean others have to be subjected to it.
    More annoying though in grocery stores are fat people in electric scooters. I think when you can’t walk around to buy more food it should be a sign.

    Moving on

    Key Foods is far better than Gristede’s price wise, and i’m not willing to wait in the insanely long trader Joe’s lines unless there’s some 2 buck chuck up in my cart.

    My major complaint was the day I had the last bunches and boxes of everything on the cleaned out shelves at Key Foods, including my favorite wheat thins.
    The cashier rang something up wrong and I had to go and get another version of it with a different bar code- so he told me he would put my bagged grocery’s aside for a minute.
    When I came back 3 minutes later ALL OF MY GROCERY’S had been taken and he had no clue where they went but was like “yo you can go pick them out again yo.”

    Kind of hard when everything was out stock that I had shopped 25 minutes for.

  • T.K. Small

    I am glad that someone has finally gotten the courage to complain about those damn people in wheelchairs! Brooklyn Heights would be a much better place if only perfect people lived here. I wish Homer would do something about that ASAP.

  • No One of Consequence

    when I read that I knew you’d comment.
    as long as it’s a free country you can eat yourself to obesity such that you require a scooter and continue to gorge yourself if you wish. Now you can even get subsidized health care for your pre-existing condition that you brought upon yourself.

    Obviously there is a distinction between true medical conditions and the way of the sloth. I hope the Diva was just typing loosely there.

  • redbaron

    Thanks gc–does Dr. Norton only do emergency house calls or is it a regular service?

  • heights

    aliG – Are you kidding? You and your husband shop for groceries, make your way over to the cashier, put your purchases on the checkout table and then expect to have to pay? Of course the cashier’s response was unacceptable, but you and your husband acted worse. Your husband couldn’t take his head out of his Blackberry and you just stood there and then told the cashier that she needed to say something. Couldn’t you tell your husband it was time to pay? I feel for the people behind you in line. Just another example of people thinking the world revolves around them. Unbelievable!

  • Billy Reno

    The Key Food cashiers and the girls who check out your books at the BH library come out of the same Juvie.

  • http://haystackhome.com haystacker

    To Nabeguy and others who want to re-distribute kids items: I posted an ad on Craigslist when I had bags and bags of very gently used kids clothes and toys. I believe I posted it under “kids” and also “free.” Within a day I met a super nice Dominican lady who had a daughter my daughter’s age, plus lots of friends with kids of all ages. By meeting her, I found someone who was able to get our nice but unwanted things into very deserving hands. Win/win all around.

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