Brooklyn Heights Blog

Comment from NrthHeights
Time: October 26, 2007, 11:42 am

Can we get a shuttle schedule? How much does it cost? Maybe I’m out of the loop but this is the first I’ve heard of it and I think its great…Peas and Pickles is just gross and Gristedes isn’t much better.

Comment from ABC
Time: October 26, 2007, 11:42 am

There are many, many areas in brooklyn without adequate grocery store options, but Brooklyn Heights is not one of them. Might not be the best, but certainly “adequate”.

Comment from spring
Time: October 26, 2007, 1:24 pm

Shuttle info: The shuttle will depart from the Eileen C. Dugan Senior Center, located at 380 Court Street, on Tuesday, October 9th at 10:00 AM and return to the Dugan Center at approximately 11:30 AM. Due to limited seating on the bus, shoppers must call Assemblywoman Millman’s office at 718-246-4889 to sign-up.

Sounds like it’s on a trial basis, so if a lot of people show interest they may amp up the time slots and seating availability. Tuesdays at 10am? Not good for me.

Comment from Brooklyn Enthusiast
Time: October 26, 2007, 1:40 pm

The shuttle is a great idea. IMHO, Key Foods on Montague could use a good clean up and reorganization. I went in there once and abandoned my shopping cart because it was so cramped and dirty.
Fairway is great, but don’t go on the weekends because you will lose your sanity trying to navigate the store. I would love a Super Stop & Shop — big isles, reasonable prices and self check-out options.

Comment from hhh
Time: October 26, 2007, 1:49 pm

is it free? who pays?

I agree, between Key Food, Gristedes, Garden of Eden, natural food store and FFresh Direct, we have some adequate options. Here.

I assume they’ll p/u in Bed Stuy too?

(we do NOT have adequate middle school options if Assemblywoman Millman is looking for a real cause.)

Comment from lakisha
Time: October 26, 2007, 2:40 pm

she should certainly focus on the associated market on tillary street!!!

Comment from ABC
Time: October 26, 2007, 2:57 pm

I suspect this is about getting the votes of the seniors.

Not really about what the neighborhood needs, but what the Assemblywoman needs.

Comment from spring
Time: October 26, 2007, 3:33 pm

We do have options here, but I often have to travel to two or more stores in order to get all my grocery shopping done. It might be nice to be able to make one stop and get everything.

Comment from lady montague
Time: October 26, 2007, 5:44 pm

Not sure why people complain about Key Food Montague being dirty, cramped, etc. It’s not perfect, but this particular branch compares favorably to other city stores. (I’m exempting mega stores like Whole Foods, Fairway, etc., which are not necessarily cleaner or more spacious, though sometimes are, but are really a different animal.) And very favorably to other neighborhood stores like Gristedes, Atlantic Key Food, etc. - now THOSE are gross. Get used to city living - don’t expect a suburban one-stop shopping paradise.

Comment from lakisha
Time: October 26, 2007, 6:01 pm

clean supermarkets with fresh food is not an option it’s a necessity!!! some of the markets in brooklyn should be fined severely for what they sell - and speaking of seniors - how sad that they must resort to shopping where meat is spoiled and products are expired…..

Comment from Juliana Bunim
Time: October 26, 2007, 7:47 pm

I know it’s not a viable option for everyone, but Fairway offers $5 delivery (it’s free if you spend over $100) to Brooklyn Heights. It’s a great excuse to ride your bike down there and do all your shopping without the burden of carrying your groceries home. My experience is they deliver within an hour or two.

Comment from HeightsChancellor
Time: October 26, 2007, 11:00 pm

It’s sad that some of you have allowed yourselves to accept either of the Key Foods or the Gristedes in the hood as acceptable grocery stores. I won’t even set foot in the montague store. These stores are dirty, way overpriced, they smell, the staffs are rude, they r always out of the exact thing that you need, the sale items NEVER ring up as such (do i hear class-action suit anyone?) and there is absolutely NO joy in the shopping experiences. These shops should be condemned and forced to close to allow for stores like Fairway (incredible selection, MUCH cheaper) to open in their places. It’s amazing that the parent companies don’t change things up. In these locations, they could be making soooo much more money, but they just let the crappy old status quo reign. I would be embarrassed to be an exec at one of these chains and walk into 1 of these stores. Stand up, consumers…boycott! :)
Remember, fairway delivers FOR FREE if your order is $100+. So take your bike/bus down there and then go home and wait for your buzzer to ring.

Comment from splash
Time: October 26, 2007, 11:08 pm

Personally, I love Fairway. I can drive down there and park in a “parking lot” and shop. It has EVERYTHING and more. Key Food on Montague is horrible. I shop there if I need something fast and there have been SEVERAL occasions I have bought spoiled food…meats, vegetables…I had a meal worm crawl out of a green pepper. I refuse to shop there anymore. I wish the health department would shut it down!!!!

Comment from nicky 215
Time: October 26, 2007, 11:12 pm

good for joan Now stop the gross deal in brooklyn bridge park she and marty (who??) gave away. why did shelly silver get a park for his people and joan and company got a mega development for us.

Comment from suck it up
Time: October 27, 2007, 1:30 am

an awful lot of crying going on in here …

“it’s soooooooooo terrible, in the Heights, lovey, whatever will we do?”

Comment from HeightsChancellor
Time: October 27, 2007, 3:58 am

hey sucky,
the heights rocks. all we said was the food stores suck…just like most do everywhere else in the city.

Comment from tired of the people of BH
Time: October 27, 2007, 8:38 am

I am sure that if whole foods and fairway was unionized like our local supermarkets it would suck to.
These whole foods type stores can hire and fire, not offer health insurance no pension plan to their workers, and pay minimum wage so consider that its not a fair playing field.

Comment from ABC
Time: October 27, 2007, 11:01 am

Yes, I agree that whole foods has extraordinarily dubious labor policies. And they are not friends of local farmers. (the omnivore’s dilemna is an excellent book about this)

But, heightschancellor, you don’t have to shop at Key Food if you don’t want to. You can shop at Garden of Eden, order from Fresh Direct, join the CSA and p/u a week’s worth of cheap and organic food every Wednesday at the Unitarian church on Pierrepont, or ride your bike to Fairway.

To say that this neighborhood doesn’t have adequate grocery options doesn’t stand up. Sure, Key Food is more expensive and has less selection than Fairway (which has to do with rent and unions, etc.). We all know that. But having a shuttle (paid for my whom?) that stops at senior centers is all about getting votes. Nothing more.

Comment from suk it up
Time: October 27, 2007, 12:23 pm

Chancellor wrote: “all we said was the food stores suck…just like most do everywhere else in the city.”

Yeah, no kidding. I understood the discussion fine. Your “sarcasm siren” should have gone off.

Yeah, most food stores in the city have some issue or another. That said, why is this even a topic of discussion? You want better food? Find a way to get it. You want to live somewhere where there is a better selection? Move. Otherwise, accept that you’re living the golden life living in the Heights at all. Since you can afford to be there, you can afford to find a way to take what you can get.

Comment from suck it up
Time: October 27, 2007, 12:24 pm

Now, if the discussion is one of low-income seniors, my comments may not apply, but from what I can gather, I imagine you guys are far from your geriatric years …

Comment from yev
Time: October 27, 2007, 12:27 pm

the montague key foods really isn’t that bad, especially compared to the gristedes. i’ve gotten some pretty good quality meat and fish from that key foods and the prices aren’t bad at all. gristedes, on the other hand, doubles the prices on everything. totally outrageous. it makes me furious when i see gristedes sale signs on items, where the sale price is still $2 too high. i can’t wait until trader joe’s moves into the area, with a delivery option. is that still happening?

Comment from Billy Reno
Time: October 27, 2007, 12:58 pm

Yes! Expect Trader Joe’s to open early ‘08.

Comment from heights shopper
Time: October 28, 2007, 9:51 pm

montague key food is, in fact, an EXCELLENT store, with EXCELLENT selection GIVEN THE SPACE they have. most staffers are polite, and the registers are generally well staffed. the store DOES NOT smell, and it’s certainly cleaner than most city groceries. there’s no way those ripping this store shop there on a regular basis.

as for prices, don’t get me started. fairway’s got lots of stuff, but it’s no bargain. if you shop with a good eye at key food, and stock up on their sale items (which are generally NOT limited to just one or two), you’ll do far better than at fairway.

(don’t confuse montague key food with gristedes or the atlantic avenue key food, both of which are certainly inferior. but don’t bellyache about not having a good supermarket in the heights; lots of nearby areas, like boerum hill, cobble hill and carroll gardens, would kill for a store as nice as montague key food. INSTEAD, SUPPORT THE STORE AND SPEAK WITH MOHAMMED OR ANOTHER MANAGER TO ENCOURAGE FURTHER IMPROVEMENTS. you know, you won’t know what you had until it’s gone.)

Comment from Heights97
Time: October 28, 2007, 9:58 pm

Gotta agree with you, Heights Shopper. A friend visiting from Manhattan commented to me how clean and well laid out the Key Food is. And Mohammed is a great manager, always friendly and helpful.

Comment from T.K. Small
Time: October 29, 2007, 8:19 am

I could not agree more with “Montague shopper”. Key Food on Montague Street is far better than your NYC average grocery store. Mohammed does a great job!

As for the shuttle to Fairway, I actually live at 55 P 55 Pierrepont St, where the bus allegedly stops. This morning was the first I heard of it and there is absolutely no reference to the shuttle that I am aware of.

Comment from heightsdiho
Time: October 29, 2007, 10:19 am

Hi - just a question for ABC regarding “join the CSA and p/u a week’s worth of cheap and organic food every Wednesday”. Sounds like a good option. What is the CSA - the Cranberry Street Association? Had no idea that the Unitarian Church had an organic market. Would be very interested in learning more. Thx.

Comment from Blake
Time: October 29, 2007, 1:32 pm

heightsdiho:

CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. You pay a fee upfront to a farmer who then delivers a box of vegetables weekly (whatever’s in season that week) to a central pickup location, such as a church. Below is a link to one in Brooklyn Heights.

However, usually you have to sign up for these at the start of the summer, so you may be too late this year.

http://www.sweetpeacsa.org/

Comment from cleanfood
Time: October 30, 2007, 9:00 am

Fairway is both unionized and FILTHY!What you cannot see in the common areas is MUCH scarier than anything you can imagine crawling around at gristedes or key food.

Comment from heightsdiho
Time: October 30, 2007, 9:21 am

Thanks for the info Blake!

Comment from CH CSA
Time: October 30, 2007, 11:27 am

There’s also a Cobble Hill CSA, but it’s filled up for the 2007 season. Check back in March of 2008! http://www.cobblehillcsa.org/

Comment from ABC
Time: October 30, 2007, 2:26 pm

glad someone got back to you on the csa. yeah, the cobble hill csa is great too — and they have jim dines there selling his great meats and eggs (altho we had gorgeous eggs this year at sweatpea/brooklyn heights csa). and we have the farmer’s market here too.

I love fairway but it’s gotten a lot more expensive. Was remarkably cheaper those first couple of months.

Comment from T.K. Small
Time: October 30, 2007, 6:55 pm

Fairway shuttle update.

Today I stopped by assemblywoman Millman’s office on Smith Street for more information. To call it a shuttle is a bit of a stretch. Apparently Fairway provides the vehicle and when Millman’s staffer has a list of 10 people or so lined up, arrangements for a vehicle are made. I was curious whether the shuttle was wheelchair accessible. Regrettably it is not.

Comment from howie
Time: October 30, 2007, 10:57 pm

If gristedes were to leave, (which I think will happen) would another store replace it? How would wholefoods fare? Perhaps the location is to small. Are there any independent grocers left in the city that could fill that space? What about a co-op? What are your thoughts?

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Comment from NrthHeights
Time: October 31, 2007, 11:32 am

I would love for a co-op to come in. We have considered joining the Park Slope food co-op but have hesitated because of the distance and our lack of a car. We tend to shop in multiple trips for a few things instead of one giant grocery shopping excursion.

If there is sufficient neighborhood interest I hope it can become a reality in the Heights.

Comment from Sam
Time: October 31, 2007, 4:47 pm

RE: Trader Joe’s, I heard a rumor in the neighborhood that the Trader Joe’s deal fell through. Can anyone confirm/deny? I know they have construction permits up on the site on Atlantic/Court

Comment from Kris
Time: October 31, 2007, 5:39 pm

just my two-cents on perhaps a too-lengthy blog, but seriously people, the meat is BROWN at key food. explain to me how they can sell this.

Comment from joe
Time: November 1, 2007, 12:29 am

Key food is good for what it is. Could it be better yes but I ‘m glad they are there. I don’t buy seafood or meat there. I go to staubitz and fish tales instead. Its not a stop and shop but its clean for being in the city. If I wanted a stop and shop that badly I would live in suburbs.

Comment from Adam
Time: February 6, 2008, 6:32 pm

I’d also like to point out that Mohammed the manager of the Montague Key Foods is the best dressed grocery store manager of all time. Seriously, in the summer of 2006 I went in and he was wearing an amazing purple snakeskin cowboy hat. Yesterday he was wearing an elaborate turquois necklace.

Comment from DUMBO / Vinegar Hill CSA
Time: March 28, 2008, 2:20 pm

For those closer to the DUMBO neighborhood, there’s also a new DUMBO / Vinegar Hill CSA starting in 2008. We will be hosting a meet and greet with the farmer and signup event at Phoenix House on Tuesday, April 8th. Check out http://www.dumbocsa.org for details!