The fire broke out just before 6:00 this evening. No injuries were immediately reported, though the toll taken on the vermin population has yet to be assessed.
It is not clear what caused the fire, though to this correspondent's nose, electricity seems to have been the culprit.
Photos by Marc Hermann.
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[...] Gristedes on Montague has fire (BHB) [...]
[...] Eagle caught up with Gristedes chain owner/NYC Mayor wannabe John Catsimatidis to talk about the fire that hit its Brooklyn Heights store last week. He confirmed that, as BHB reported, the fire was caused by an electrical malfunction in the [...]
[...] Sure we bought our share of moldy veggies and passed-sell by date milk at the “old” Gristedes. Yes, we may have had dark thoughts about torching the place (metaphorically of course) ourselves. However, that evil deed was accomplished by an electrical malfunction on April Fools Day 2008. [...]
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Brooklyn Bugle
Open Thread Wednesday 2/1/12
Verizon FiOS finally coming to the Heights?
Kiddie Hawk – Big Bird Hangs Out at Pierrepont Playground in Brooklyn Heights
The Best Laid Plans – Proof of Le Pain Quotidien Coming to Montague Street
$ales $uperlative: Columbia Heights Townhouse Most Expensive In Heights History
The good news: That smell at Gristedes has been eliminated. The bad: umm thinking….
I will bet my life savings that the electrical malfunction was caused by a rat that chewed through the wires. Someone please let Wholefoods or Citerella’s know of some newly available space in BH please!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Gristede’s was convenient for some, I’m sure; but what a horrible store. That no one was physically hurt is a gift; that maybe a clean, well-run grocery store might replace that disaster is another gift.
Place is trashed? Joke’s on us… they’ll be open again in an hour.
I was walking home after a late night at work, and Henry St was closed off as of 11:30pm. Store is all boarded up, and I’d guess it’ll probably be weeks before they re-open. I do have to repeat the sentiments of “good riddance.” The fact that Catsimatidis fancies himself as the next Mike Bloomberg doesn’t help. Neither does that lawsuit from a few years ago where Gristedes was found to be paying African deliverymen $2 an hour.
with our luck, the 3rd world keyfood will take over.
its amazing that with so much more $ to b made from quality product and a good experience that these crappy chains wont make the move make it better and make more money. people will pay for better expereince/product/etc./
In the meantime, there’s Peas & Pickles (Or is it Pickles & Peas?) right next door and mercifully unharmed.
Not a deluxe shopping experience, to be sure, and for some religioso-noncompetion-clause reason doesnt stock pet supplies–a big pain when one needs litter NOW), but cheaper than G. was and decent for basics.
I just hope that it won’t be replaced with a GIANT Busy Chef-Oven-Blue Pig monstrosity. I have my fingers crossed for a Food Emporium or, dare I say, Balducci’s?!
The joke will really be on us if it reopens as Gristede’s again with the same poor management. If we do hear that Gristede’s intends to remain then we should sign a petition of grievances with a threat to boycott the store. In fact we should have done that a long time ago; a far more constructive approach than celebrating its destruction.
As for Peas & Pickles, I wish they would expand take over that space! They actually recognize and appreciate their regular customers and have always responded to my requests for particular products.
I heard last night that the store had been sold to Shoprite within the last few months. I don’t know whether that makes sense, given the recent changes they’ve made within the store and the expansion of products they’ve started to carry recently.
Peas and Pickles is wonderful, I agree! I have found that some of the best produce though, is on Atlantic right next to Sahadi’s. A bit of a walk, but Peas and Pickles in DUMBO has good fruit as well.
I’d settle for a Dags. I’ve never quite gotten over losing the one off Love Lane.
I was at the blaze yesterday (was parking the car and waiting for the time to turn over, saw the smoke turn from wisps to billows and then walked over there to see black smoke pouring from the place) and all I could think was, why doesn’t this surprise me? Supermarket fires are not all that uncommon, and there’s something about dumpy ones that just seems to make you think you know how it’s going to end.
And how dumpy? As SS said above, Key Food would be an upgrade (though Busy Chef would be a downgrade).
Part of the problem with Gristedes was that it was both too little (of best quality stuff) and too much (aisle after aisle of chaotically misarranged merchandise that required blocks of walking to get, say, from paper towels to ketchup, which was not with other condiments, etc….). And of course there was that smell…..
Still, if you lived nearby (and I do) it was a Good Thing…..
No to Peas and Pickles. have bought too many outdated items there to ever walk in again. (Ice Cream that was all ice no cream and 1 year late expiration). They are a tremendous rip off!! I am sick of us thinking we have to pay through the nose to have good food. I miss Dag’s!!!
I don’t know if anyone has noticed, but their produce and meats looked fresher in recent weeks. Thankfully, nobody was hurt!
Let me give you whiners a primer:
Produce: Greenmarket at Borough Hall; Perelandra; occasionally at Peas and Pickles (the loss of the bug zoo, now replaced by an abhorrent wine bar at Cranberry and Henry, was really a huge loss)
Meat: Clark Street
Fish: Court Street
NON PERISHABLE GROCERIES: Whatever has the best prices. Period. Get your accultured noses over the smells of Key Food and Sloan’s (Gristede’s). Dags is gone because Heights dingleberries like you respond to price over quality, and shop at that dismal Gourmet place in the ugly high-rise condo on Montague.
Grow up and if you’re such gourmands, shop the way people did in the old days. They’re called errandS for a reason.
John, you should really slow down on the coffee. This is a place made especially for gripes and complaints.
Take a deep breath and realize that for a lot of us, price is a very big issue. The above place you’ve mentioned aren’t necessarily better, they’re just (as in the case of Court Street Meats) unnecessarily expensive.
They were wiping down the soot on the outside wall, I guess so they can re-open it once the windows are repaired. I guess they’l run a fire sale soon.
One doesn’t mind paying more if one is GETTING more. There’s no reason to pay a premium for paper towels, or, for that matter, Haagen Daz ice cream when both can be had for less elsewhere. Last week Gristedes was selling the latter for $5+ per pint (!); at Peas and Pickles the same items were $4.79.
A “gourmet” store is one thing; a supermarket, something else. One doesn’t necessarily expect to find top-of-the-line items at the latter, but at least one should find an extensive selection of reasonably priced staples.
What BH REALLY needs is a food CULURE, which is to say, a commitment to good eating that would support a wider range of ethnically diverse restaurants and stores at various price levels.
The Smith Street food renaissance reflects the resourcefulness of usually young(er) people of, usually, limited cash flow, who nevertheless hunger (pun intended) for better eating.
It’s all a matter of real estate, of course, but, as they say, production follows demand (when it’s not inventing it)….
Given that it was Gristede’s that burned, I’m not surpised by the derision in some of the comments on this thread. However, if you’ve ever lived through a fire, as I have (in a bookstore no less), you’d realize how devastating an impact it has on things. Fortunately, no one was injured, but there are a lot of people now out of work, as well as a burned-out shell on a prime BH block. As much as some of you rag on the place (as I readily admit to doing myself), it did serve a purpose for many residents, if only for it’s convenience. Being a north ender, I don’t relish the idea of having to walk all the way to Montague Street to wait in what will surely now be longer lines at Key Food and GOE just to pick up 1/2 way decent groceries or a quart of milk that doesn’t cost as much as a gallon of gas.
Here, here, nabeguy!
Thank you, nabebuy and ditto Poulenc. It’s amazing how quickly we lose sight of things on this site.
Thank YOU, since47….
John, some of us have demanding jobs (to live in Brooklyn Heights!) and simply don’t have the time for more than one-stop shopping.
Thank you, John. I didn’t really know how to shop until I read the blog… bless you, my friend, for guiding my path.
(Um, that’s sarcasm, folks.)
I’m relieved that no one was hurt, and hope the workers don’t lose their jobs, but honestly, this was the most disgusting, poorly managed supermarket I have ever seen.
From where will Busy Chef get its food, now that Gristede’s is gone?
Let’s all just hope that out of the ashes rises a phoenix…on special at $2.99 a pound in aisle 3.
No doubt some of the inventory will be on those shelves with it reopens.
As for Busy Chef where will they get their rolls?
Thanks Nabeguy. It may not be a great market, but I loved the convenience of running in on my way out of the subway to grab milk or bananas. Now I’ll have to get that stuff in the city before I come home…
I’d say from the looks of things that they’ll re-open in a matter of days. The deli will probably be closed for a bit, but I think the rest of the store will be open soon.
Yummm…smoked meat…smoked corn…smoked rats. Owell. They’re busy replacing the glass in the windows. How much you wanna bet they don’t bother to clean the soot off the brick above the entrance — they’re that kind of store.
The smell in Gristede’s that everyone remarked on is/was from the employee bathroom, the entrance to which is just to the right of the produce section as you go in. I don’t even want to think about what it must have looked like. If you have problems with the store’s sanitary practices, complain to 311.
That supermarket has always been a dismal, disorganized mess, even before Gristedes took it over. The produce section made the most meager bodega look lavish by comparison…I agree with all those on this blog who say ‘good riddance’, although sadly, I think it’ll be up and running in days – selling smoke-sullied, rancid products that survived the fire. There’s no excuse for poor management. They have the opportunity to sell the same products to the same clientele as Key Food or D’Ag’s, which are (or were) only blocks away. The only difference between Gristedes and the others is a lack of skill ,talent or interest. Like everything else in this neighborhood, having a ‘captive audience’ breeds laziness and mediocre services (ever been to the Eastern Athletic Club?)
I shop at Key Food or GOE, although I have bought the random whatevers at Gristede’s over the years. But has anyone who shops (shopped?) there regularly ever spoken with a manager about the place? The times I have been in there I’ve been amazed at how disorganized and, uh, rustic (dirty, neglected, etc) it seemed. Without invoking anything other than common sense, why don’t people complain to management or shop elsewhere? Gristede’s has staying power only because people continue to go there. Even poor D’Ag’s, after the ill-conceived modernization, started to fail because Danny, their great manager left, and everything else went downhill. People stopped shopping there and that was that. More or less.
I don’t know if Danny’s leaving was the reason D’Ag’s closed. I’m sure they could have found another wonderful manager. The store was trying too many different approaches to selling (I’m not sure why that even happened), but none of them worked. They re-arranged and downsized so many categories in the store that people were getting confused as to who D’Ags thought their clientele really was. Towards the end, they added tons of prepared foods (just throw them in the microwave!) to their already-languishing cold salads, choices suited more for the busy exec than the mom with kids in tow trying to shop for a night’s meal or the week. And shortly before they shut their doors, they had this ridiculous coffee bar set-up by the door. They should have left well enough alone. To have D’Ag’s close and not put in another supermarket? Yes, granted you had to walk all the way up to Montague Street to find a real drugstore – how about that space in the NW corner of the St. George – what’s happening with that? But not to have another supermarket? Did someone really think that because the north Heights had Gristede’s, and the mid and south Heights had Key that nothing more was necessary? The Heights can certainly handle three supermarkets – or at least two good ones.
Gristedes supermarket at 101 Henry St. in Brooklyn Heights caught fire. We need a good supermarket in Brooklyn Heights New York. Your last location was in a hidden spot. We all loved it, but it was not very convenient. This is across from a busy train station and we (Brooklyn Heights Owners and tenants) would love a great supermarket and business to move into this location. Thanks.
copy and paste this to the link if you agree.
http://www.dagnyc.com/ContactUs.aspx
as for the re-opening don’t all kid yourselves !! It will be Gristedes and it will be this month ..AND it will be the same..People keep shopping there so they have no reason to make a change do they?
But, wait!! Everything’s gonna be all right!! I just sent en e-mail (to the addresses on the Gristedes Web site) of complaint about the store, added that not a whole lot of people were saddened by the possible loss of the location, and I got this answer:
Thank you, as a customer we truly appreciate your comments. Please accept our apologies for the manner our store was run in the past and the staff that you have found to be inept.
We will do what needs to be done to get the store back in shape, and change the staff to be more caring of our customers needs.
In the future if you feel there is a problem please call me on my cell phone, 24/7- 917-709-9662. I will handle your problem at that time so others won’t endure what you have.
Gristedes has been in business for over 100 years, and I might add has done right by millions of customers in New York city, and will do right by our Brooklyn customers.
Thank you again for taking the time to email us.
Sincerely,
Hy Yamuder
Senior Director of Operations
Assistant to CEO
So, kiddies, call Hy on his cell –24/7, no less– and tell him everything. Maybe there should be a BH luncheon to which Hy is invited and served a medley of mystery foods purchased at Gristedes.
Bornhere – thanks for taking that action and posting their reply! I intend to post that letter along with tear-off phone number strips in the Gristede’s exit when they re-open!
Ours was far from the worst grocery store in NYC, let’s stop the hyperbole on that score. 25-years-in-the-heights nailed it when he said it was the laziness bred of having a captive audience that made it a bad place to shop. The fact that Peas & Pickles has survived for years next to a chain with greater purchasing power should have galled the Gristede’s owners into action long ago. There’s not so much extra profit to be made overnight to keep them afloat against a well-run chain store. They stayed just enough ahead of Gristede’s in cleanliness, price and service to survive. Unfortunately, a well-run chain would probably close them down in a year.
Let’s not overlook the fact that in order for Peas and Pickles to maintain market share it has to stay open 24 hours a day. I don’t quite know how many people are out buying bread at 3 in the morning, but every dime probably goes to the rent, so they can at least stay competitive.
Yes, let’s be realistic: shopping at Gristedes, though far from ideal, wasn’t a hardship.
The most pressing issues, about which a jingle to Mr. Yamuder would be appropriate, are:
over-pricing
freshness of perishable merchandise
store sanitation, which includes elimination of unwanted odors
better staff training.
…and may I please add that to me the most immediate thing Gristedes should do is clean the fire soot from the building’s exterior. I believe in the “broken window” theory: one neglect invites others….
l would like to thank all of you for trash the staff @ Gristedes ,also my family & some of my co worker thank u 2 yes i said it i did work their for over 3 years ,mow because of your comment a lot of us are gonna lose their job, i do agree with you about a lot of your complans but i also find unfair to some of us who really cared about you & try to service u the best they can, now beacuse of your no mercy comments Gristedes is gonna come down on all of us w no exciption .
I almost lost a family memeber and friends in that fire. I live and Florida. I am shocked and appalled that you people are so uncouth.
These guys lost their jobs and others almost their lives. You are shallow and pretentious if it was big news and somebody died you with your vicious slander would be the first to show up with flowers and crocodile tears. From what I understand You people are a pain in the ass to deal with AND are never satisfied. Hypocrites and spoiled whiners. You don’t deserve Gristede’s as it was.
You people?
Tara: Nobody deserves Gristede’s as it was; it should also be pointed out that several posts expressed gratitude that no one was hurt. And, if “ex worker” is real … you’ll most likely be back there working with your colleagues — I doubt that there is going to be some across-the-board firing based on this blog or random complaints received by Hy. And I really resent the “pretentious and shallow” comment. Pretentious, maybe; but not shallow.
Take it up with your union boss.