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Nice logo. Nice people. Great food. Local parents Doug Singleton and Shari Stadel have big plans for a bistro in the neighborhood. They'll be showing off their edible wares at a debut Pop-Up shop from 1pm - 6pm on Saturday, June 14 in front of the Maple Street School at the Lincoln Road entrance to the Prospect Park Q/B/S station. They'll serve smoked pulled pork
sandwiches (from a family recipe) with local pickles, kale salad, veggie
sandwiches of goat cheese with pickled tomato (and possibly baked yam
fries). And they're serving the asparagus and gruyere tarts they’ve been making
at home for years. You see, Shari and Doug love hosting friends and serving food. How do I know? I've been fortunate enough to tag along to a few Singleton/Stadel affairs, and I will attest to their skills with making good food and good vibes.
Slightly related: if you were to take a guess what will be moving into the prime retail space of the Tom Anderson building going up on Lincoln Road, what do you suppose it would be? An insider has a pretty sure line...keep your eyes on the Q for more.
11 comments:
I'm going to a picnic in the park that day, so excellent timing!
So who's moving into the new Lincoln Rd building? I'm torn between hoping for Trader Joe's and Da Hot Pot II (possible tagline for a bigger space: Doubles? We serve Quads!). How long you gonna keep us guessing, Q?
I heard national drugstore chain... which isn't exciting but I wouldn't mind it, either.
Alex: Where do you hear these things? Just curious. I also heard someone say Trader Joe's was moving into 626. Not true.
It's going to be a grocery, with business links to Anderson himself.
I was not writing clearly...the Lincoln Road building will have a grocery. 626 will have a restaurant and one other business in the ground floor. Look for a coop nursery school on the 2nd floor of the short building that has the retail.
A grocery isn't half bad either!
Rumors circulate, ya know? My guess is that Trader Joe's was just highly wishful thinking.
Frankly, I think a little healthy competition for the Pioneer/Associated mafia (they're owned by the same entity) and Wholesome would be welcome. Maybe they'll step up their game (though Pioneer has location, location, location).
I like Trader Joe's fine. But since they got bought out, I sense them jumping the shark. The stuff is fine, but there are very few items that are really superior to what I get at the coop. The friendliness of the employees is nice...and suspect!!!
Don't forget Western Beef! They might even be compelled to clean up broken and spilled items once sanitary competition enters their catchment zone.
Trader Joe's is mostly junk food, truth be told.
Fun fact about TJ's, they keep their prices low by two things (1) not keeping a credit line (everything they pay cash for) and (2) getting really cheap rent, either from landlord subsidies or by renting large spaces that are typically hard to rent (and negotiating like crazy). Also Trader Joe's has been owned by Aldi's since 1979. That was almost always part of the deal. Unless you lived in SoCal in the early 70s and shopped there, I doubt remember them pre-buyout. As for friendliness, worked there in college in 2001. They pay well. Pay benefits and give people decent schedules. Turns out that makes for happy employees.
In that case, they should move into the old HSBC bank on Flatbush at Caton. PERFECT for their biz model.
Thanks for the fun facts. I may disappoint you however, by telling you that my family spent summers in L.A. in the late '70s. My first kiss happened in 1978 in an apartment building near UCLA. But despite having been there before Aldi's took over, I don't recall it changing much until relatively recently - maybe 15 or so years? I actually remember shopping Aldi's more than Trader Joe's though, as we had one in IA. That place was very popular with the notoriously thrifty midwesterners.
Still not crazy about the food - most of it seems like glorified junk food to me, in lots of plastic. Prices can't be beat though - still kinda makes you wonder how much pressure they're putting on suppliers. Essentially they're selling generic products; slap their name on things they like, and THAT is a great business model.
Aldi is a German chain and what I appreciate most about Trader Joe's is the international character of a lot of their products - it reminds me of supermarkets in France. Love their Tarte d'Alsace for example. They also sell pre-roasted peeled beets like they do in Europe - just take them home, julienne, add some dijon vinaigtette (their moutarde de dijon isn't bad, either) et voila - a great side salad w no work! Would love it if they came here (more so than Whole Foods, as I get my "healthy" food at the PSFC).
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