The Q's been keeping this one under his hat for the last couple weeks thinking surely it would fall through. The GEM Discount Store on Flatbush between Parkside and Woodruff is about to go from 99 cent bottles of perfume to 99 dollar bottles of hand pressed ultra virgin olive oil. Mario Batali, the corpulent serial entrepreneur, is about to open five (5!) Eataly Outposts in Brooklyn, one each in the trendiest nabes of Williamsburg, Bushwick, Carrol Gardens, Gowanus and, you guessed it, Lefferts Gardens. We're first up because, well, it was cheapest and easiest to move in on the lease at 724 Flatbush, right next to the Duanegreens.
So what is it exactly, this Eataly Outpost?
Apparently Batali has seen the enormous potential in franchising his super-successful Manhattan shrine to all things Italian and Culinary (from Italy and Culin respectively), but according to his press release
he has investors lined up to open one of these small groceries a month for the next two years in major U.S. cities. And we get the very first one! That undoubtedly means a Batali sighting on the Flabenue is not far behind, and Batali's behind is not too far behind that.
Need capers? Boy, do we got capers! |
Benvenuto, Mario!! Check out Pepa's while you're hanging drywall!
27 comments:
Woooooowwwww is all I can say! I'm super excited!
Omg!!! You got me lololol good one tim!
Happy April Fool's Day! But that Amazon thing is way scarier. Best of as they say. xoxo
H.A.F., Q.
evil
Happy april fools day...
Awesome!
I heckled him once at Barclays Arena. He's a ham, but damn does he make good food.
Gem was great, but we still have Phat Albert which is just as good if not better.
oh wait - goddammit Tim.
APRIL FOOLS.
ugh
Tim is this an April Fool prank?
Happy April Fools!
Hahahaha you wish.
happy April 1!!
Well, after all, it is April 1st.
I'm excited to see how this works out. I love Eataly's pizza. Don't love the price of anything else. Also that area is not in the Lefferts Garden area. That's just plain old Flatbush. Close enough though.
wait ! ? ohhh, I get it now, it's April 1st today.
April Fools, I presume...
OMG YOU TOTALLY GOT ME!
Was doing jumping jacks of joy. Now I am sad. Happy april fools.
Aprils Fools, right?
DAMN! Not fair. I was slightly horrified, and now relieved. Well played sir!
Seems like it will serve significantly different demographics than GEM.
If this is an April Fool's joke, every yuppie in PLG will be so disappointed!!
okay. y'all suffered long enough. yes it's true. the GEM IS closing.
It's not just the yuppies who are disappointed! Would that this could be true. I am very sad now that I've been taken in AGAIN by an April Fool's joke.
So I was super excited. Then I was mad because it was a joke. And now I'm confused because if GEM is closing, what is opening up?
But we are really getting a second (!) new taco place where Enduro was: Taqueria El Patron!
I used to love all the discount stores so much but they've gone downhill in the last few years! We used to get much better stuff there. Phat Albert especially is terrible now, just crap and it's priced pretty high, the clothing and the toys at Christmas. It's not a bargain in any way. The low income community would be much better served with a Target there to get their clothes and their kids clothes and supplies.
Unnecessarily sadistic.
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