Mmm... green fruit.

I usually don't like it when my lemons turn all green and fuzzy, but apparently that's good now. Doesn't that picture look yummy? That's all the stuff you can pickup right now in Sunset Park's (courtesy of bestviewinbrooklyn.blogspot.com) Green Market. If you'd like to have a market full of green edibles right here in our back yard, check out this online petition and vote your green pants off.

Dan's Select Meats

We got the following email from a friend of Russian decent about Dan's Select Meats (250 Church Ave). We'd never tried the store thinking it was mostly meat (and we're veg) until her recommendation and this weekend tried the potato dumplings and Baltica. Let's just say we will definitely go back. Below is her recommendation!

Select Meats is always hopping. In addition to, well, meats, the store sells a variety of Russian-produced foods and foods that people from the former Soviet Union like to eat. And drink.

Let's begin with Russian beer. They sell a couple of brands of Russian beer - I'm most familiar with Baltica - a great beer, in my opinion. Look for numbers on Baltica labels. The numbers indicate alcohol content: Baltica 2, for example, has 4.7% alcohol; Baltica 9 has 8% to get you drunk. All this is explained right here: http://www.baltikabeer.com/brands1-5.php Select Meats also carries non-alcoholic Baltica, for those who are into that sort of thing.

What goes best with beer? Cold-smoked mackerel! "Skumbrija" in Russian. These are the foot-long golden whole fish that you see in the lower left-hand corner of the deli counter. These are ready to eat - just lop off the head and the tail, and slice up! If you don't feel like lopping off heads, look for a large bin of packaged "fish jerky." There are several types of salted dried fish to munch on when you drink your Baltica.

If you need a quick dinner, pick up a bag of hand-made dumplings (Pelmeni) from the corner freezer. They have veal, pork, chicken, potato, and (maybe, I'm not sure), cheese and cherry dumplings. Veal dumplings are my favorite! Dump them in boiling water, and when they float up to the surface, they're done. Eat them with sour cream or butter and cracked black pepper. There are many different brands in the freezer - the store owners can recommend some (I trusted them, and the dumplings were in fact great). By the way, people who work at the store are friendly to a fault, love to help out, and speak great English. Just ask, don't be shy.

You can find every conceivable pickle at Select meats (pickled cucumbers, tomatoes, muchrooms, cheremsha (pickled wild garlic), even watermelon). Can't vouch for canned/jarred ones, but the bulk semi-pickled cucumbers and sauerkraut (in the back of the store in big plastic buckets) are great!

There are various salamis and cheeses - since we only have lived here for 3 weeks, I haven't bought any yet, but generally salami and cheese at Russian stores are fine! Russians love their salami and cheese.

Sweets, in no particular order: cookies that are shaped like nuts with chocolate condensed milk frosting in the middle,white multi-layered "Napoleon" cake, sunflower halva, poppy seed rolls, chocolate covered cheesecake bars (Syrok) that my daughter adores (in the ice-cream case by the door) By the way, the brown bear on the bar's wrapper is a Soviet cartoon version of Winnie-the-Pooh. Peaple w children or those in need of treats - I totally recommend Russian chocolate candy (sold bulk from glass bins above the deli counter), for birthday party favors! Cool-looking wrappers and mostly good chocolates.

They sell prettily packaged tea, too.

Generally speaking, the place is totally not forbidding, clean, and people who work there are happy to explain things to you. Go to Select Meats!

Foodtown Strike - Resolved?

We got word the Foodtown strike is over... can anyone pass on the details?

Meat Workers Strike at Foodtown

We have gotten a few emails in regards to the meat workers strike at Foodtown. We have not spoken to the owners nor the workers but here is excerpts from a few emails.

The meat packers at Foodtown have been working for a month without a contract. The owners have hired non-union temp employees to replace them. So if you're concerned about amenities at FT, you should also be concerned about the working conditions of the people that bring you those amenities. I went over and talked to the strikers yesterday morning and they were really happy to get support. Being on strike is hard, one woman is pregnant, another I talked to has been working as a meat packer for 38 years and retires in one year but is still on strike. They are asking for decent health care and maintenance of benefits.

I usually shop at Foodtown every single day. This week, however, I refuse to cross a picket line. From their side, the owners are behaving unfairly, and even locked them out when they tried to return to work. I know there are two sides to every story, so I'd be interested in hearing what the owners have to say.

FROM FOODTOWN:
There are 5 people from the Meat Department Union that are on strike. The other people on the strike line do not work for Foodtown. The attached document is the flyer that we are handing out to our shoppers that explains some of the big issues (see below). As you know, we are a family run business and are very thankfull of the hard work of all our associates. We are working hard to resolve this and negotiations have been ongoing forthe last week, even right now, as we speak.
From the attachement:
THE UNION has refused to bargain with the company for all stores. For the last 6 months, and many meetings, the union would only talk about 2 stores that we have in The Bronx.
In fact, we have put forward to the union, a fair proposal. Once agreed to, it includes:
• Wage increases and fully paid health insurance.
• A 401 K retirement plan that the union has agreed to with other employers.
One main issue has been that the Union Pension funds are short over $ 600 MILLION dollars in total, and the union wants the company to pay over $ 3 MILLION to make up the difference,
even though we had no involvement in the management of the funds.
We will continue to work hard towards reaching a fair contract for our workers.

More coverage on FT Meat packers on strike in Bay Ridge: Foodtown Meat Department on Strike

Foodtown Reno, The Presentation

First off a huge thank you to Larry and the ANA for coordinating an informative and interesting meeting! Secondly, a big SIGH at the lack of representation by the 'newbies'. In the standing room only crowd we only recognized a few of the folks we’ve worked with on community issues. We could also sort of tell that the three of us were in the minority and didn’t notice very many residents in attendance who could have been new to the ‘hood. Meetings like this are huge opportunities for both long time and newer residents to come together and voice concerns and interests in one forum. Besides that many of the updates or changes often talked about within the comments section of this blog can’t be developed without your support outside of this blog. (We will now step down off our soapbox). Here is what we got from the meeting:

1. The store has not been renovated since the Katz’s took it over in 1990. The MTA construction put on hold the renovation which the owners had been planning to make. From our point of view this may have worked out in our favor since the blog facilitated opinions the owners had no idea were out there. (We heard from both owners, the regional rep and the manager at separate times in the evening that no one knew a newer community existed in Kensington who wanted a wider variety of products). Noah called this a gut job which will take approximately six to eight months. Renovations will take place in off hours so that people will still have the ability to shop.

2. The renovation will overhaul the entire inside and outside of the store. A new glass entrance (stroller friendly) will be installed. A new façade will be built with an entrance tower. Softer lightening will be introduced. The aisles will widen by moving the deli counter and the office which are currently in the front of the store. The refrigeration section near the current deli will be moved back opening up 1000 sq. feet. (They will also be moving the storage downstairs by installing a freight elevator).

3. A wider variety of products will be introduced by heightening shelves and installing shelves with multiple levels. For instance, the produce section will quadruple in variety and include organic produce. Also of note the store will be including natural products by UNFI who also supplies Whole Foods. (At a similar store outside NYC Foodtown stocks 176 varieties of organic and natural products so they have the understanding on what to incorporate).

4. The renovation will also introduce a bakery, cheese fridge, cold beer fridge, a wider meat selection and a new fish area. We were also told a Foodtown fish and meat expert will be coming to the store to help implement the changes. Lastly, the new bakery section will allow for cakes to be ordered with choice of decorations for birthdays or parties.

5. Regardless of the renovations the owners stressed that prices will not increase. They noted their prices are always competitive with other stores and in fact have a team that checks area stores to be sure they are better. They even stressed residents sign up for and use their green point system which tracks what you spend in the store and rewards customers with offers for free products for a certain quantity of points. (We subscribe to the green points and though we tend not to read the circulars were enticed a few times by the points displays. We’ve gotten free peanut butter and paper towels).

We are very excited about the upcoming changes and plan to start shopping more regularly at Foodtown. We truly feel their commitment to the neighborhood and quick response to residents concerns is commendeable. If this renovation is half of what we were presented it could be a huge positive for the neighborhood. And at the end of the day we would much rather spend our cash in good ole Kensington then trek to Fairway. From everything we heard it could certainly rival some of what is offered a pain in the butt car ride away (ok they may not have the cranberry walnut bread for $5 but we’re ok with that!). We hope you all too will start giving it a try.

FOODTOWN Meeting TONIGHT

Albemarle Neighborhood Assoc. will be hosting Foodtown at their meeting tonight. All interested in Foodtown's upcoming renovation should attend! Owners Dan and Noah are looking for local resident input!
Thursday September 6th
6.30 pm
Flatbush Shaare Torah Jewish Center, 327 E. 5th Street off Church Ave.

Foodtown Meeting

Albemarle Neighborhood Assoc. will be hosting Foodtown at their meeting this Thursday. All interested in Foodtown's upcoming renovation should attend! Owners Dan and Noah are looking for local resident input!

Thursday September 6th
6.30 pm
Flatbush Shaare Torah Jewish Center, 327 E. 5th Street off Church Ave.

Ch ch changes... at Foodtown

We got an email from Dan and Noah at Foodtown with pictures showing what they hope to include in the renovations at Foodtown. (We can't post pics from our out of town location, sorry!) The changes seem impressive and quite fancy. In the meantime the place seems to be much more clean and organized. Also there have been some additions to brands! We stopped by the other day and noticed a whole new freezer selection on Morning Star products as well as Smart brand soy products by the produce. We personally think this is pretty exciting stuff! We hope besides the inside Dan and Noah work on the look of the outside (a few planters and a mural on the wall facing PS230) as well as making the entrance more stroller/ granny cart accessible.

Golden Farm to Add Organic

On Saturday we saw a small sign on one of the register's at Golden Farm that said "Organic Produce Coming Soon". We asked one of the cashiers and she said everyone has been asking for organic produce! She didn't think it'd be that much more expensive though they won't carry too much since it rots more quickly then treated produce. We also noticed a small deli style container at her registrar asking for suggestions. We think its great GF is taking suggestions from local folks but hope the additions don't take away from the variety. We like the local breads, sabra selection, cookies and low cost of produce.

Upcoming Foodtown Focus Group

The Albemarle Neighborhood Assoc. will be sponsoring an event with the owners of Foodtown to discuss what residents would like to see in the store as well as the upcoming renovations. We'll be doing a post on the details later but as of now know the date for this is set for September 6th at Shaare Torah Jewish Center on the corner of E5th St and Church Ave. Dan (dankatz@sprintmail.com) and Noah also seem to be replying directly to emails and checking the comments section for products we'd like to see in the store. We'd like to see Ives soy hot dogs and Smart brand soy taco 'meat'.

Foodtown - The Meeting

We met w Dan Katz from Foodtown Saturday morning. Besides being a little po'd at us for the post and really upset by a comment or two (which was understandable considering one in particular that we've deleted!) the meeting was really constructive. He is not skirting any of the issues that were made on the blog and seems to be generally ready to get the store up to expectations.

The store has a pretty big renovation in the works and Dan wants some feedback on what locals would like to see. He was kind enough to bring along some photos of another store that recently got an upgrade down on Ralph Ave. We were impressed. Dan noted that many of the things we pointed out would be included in our store - a cheese section, larger deli area, baked goods bin etc. While we talked about improvements/ additions we reminded him that there are a lot of people shopping at the store that don't read the blog and hope that changes (or lack of some) fit the entire community. Regardless, already in the works are some organic products and and a stroller accessible entryway.

Dan specifically asked we give out his email (dankatz@sprintmail.com) and that people email him with what they'd like to see in the store (be specific people! brand etc). He also would like that if there is an issue with a cashier or employee you make note of their name or number (can be found on bottom of receipt) rather then making blanket statements in the comments so he can deal with employee. That only seems fair especially since when we've shopped there most of the employees have been kind and helpful. Let's try and remember that one underwhlemed cashier does not mean that every Foodtown employee is awful!

We felt the meeting was really constructive and are hopeful to have a full service grocery store very soon. Personally we'd love to not have to shop outside of the hood for certain products. We think with bad comes good and now having met Dan and seen how involved he is in the process are pretty confident in Foodtown's future.


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Update on Foodtown! A Good Thing

Well, we're really surprised and honestly, very pleased. We received two things on Weds. evening... one a phone call from longtime Kensington resident and 25 year Albemarle Neighborhood Assoc. president, Larry J., and the other an email from an owner at our local Foodtown. First off, Larry heard about the Foodtown post and wanted to let us know that he shops at Foodtown 3 times a week and has never had an issue. He also gave us the extensive history of Foodtown in the neighborhood and their support of the community. Lastly, he explained a major renovation Foodtown had been planning to make until the current MTA construction got them off track. The email from the Foodtown owner was an invitation to call and discuss the issues with the store. We tried to call but probably because it was after hours only got to leave a message. He later responded with an email and we plan on getting in touch with him tomorrow. His email also extended an invitation to meet him so we're aware of what the plan is for the store and address concerns we have.

It became very apparent to us after our conversation with Larry that Foodtown is a supporter of the community and would like to see residents happy. Personally we like having a big store in the neighborhood and would love to see improvements and renovations done at this location. Since representatives from Foodtown are obviously listening to our concerns we think it is very important we voice clear constructive suggestions. Although at the time of this post we didn't get to speak with the Foodtown owner we did receive another very extensive email from him where he mentioned going through the entire store to verify the freshness of all products on the shelves. He also detailed their continued work with many people in the community supporting local functions and organizations. Here is another bit from his email "we hire associates from the neighborhoods that we operate in and teach them entrepreneurship and the importance of customer service. Many of our associates go on to higher positions in the company and to other companies as well". (From his email we also found out Foodtown's are independently operated and this is one of two stores they own).

Here is your chance tell them what you'd like! Okay, we'll start with some of our suggestions....
1. expired merchandise to be promptly removed from the shelves
2. more registers open at key times (like after 5pm when many people exit the train and run to Foodtown for the evenings groceries)
3. a cleaner Foodtown
4. more availability of organic merchandise especially baby food
5. more soy products like Morningstar, Ives etc. (in fairness they use to carry many more of these items so maybe they didn't sell and had to be discontinued)
6. some outside beautification - a mural on the wall that overlooks PS230 and cleaner front sidewalks
Now it's your turn, post in the comments section. We'll be logging in a call to the owner late afternoon on Thurs.

Foodtown Warning - Expired Food!

We generally don't shop at Foodtown but heard from a few sources that they've bought items there only to return home and realize the product was expired. In the interest of honesty we don't shop at F-town but tend to stick with Golden Farm and hike to specialty shops for things they don't carry. Regardless, we do pop in on occasion for a can of olives or loaf of bread and once for baking supplies. Even though we don't really go there we like having a larger supermarket nearby until we heard this! A local Mom in a pinch stopped in to buy baby oatmeal cereal. Knowing of F-town's reputation checked the date and it was expired! Now we get selling expired things to adults but babies! Has anyone else had this experience? Even if they just announced a new Brooklyn location (Court and Atlantic) let's all try to request a TJs for Kensington (again!). In every other Long Island suburb there is a TJs location, why should Brooklyn only get one?

Brooklyn Bread

Gothamist posted a bit on the best bread in Brooklyn today. Although none of the places listed are within the Kensington boundries most are within biking distance.

A longtime resident of Kensington has told us that the best bread in our neck of the woods use to be at a place on Church which closed down years ago. Now our friend goes to Scotto's for the twisty bread with the seeds.

I've been to Scotto's a few times and liked the bread and italien cookies but felt the deserts and cakes were just so so... cheap but nothing to really write home about. Any opinions out there on good neighborhood bread or Scotto's?

Scotto's Bakery & Pastry Inc
3807 13th Ave (at 35th Street)
Brooklyn, 11218

Speaking of Misc., What about Wine?

What is the deal with the local wine/ liquor stores? We've got 'em (STD, which is the best name ever, and Jobby) but they seem to stock randomly. Generally we find the selection is Yellow Tail although we did get familiarized with Smoking Loon from Jobby. Anyway, we're not big drinkers but enjoy a glass with dinner and typically want it cheap (have you been to Trader Joe's Wine store?). We're certainly not wine snobs and post this probably because we lack any real working knowledge of wine besides we like it or don't... really, we like to be able to go somewhere and ask but find that hard at these two places. What has been the consensus with the wine stores? Any good brands at either location we should try... anything we should steer clear of? You think if we asked for them to start bringing in VRAC or Goats do Roam they'd do it?

Jobby on E3rd St. near Church Ave.
STD on Church Ave. near McDonald (down from Subway)

Groceries & Misc. Markets

We got this from a new resident to Kensington and thought we'd ask for your help.

Any helpful hints for a newcomer in terms of finding a well-stocked, somewhat large supermarket? I've found a few small to medium sized grocers near my apartment (Ocean Parkway bet. Caton and Albermarle) but nothing sizeable -- nothing that even boasts a butcher.

Here's what we suggested (and you can comment on others). We're huge fans of Golden Farm on E4th & Church Ave for veggies, hummus, soy milk, and even a few organic items they stock. We stop in Foodtown for chips or cookies and bread or wraps and find it to be satisfactory. Other then that there is the Food Co-op on Cortelyou Rd. (which is not technically in Kensington even if CT. Muffin thinks so) though we find it crowded and the stock so so. Unfortunately, the truth is we'll go with a friend to Fairway for our boxed goods and travel to TJ's for cheap cereal (Trader O's) and olive oil ($6!). The new option starting in June for veggies, fruit, eggs etc. is the KWT CSA which is really affordable and cool since you're supporting a local farmer. Any other suggestions?

Convenience Addition Requests

We've heard some rumblings about a couple New York 'conveniences' and thought we'd put the word out for requests. Seems Zipcar doesn't have a spot in the 'hood and we're not totally on Fresh Directs grid.

Zipcar
Closet Zipcar location is currently 12th Street and 8th Avenue in the Slope. Luckily, Zipcar adds locations by request. Request a Kensington location for Zipcar here.

FreshDirect

I live on Ave C and East 4th and find it so infuriating that FreshDirect delivers to Beverly and East 4th but will not drive down 1 block to deliver to me because according to the Fresh Direct driver "your block is not on our grid yet." Our coop has petitioned Fresh Direct for years and no response.

Sure enough on the location list, 11218 has an asterisk. Well that doesn't seem fair! We want our Kensington neighbor to get added to the Fresh Direct grid but can't seem to find a place to request additional delivery locations. Anyone know how to request an addition with FreshDirect? Just in case this doesn't work out for you one alternative may be the KWT CSA which starts drop off June 9th.