Balducci's Flagship Closes in the Village; A New Site Is Planned
By JAMES BARRON
Balducci's, the pioneering upscale market in Greenwich Village that gave many New Yorkers their first taste of fresh basil, cilantro and other exotic edibles, has closed the storefront it occupied since the 1970's for the last time, its owner said.
The owner, the chief executive of a Maryland supermarket chain that took control of Balducci's in 1999, said that discussions to remain there had broken down yesterday. But a spokesman for the store's landlord said there had been no discussions since it bought the storefront — at 424 Avenue of the Americas, at Ninth Street — last July.
The supermarket chain, Sutton Place Gourmet, announced plans to reopen in a different location — plans the landlord said were in the works before the sale. Sutton Place also said that the smaller, newer Balducci's on West 66th Street would not be affected by the closing.
"What a shame," said Emily Balducci, a third-generation member of the family that started the store after World War II and was eventually caught up in a soap opera of jealousies and rivalries that ended only with the sale to Sutton Place. Ms. Balducci worked in the store for 24 years.
In the 1970's, long before every block seemed to house a specialty food store, Balducci's was almost as famous for its long lines as for the food it sold — white truffles from Italy, pink garlic from France and other rarities.
"At its best, Balducci's was the best specialty food market anywhere in America and among the top three or four in the world ever," said Clark Wolf, a food and restaurant consultant. "It was the only place in the East where you could get benchmark flavors seven days a week."
Balducci's storefront was a short walk from the town house where James Beard wrote his cookbooks and taught a generation of chefs. "He was always going to Balducci's," said Clayton Triplette, who was Beard's assistant for 25 years. "He always liked Balducci's vegetables. He said if Balducci's didn't have it, nobody had it."
Balducci's is also involved in a reality check Edward I. Koch says he had a week after he left City Hall.
On his way to Balducci's to buy his own groceries for the first time, Mr. Koch was yelled at by a man on a bicycle: "You were a terrible mayor!" Mr. Koch says he responded with a two-word epithet that he had never used in public.
"Balducci's had always been my favorite store," Mr. Koch said yesterday. But he said the store changed after the family turned the market over to Sutton Place Gourmet. "It wasn't the same after that," he said. "Now I go to Fairway."
The store was quiet yesterday. No signs announced the closing. But some employees echoed rumors that had swirled for months in the chatty circles of chefs and cooks. Hours before Sutton Place Gourmet confirmed that it was closing the store, cashiers and clerks said they expected yesterday to be their last day.
"I've been putting out the word I'm looking for work," said Salvador Concha, who worked at the cheese counter for 10 years, juggling work and computer classes at St. John's University in Queens. "I just got a college degree, and I'll have more opportunities."
At the checkout counter, cashiers said they figured yesterday would be the store's last day because it was the end of a pay period. Darnetha Carpenter, a cashier who worked in the pastry and bread department, said she asked what had happened to vacation pay she was owed, and was told she could apply for unemployment once the store closed.
The chief executive of Sutton Place Gourmet, Cliff Smith, said the storefront had its problems — dated counters, and refrigerators and air-conditioning that needed to be modernized. "It's an old, tired store," he said. "The amount of work to bring that store up to a reasonable standard is prohibitive. What we were trying to do was negotiate a deal where we could accomplish both."
But Steven Rubenstein, the spokesman for the landlord, Vornado Realty Trust, denied that Vornado had been in talks with Sutton Place Gourmet or its real estate representatives since buying the storefront last July. "If they do want to stay," he said, referring to Sutton Place, "Vornado would be interested in talking to them."
Mr. Smith said that he grew up in New Jersey and first set foot in Balducci's when he was a teenager, in the 1970's. "We really, in our heart, wanted to keep the store where it is," he said, "but the store where it is, being so old is an issue."
And except for the change of owners in the 1990's, Balducci's was one of those New York landmarks that did not seem to change much over the years. It was already an institution, for example, when the restaurateurs Joseph Baum and Michael Whiteman began planning the restaurants in the World Trade Center in the 1970's and hired Beard as a consultant.
"Whenever we needed fresh things that I didn't have any idea of what they tasted like because I was young," Mr. Whiteman said yesterday, "he would take me on a shopping trip to Balducci's." The 5,500-square-foot store that closed last night, which was Balducci's second location after 25 years nearby, had room for "high-quality convenience foods that set the standard for everyone else to follow."
"What happened is the rest of the world caught up with them and passed them, in fact," Mr. Whiteman said. "The supermarket industry learned all about what's now called value-added food in the supermarket world by watching what Balducci's was doing."
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By JAMES BARRON
Balducci's, the pioneering upscale market in Greenwich Village that gave many New Yorkers their first taste of fresh basil, cilantro and other exotic edibles, has closed the storefront it occupied since the 1970's for the last time, its owner said.
The owner, the chief executive of a Maryland supermarket chain that took control of Balducci's in 1999, said that discussions to remain there had broken down yesterday. But a spokesman for the store's landlord said there had been no discussions since it bought the storefront — at 424 Avenue of the Americas, at Ninth Street — last July.
The supermarket chain, Sutton Place Gourmet, announced plans to reopen in a different location — plans the landlord said were in the works before the sale. Sutton Place also said that the smaller, newer Balducci's on West 66th Street would not be affected by the closing.
"What a shame," said Emily Balducci, a third-generation member of the family that started the store after World War II and was eventually caught up in a soap opera of jealousies and rivalries that ended only with the sale to Sutton Place. Ms. Balducci worked in the store for 24 years.
In the 1970's, long before every block seemed to house a specialty food store, Balducci's was almost as famous for its long lines as for the food it sold — white truffles from Italy, pink garlic from France and other rarities.
"At its best, Balducci's was the best specialty food market anywhere in America and among the top three or four in the world ever," said Clark Wolf, a food and restaurant consultant. "It was the only place in the East where you could get benchmark flavors seven days a week."
Balducci's storefront was a short walk from the town house where James Beard wrote his cookbooks and taught a generation of chefs. "He was always going to Balducci's," said Clayton Triplette, who was Beard's assistant for 25 years. "He always liked Balducci's vegetables. He said if Balducci's didn't have it, nobody had it."
Balducci's is also involved in a reality check Edward I. Koch says he had a week after he left City Hall.
On his way to Balducci's to buy his own groceries for the first time, Mr. Koch was yelled at by a man on a bicycle: "You were a terrible mayor!" Mr. Koch says he responded with a two-word epithet that he had never used in public.
"Balducci's had always been my favorite store," Mr. Koch said yesterday. But he said the store changed after the family turned the market over to Sutton Place Gourmet. "It wasn't the same after that," he said. "Now I go to Fairway."
The store was quiet yesterday. No signs announced the closing. But some employees echoed rumors that had swirled for months in the chatty circles of chefs and cooks. Hours before Sutton Place Gourmet confirmed that it was closing the store, cashiers and clerks said they expected yesterday to be their last day.
"I've been putting out the word I'm looking for work," said Salvador Concha, who worked at the cheese counter for 10 years, juggling work and computer classes at St. John's University in Queens. "I just got a college degree, and I'll have more opportunities."
At the checkout counter, cashiers said they figured yesterday would be the store's last day because it was the end of a pay period. Darnetha Carpenter, a cashier who worked in the pastry and bread department, said she asked what had happened to vacation pay she was owed, and was told she could apply for unemployment once the store closed.
The chief executive of Sutton Place Gourmet, Cliff Smith, said the storefront had its problems — dated counters, and refrigerators and air-conditioning that needed to be modernized. "It's an old, tired store," he said. "The amount of work to bring that store up to a reasonable standard is prohibitive. What we were trying to do was negotiate a deal where we could accomplish both."
But Steven Rubenstein, the spokesman for the landlord, Vornado Realty Trust, denied that Vornado had been in talks with Sutton Place Gourmet or its real estate representatives since buying the storefront last July. "If they do want to stay," he said, referring to Sutton Place, "Vornado would be interested in talking to them."
Mr. Smith said that he grew up in New Jersey and first set foot in Balducci's when he was a teenager, in the 1970's. "We really, in our heart, wanted to keep the store where it is," he said, "but the store where it is, being so old is an issue."
And except for the change of owners in the 1990's, Balducci's was one of those New York landmarks that did not seem to change much over the years. It was already an institution, for example, when the restaurateurs Joseph Baum and Michael Whiteman began planning the restaurants in the World Trade Center in the 1970's and hired Beard as a consultant.
"Whenever we needed fresh things that I didn't have any idea of what they tasted like because I was young," Mr. Whiteman said yesterday, "he would take me on a shopping trip to Balducci's." The 5,500-square-foot store that closed last night, which was Balducci's second location after 25 years nearby, had room for "high-quality convenience foods that set the standard for everyone else to follow."
"What happened is the rest of the world caught up with them and passed them, in fact," Mr. Whiteman said. "The supermarket industry learned all about what's now called value-added food in the supermarket world by watching what Balducci's was doing."
- linda 1-08-2003 6:56 pm