We are lucky to have Food Bazaar in the neighborhood
Before I ever made Red Hook my stomping ground, I had been to Fairway, Food Bazaar’s antecedent. Not so much to shop, but to take various people, including my daughter, for a fine lunch of a whole broiled chicken with sides, and the Statue of Liberty in the background.
One year I took my staff there for a fun business lunch on the outdoor picnic tables. I remember passing by IKEA, which was still under construction. That was on our way to take Evelyn home. Evelyn lives on Mill Street and worked for my mailing company, which was in those days on Court Street, in a storefront now occupied by Court Grocers.
About four years later I moved around a little and ended up starting this paper. One of our first stories looked at whether IKEA’s opening had been good for local business. Writer Kevin O’Hanlon wrote “Anyone who is involved with the community will tell you that Red Hook is one of Brooklyn’s oldest and best-kept secrets. With more and more people coming to the neighborhood, hopefully the secret can be let out, which can really only benefit the community.”
I think what let the cat out of the bag came a few years later with Hurricane Sandy, which put us in national headlines. There had been many reasons that kept people away, crime among them, which started back when we were a shipping town, which along with hardy longshoremen featured crime figures that feasted on them.
Another impediment was transportation. When I got here, the big complaint was bad bus service. So much so, that one of our resident celebrities, Michael Buscemi, produced a short movie called B51.
Eventually that was fixed, and now you can see when the next one is arriving by checking your phone. Also, bicycles became more prevalent as well as the Revel, the short term rental electric scooter. All these things have made Red Hook more accessible.
However, despite the fact that a number of new homes have been built in the neighborhood since then, we still don’t have a hardware store or a bank. But we are graced with a pretty great supermarket. According to Greg O’Connell, Red Hook’s largest property owner who started developing these properties in 1992, it was his idea that a good place to buy food was essential for the growth of any neighborhood.
One of his tenants was an olive importer who just happened to be a part-owner of Fairway, a gourmet supermarket on Broadway and 74th in Manhattan that was a family business kind of like Zabars.
He convinced them to open up what was to be their third location and Fairway came here in 2006. It soon become their largest grossing store. They continued to expand, and the family which was by then into their third or fourth generation of ownership, began to think of leaving the business (with a lot of cash, of course).
And then, the hurricane happened, right before their planned stock offering. Reopening was very important in the corporate sense, and they were able to do so by March 2013. They sold the stock and the family members left, and in my opinion the store, now operated by a corporation, lost something.
In 2016 they declared bankruptcy, and by 2020 they had to sell. Initially, nobody was interested in the Red Hook location, but some bargaining by Greg O’Connell Jr, according to his own social media post, brought us Food Bazaar, a chain known to me by advertising on baseball games, and to others in NY by their big selection, meats especially, and a large seletion of ethnic food.
The Star-Revue office is directly across the street from Food Bazaar, and so I am there just about every day. In fact, right now I’m eating a bowl of Barbara’s Puffins with some cold fat-free milk that I just bought there.
In the old days, when I patronized Pathmark, a cheap and similarly large supermarket on the other side of Hamilton Avenue, I would have probably bought something more ordinary, like Rice Krispies. Food Bazaar is just as home selling Krispies as they are selling Puffins, which is a way to say that they really cater to the neighborhoods their stores are located in. maybe another name of Red Hook could be Puffin Krispy, representing our diversity.
So anyway, getting back to the theme of this essay, for a relatively slightly populated neighborhood, we are graced with a great place to buy food, not to mention have lunch (or breakfast or an early dinner).
A year or so ago, there was some social media grousing about not so fresh fruit and vegetables that they were selling. The response that I kept to myself at the time was that no matter where you shop, it’s a good idea to always check dates, when there are dates, check smells, textures and color when there aren’t. That would even go for the fancy places like Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s, were I to shop at those places.
My girlfriend is one of those who patronizes Whole Food, and sometimes I have to go with her. That experience makes me appreciate Food Bazaar that much more. I’m old now, and grew up in different times, when a supermarket was simply a supermarket. When I go to Whole Foods I feel like I’m in some kind of fancy night club where everybody goes to be seen and show off how organic and healthy and eco-friendly they are. I’m more at home in a regular kind of store.
One last thing – I noticed a sign a while ago advertising free trips on the weekend from both Mill and also Lorraine Streets to Food Bazaar every half hour. I know it must be a pain to lug a shopping cart from there to go food shopping. I’ve seen people do it.
I asked the manager whether they still do it, and he said no, because hardly anybody took the mini-bus, which the store paid for. I asked him how he let people know about it, because I really didn’t see many posters aside from the one on the store. Paul Lee, the manager, told me that they tried to let people know on social media.
Well, I told him we have unsocial media, but I’d let people know. He said that if there is a demand for it, he’ll bring it back. So in case you want a free shuttle to Fairway from the Houses, let Manager Lee know. He’s a nice guy.
