gourmet fresh (gf): really nice
Carroll Gardens, particularly south Carroll Gardens, has always been lacking in good grocery stores. Until recently, the only two to speak were the Italian place and Sue's place, so I think it's fair to say that everyone living below Carroll Street has been eyeing the new grocery store construction at the old Fugiya restaurant with much care.
Having toured Gourmet Fresh, I fear for both of the old stop's livelihoods. The sizeable new space (interestingly run by the people who ran the truly apalling Key Foods previously on the block) is reasonably priced, has great-looking produce, rotisserie chicken (!!!), and all the organic cereal brands, canned goods and speciaty items a health-conscious Brooklynite could desire. It's no Park Natural with rows upon rows of vitamins and healthy grains, instead it's as normal a grocery store as one finds in these parts, and one that's super clean with moderately friendly checkers to boot.
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I fear for Sue's place and the Italian grocery store as well. I am thinking of splitting my shopping between the three. Sue definitely has the best produce. The Italians' butcher shop is great. And GF has ...fantastik with bleach!
I try to buy from Sue first, the Italian market next, and finally GF.
We buy almost all our meat from Staubitz and seafood from Fishtales.
Most of our veggies come from the CSA or the green market.
One thing that rocks about our neighborhood is all the options.
I guess I was expecting a lot more. It's everything you could get at the Italian place or Sue's but in a nicer package. I personally don't see the point, unless they stay open till all hours of the night, which I doubt will happen.
Plus they don't even sell beer or meat.
I couldn't get past my total sticker shock for Fage Greek yogurt: $6.99!!! Last time I looked, that's $2 more than Park Natural!
Actually, they do have some meat. Which I found extremely surprising. It's in the back. Ground turkey, at the very least.
I really wish they carried some natural brand of bread. Preferably Rudi's. I think the guys at Park repackage some things if they don't "look" bad. I've had 3 loaves of bread mold on me within 2 days. Doesn't happen when I get it from Pacific Green :(
Buyers beware.
Finally a supermarket that is open past 5pm on Sunday, or even open at all. Their late hours ( 9pm every night ) definitely make this a stop after Sue's.
Hi again, did you see the NYT article about this? I just wrote about it too..
Feel free to check it out.
I worry for Sue as I've noticed there are fewer people at her store during the after work "rush hour." I think she might be able to change her focus and gain more business by offering prepared foods -- she has a cooking license and can make vegetarian Korean and Japanese dishes. Wouldn't you think there'd be a market for quality takeout prepared food like that in this 'hood?
i would LOVE some korean dishes in this neighborhood. that is such a great idea!
I am so happy to hear that all of us are still going to try as hard as we can to keep shopping at Sue's and at the Italian place! I personally love Gourmet Fresh but would be sorely dissapointed if the other two went out of business because of it. Let's keep it up! :-D
We love the peppermint jo jo's this time of year.
I haven't checked to see if Brooklyn Trader Joe's has it, but over the holiday we had a sourdough asiago bread at another city's TJ's that was divine.
Unable to make my usual Christmas Eve and Christmas dinners, I went to Gourmet Fresh for assistance. I rattled off my normal menu and they said they would be able to prepare everything for me. We had the typical Italian fish dinner for Christmas Eve. And, on Christmas, we had our traditional Italian dinner.
The quality, quantity and value were all extraordinary. I would definitely use Gourmet Fresh again and have begun spreading the word around my neighborhood.
I am boycotting Gourmet Fresh.
1) everything I NEED/WANT is at Sue's...
2) GF doesn't keep the refrigerated section cold enough, all of the milk, soy milk, yogurt and what have you is popping, like going bad, popping...and one day they had bright orange 99-cent SALE stickers on the milk...that's one thing I don't want marked down, I want it fresh...
3) there was the most awful putrid rotten smell in the produce section, I nicely alerted the staff and they tried to tell me it was the papayas...it was not the papayas, it was something rotting...
4) i have twice bought carrots there, both times they were limp, and one time I returned both my bag of carrots and a bag of celery b/c they were limp...
5) no decaf coffee...my mom was visiting I ran up to get a small bag of beans...8 kinds of beans but none decaf...
Gourmet Fresh=neither Gourmet nor Fresh
Very true, they're the last on my list of places to visit.
They place stinks like the old Key Food (no a CVS) used to.
Granted, the cashiers are a little less surly and there are some higher end items.