Carroll Gardens Deli owner, Mohammed
Unfortunately, Mohammed will be closing his deli at the end of the week, citing ever increasing rent payments as well as several violations on the building that make it impossible for him to apply for permits to use the oven and griddle in his premises.
"I have been trying to figure out a way of staying in business at this location for years, but I am just tired of fighting," he told me earlier this week. He sounded defeated.
PMFA received several emails from saddened residents. Ben Umanov who lives close to the deli wrote:
"This is a huge blow to anyone living between Hoyt and 4th Ave in the vicinity of Carroll Street. That's a wide stretch, and there really is nowhere else to buy that last-minute, every day item -- a carton of milk, an onion, a pack of a gum, a box of pasta, a 6-pack of beer -- without having to walk up to Smith or down to 4th Ave. Even on Third Avenue in this area there aren't any true bodegas (there are some farther down by 9th St... too far). Next best option is Whole Foods -- useful, but not the same. I'm sure it'll also be a blow to the many men and women who treat the shop as a clubhouse, of sorts, stopping in to chat with neighbors and hang out."
Every time a small business like the Carroll Gardens Deli closes its doors, it most definitely is a blow to the neighborhood. The sense of community that a place like this provides to local residents is hard to replace. Getting a gallon of milk or a pint of ice cream at places like Rite Aid or CVS is just not the same. This is a reminder to myself and everyone in the neighborhood. We need to support these small business owners if we want to keep a sense of neighborhood.
As for Mohammed, he seemed resigned. "It is the end of an era," he told a friend who had stopped by to say good-bye.
Well this sucks. I live close by there and it was the go-to place if you needed to just grab something quick, milk, beer etc. Ben is right, that leaves basically just Smith st. now for stuff like that. I love this neighborhood but it just seems like doing mundane stuff like food shopping is becoming such a hassle with so few options around the south end of the neighborhood. Even the Pathmark in Redhook is gone.
ReplyDeleteCompletely different clientele, but did you notice that the tanning salon on Smith Street between Union and President packed up sometime in the past couple of weeks? I'm not sure who was using the place but they've been there for a number of years.
ReplyDeleteEnd of an era indeed. We left Carroll Gardens a year ago in search of another community to love as much as we loved Carroll Gardens for the past 20 years. The heart and soul of CG has been the local shop owners who knew you and your kids. Over the past five years, we saw this soul quickly slipping away.
ReplyDeleteHi Donald, I did notice it. They moved all the equipment out of the place this past week-end. Will follow up with the owner of the Tanning Salon when I see her. She is very sweet.
ReplyDeleteThis blog is started to become a go-to place for what's being priced out and closing in CG, so sad and yet vitally needed.
ReplyDeleteI do feel that since Whole Foods has come into CG, the neighborhood's smaller establishments have lost their footing.
I especially resent that Whole Foods sells ready-made food, directly competing with the small restaurants, delis, pizzerias and such that make their living in CG from residents of CG.
Our city is inching ever closer to an amazon.com, Whole Foods Corp., big box, online culture and it's coming at the deep expense of New Yorkers making NYC livable and giving it personality. I honestly don't know what NYC would be like as an amazon.com city, but we're beginning to see the birth of it.
When I was a child, the deli was a "Chinese" hand laundry. I remember going there with my mother when she dropped off my father's white shirts before we were allowed to have a washing machine in our rental apartment, and the prevailing aroma was Clorox.
ReplyDeleteWell thanks to the greed of the landlords all the small stores where you can grab your newspaper or a bag of chips..so they will probably make another quaint (uggghhh)bar or an unneeded cafe that the prices are sky high..it sucks..
ReplyDeleteIve been going to Mo's corner deli for the past 10-yrs and it is sad to see him go. I think it's misleading to say that "We need to support these small business owners if we want to keep a sense of neighborhood" because no matter how much we do in fact support such businesses, there will always be land owners who sell their lots to developers like Lightstone, who in-turn build hundreds of apartment units. From there it trickles down... those who own buildings with retail spaces see an opportunity to increase their revenue and guys like Mo get priced out. Landlords see a chance to up their rents. But if you know Mo and how he came to start his business in CG nearly 15-years ago, then you know that he's a fighter and something like this won't keep him down.
ReplyDeleteI am so sorry to hear this. Mohammad made me the best lunch sandwiches.
ReplyDeleteCarroll Gardens is fast becoming a "Food Desert". The area has lost 2 Key Foods and a Pathmark.
ReplyDeleteI live around the corner but I stopped going to this corner store a few years ago. It has become so dirty and the selection of items has been bleak. Even the outside of the store has been so nasty lately, the sidewalk is always littered with cigarette butts and the garbage bins on the side are often overflowing and smelly. The people who ran the shop have always been so nice but they just didn't know how to do it.
ReplyDeleteI used to live next door and I have a table that the people in the Chinese laundry gave me! Wonderful memories of what Carroll Gardens was. When I moved there my neighbor had to take me to the tailor on Smith St as they only spoke Italian
ReplyDeleteI want to rent this store but i don’t know how to connect the owner
ReplyDeleteYou should know that the commercial use was grandfathered as that street is not zoned commercial. Since the storefront has been empty for more than two years, it should revert back to residential
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