Hey!
There was a great article in Time Out NY last week about 2 companies that are focusing on producing their products as close to home, as possible.One, we've mentioned before on SF, is Mast Brothers Chocolate. They are a great, small chocolate company, started by 2 brothers in Brooklyn that has gone from making 300 bars a week in their Williamsburg apartment to making 1,000 bars a week in their new Greenpoint factory.
“We could have opened somewhere cheaper,” Rick says, “but that would be doing what everybody else has been doing. We want to be connecting to the community.”
If you live in NY, they are opening what they refer to as a “chocolaterie and laboratory” in October in Greenpoint. It is the only bean to chocolate bar making factory in NYC. Check it out.
Thanks to TimeOut for the great article and enthusiasm for local industries. Hopefully, other companies will be inspired to produce their products locally.
Support local manufacturing!
Niki
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3 comments:
"Red Hook...been taken over by beautiful luxury apartment buildings."
WHAT? Taken Over?
Approximately 12,000 people live in Red Hook. 9000+ live in the projects. There are at most 200 units (housing 500 people) in "the Back" that might be considered as luxury.
The remainder of private housing units are market rentals in cheaply renovated shoddy wood frame buildings.
Until Red Hook gets a subway and the projects are sold to developers luxury housing will NEVER take over here.
Thank you for commenting and clarifying. I suppose I was jumping ahead with the addition of Fairway and now Ikea in Red Hook, and I fear it will be a more popular destination which will take away some it's historical charm. There is also new talk about BJ's opening at the site of the Revere Sugar Factory on Beard Street.
And true, it is no coincidence that the NYC expansion is related to the subway system, although the water taxi is a great way to commute onto the island.
I hope you are right and Red Hook retains its wonderful character.
It's anonymous again.
Thank you Niki for allowing me to comment on your Blog.
Less than realistic portrayals of Red Hook have disillusioned visitors and transplants alike. There are some style conscious eateries and shops but not enough to satisfy luxury residents. These eateries are dependent upon business from outside as there are not enough residents with disposable income. Visitors are often perplexed that the reality of the neighborhood does not match the luster that comes across in the media.
Hope and Anchor may be the only locally self-sustainable upscale shop (The macaroni and cheese is $10. Mac and cheese is a neighborhood staple at five boxes for $3.). They get affluent workers for lunch and residents on the weekends.
Commuting renters do not last. Youthful renters quickly realise this is not Williamsburg. Drinking and driving habits have short half-lifes. I believe many depart after a year or less. Monied entrepeneurial residents who drive or walk to work are about the only affluent mainstays. Those who chose to live and work in this tiny insular community are a very narrow demographic.
Project residents may work in Fairway but they shop at Fine Fare, the C-Town on Mill Street, and at Pathmark.
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