On LaGuardia Place since 1973, Bruno Bakery / Pasticceria Bruno will be closing its doors and leaving the Village. The bakery's last day will be this coming Sunday.
A sign on the door from the Settepani family reads, in part: "We would like to thank our landlord for the opportunity to make this work, but since Sept 11, 2001 it has been a continuing struggle to stay in business. Times have changed in our industry and we can no longer financially stay. New York City and some of their agencies make it impossible to survive."
One of the employees explained the problem in two words: "The rent."
A long-time customer read the sign and, while waiting for her box of cookies to be filled, cried, "I'm dying. I'm dying. You can't close. Not this place. Not this place! You've been here 40 years!"
But what's 40 years to a city that is wiping out century-old businesses, one after another after another? This will continue if we don't stop the bleeding. Support the Small Business Jobs Survival Act--tell your local council member to sign on.
Then go say goodbye to Bruno.
What will New York be without the small one of a kind places that makes it so unique. Just read that De Robertis Pastry 110 years strong is closing. So sad.
ReplyDeletei first went to bruno's in maybe 1994 when i was in high school. it was one of the few places where we could sit down and hang out in the village while we walked from subterranean records on cornelia to adult crash on ave. a looking for cds.
ReplyDeleteim not 34 and live in the village and still go often for their awesome cookies. i knew it was not long for this world but this one hurts more than the (many) others.
I liked that part of LaGuardia for Bruno, the Reno shoe store, and that strange International Boutique, which has been there since 1969. Bruno was always a good place to stop off around there. Celebrated a birthday there once.
ReplyDeleteOh and De Robertis!!!
Many memories.
Some franchise will come in. The only type of business that can afford the rent.
ReplyDeleteLet's see, there's already a Starbucks on the Houston corner, and a Subway down the block. Such interesting places. So it might not be one of those. Oh--I know--it'll be a bank. Can't have enough banks. I like to see one on every corner so I don't have to think what city I'm in.
Or maybe some big foreign investor bought out the whole damn block several years ago and is quietly getting ready for a major tear down and a new glass hotel.
Missing. Lost. Gone.
My 93 year old Grandmother, who grew up in the neighborhood, liked to go there in the summertime and eat lemon ice at the outdoor tables. Just before this, there was a time, when Soho was just starting, that the brick wall over the stores adjacent to Bruno's, had a mural of pink pigs flying around on little wings. Got painted out years ago.
ReplyDeleteReally sad to see Bruno's go. It's not just that we actually go into these places every day, but that we get to look at them dozens of times a day as we come and go and their presence really makes all the difference.
A pox on insatiable developers.
Their lemon ices didn't have flavors such as kale and quinoa and they weren't being served by some bearded hipster in suspenders and charging $5 for 8 ozs cup by calling it artisinal and authentic and Brooklyn and locally sourced from the Gowanus Canal. Good riddance. Now bring those Lemon Ice Pops to open there.
ReplyDeleteDon't worry, a Dunkin Donuts or Panera, or even a Payless will come to save the day! New York must be cleansed of all these oddball one of a kind establishments, they are so yesterday!
ReplyDeleteWhat'll replace this venerable venue?
ReplyDeleteA frogurt shop? A Slop't salad joint? A Soulless Cycle? A Crappotle? A Dunkin DoNOTs? A Phoebe's Snotcakes? An Olive Garbage? One of the runaway banks?
Something artisanal and artless that draws suburban-born hipsters and tourists and billionaire spawn like flies to....
And people file into these chains and keep the dollars flowing, while unique New York shops go the way of the dodo bird.
Maddening, to put it simply and mildly.
we wont have a new york. soon it will be a suburb of long island, an extension of the mid west. no history, no creativity, just any old place. this is world wide, small business are closing.
ReplyDeleteIt's so sad to watch the destruction of a beautiful community. With NYU being the big bully and eating up all our parks and spitting our the most horrific ugly poorly designed buildings so they charge their students more money. And with the lack of a city planning department who actually cares about preserving the quality of life of NY. Plus an administration who doesnt seem to have the balls to stand up to the big developers and is just carrying on Mr. Bloomberg's commitment to put big real estate developers and tourism in front of the citizens who work and live in NY and pay the taxes; what can anyone expect but more and more independent retail stores being pushed out. Manhattan is just becoming another generic mall. And if you walk through most malls most stores are empty. NYC certainly has lost its charm. It's reputation of the best city in the world is fast becoming history. Too bad the administration works for the real estate developers instead of those that live and work here. So sad.
ReplyDeletemy wife, our 8 year old, and myself literally wept when we open our e-amil (we are abroad at the moment) and read these horrible news. as many said, it is not really a surprise, but it is shocking how this inexorable destruction seems to have no end until the TOTAL destruction of anything close to a family or personal-based initiative or business. Bruno Bakery has been with our daily life since 1993. We had celebrated many birthdays with their amazing cakes and many many family discussions, meeting friends, hanging out just for nothing happened there. The bread in our table, always form them. It is truly devastating. Because, it is not that they wanted to close their business. They were FORCED to do so. outrageous, and indeed, obscene from the part of our city council.
ReplyDeleteI loved Bruno, too, but I think that there's more than meets the eye here.
ReplyDeleteI think that they got out just before the city closed them down for health inspection violations. Check out their record here:
http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/services/restaurant-inspection.shtml
Last graded inspection, dated 8/4 was 38 points. (That's really bad. Roaches, mice, etc.)
There have been a lot of ungraded inspections, too, all of which are seriously embarrassing:
11/26/2014 33
07/24/2014 25
02/21/2013 35
07/03/2012 23
02/10/2012 43
Three inspections above 28 points, or consistent problems mean a shutdown.
Certainly looks like Bruno was heading in that direction, and given the results of the inspection on 11/26 (suspicious timing), I'd put money that they shut the place down before the city shut it down for them, so they can keep their reputation intact.
Sad, yes, but I think the blame might rest on the owners, not the landlords.
The only real New yorkers left---rats and cockroaches.
ReplyDeleteSomehow I prefer them to the new cupcake eating denizens.
I'm terribly sorry about Bruno's. First, they were ousted from Bleecker St., where low-quality, rude Rocco's continues to draw the bridge-and-tunnel crowd, not neighborhood residents nor European tourists. Now, the original on Lafayette. What a loss.
ReplyDelete