The Gourmet Garage in Greenwich Village is closing next Tuesday, November 27.
Elizabeth sent in these photos and writes:
"The straw that broke the camel's back was when they were forced to close August-October last year due to the 2 or 3 floors of luxury housing being added to the top of the building. Forcing customers to shop elsewhere for 3 months doesn't help... So thanks NYC for approving more luxury housing on the backs of residents."
Westview News reported in 2017 that the closing would be temporary while the building owner installed "columns to reinforce the building in order to add additional floors for new residential apartments."
Temporary has turned out to be permanent.
Gourmet Garage was founded in 1981 and started out in SoHo. There are two other locations left mentioned on their website. Everything at the Village location is now 25% off.
There are many who believe that the entire building at 117 7th Ave South and its tenant the Gourmet Garage, are not worth defending. In 1988, the Times called the building "a suburban solution" to "a difficult building site." (https://www.nytimes.com/1988/12/11/realestate/posting-in-the-village-urban-suburbia.html). The original developers received permission from the pushover New York City Landmarks Commission to raze the one-story building that was there to build the ugly thing. And Gourmet Garage is just another tool of gentrification, like Whole Foods. I'm quite surprised that you mourn its loss.
ReplyDeleteAnother closing due to conditions beyond the business owner's control having nothing to do with how well the business is doing. I loved the Gourmet Garage when I lived in the Village last century. It was sophiticated. It was food porn, but in a reasonably not so so so expensive package. I got a lot of soup there b4 Hale and Hearty ruined soup.
ReplyDeleteFor christ sake. When are they going to stop?
ReplyDeleteWhen they moved in, I remember feeling that old NY was lost. Little did I know.
ReplyDeleteI worked there when it was The Night Gallery owned by Jekyll and Hyde. Sorry to see Gourmet Garage go.
ReplyDelete