The Shophound

THE TJ'S WATCH IS OVER: What To Know About The West Side Trader Joe's

Our Trader Joe's watch is officially over here at The Shophound. After suffering with one overcrowded, undersized branch on 14^th Street for so long, Manhattan has finally been graced with two additional locations in quick succession. A few months ago, you may remember us rhapsodizing over the new Chelsea branch with its spacious aisles and painless check-out lines. It was like they fixed everything that sucked about the other one to make it like the Trader Joe's of our dreams.

Apparently, some dreams are meant to be shattered.

Oh, after Chelsea, we had such high hopes for the new Trader Joe's at 72^nd & Broadway that opened on Monday. It isn't a rage inducing maze of gridlock like the one on 14 Street, but neither is it like the pleasant, airy Sixth Avenue version at all. The store is entirely underground and divided into two levels —already a problem. Diary, produce and other refrigerated foods are on the upper lower level, and everything else is on the lower lower level. Both floors are arranged in a weird, L-shape, and it seems like the management is still not sure what kind of configuration the inevitable checkout line will take, but at the moment, when busy, it will stretch along the produce aisle, creating an annoying obstacle for anyone who just wants to grab some hummus or a bag of baby spinach, not unlike the chronic situation down on 14^th street. Of course, there's one thing about the stores that is no fault of the folks at Trader Joe's. The Upper West Side comes with it's own indigenous menaces, and chief among them is a surplus of moms with strollers and various and sundry other kids scrambling around. West Siders will know what we're talking about, and that's not even considering the abundance of, God forgive us, old folks. We know. Elderly shoppers have just as much right to their frozen Chicken Tikka Masala as anyone else, even when we are tripping over them, but we all know the hazard they can present in a supermarket. We're not even judging the store on its madhouse opening day. Even somewhat settled down a day later, the place is still something of an obstacle course forcing a constant refrain of "excuse me" before you're done.

The crowd frustration is only reminiscent of its neighbor Fairway, famous for its combative shopping experience, so everyone in the neighborhood should actually be used to that sort of thing by now. Anyone who thinks that TJ's going to present some sort of threat to the mighty Fairway isn't really looking too closely at the two stores. Trader Joe's,while ostensibly a supermarket, is a great source of well-priced staples like peanut butter, but its big draw is the range of house-branded specialty items like frozen and packaged, prepared foods. It can't possibly compete with Fairway's fresh produce, gourmet cheeses deli, fish and meat counters or even its branded products, which are usually quite competitively priced. In fact, the stores complement each other more than anything.

On the plus side, while the new TJ's is not ideally configured, it makes up for a lot of its shortcomings with convenience, at least as far as far as The Shophound is concerned. Of the three Manhattan locations, it is the closest to us by far, though we have to admit that we may still occasionally go out of our way to the Chelsea store as well. We would rather have a sub-par, somewhat frustrating Trader Joe's nearby than not at all. 14^th Street, however, we are totally done with.

And so ends our Trader Joe's watch. Now that there are three stores in Manhattan with another in Brooklyn, more local branches would certainly be welcome, but no longer particularly life-changing.

Trader Joe's 2075 Broadway at 72^nd Street, Upper West Side

ALL YOU CAN EAT: Foodies Brave A Heatwave For The First Taste Of Eataly

If it hadn't been one of the doggiest of the dog days of August, there might have been even more people waiting on the sidewalk at 23^rd and Fifth. They were willing to suffer in the Summer heat to be among the first to see Eataly New York, an import version of the famous all-encompassing Italian food palace which opened yesterday at 4 PM, and not a moment before.

Relatively innocuous from the outside, Eataly sprawls inside like no other market we have seen in the city. Imagine a Fairway-sized store with nothing but lovingly presented Italian food. Nearly every aspect of Italian cuisine is represented in depth including a mozzarella bar, pizza, an entire counter devoted to fresh pasta, shrines to seafood and salumeria, and aisle after aisle featuring every possible brand of dried pasta. The tables are not bare for random seat-yourself dining, but set for waiter service as each section appears to have a special menu for its category. Further exploration uncovers a book section stocked by Rizzoli and housewares from Alessi.

It is an impressive undertaking —even a daring one given the current economic climate, but there's no better customer base than food-obsessed New Yorkers for this sort of venture, which could make Eataly a must-see destination for the season. It presents food the way, for better or worse, so many like to see it here in New York: slightly overwhelming but with upscale authenticity.

It looks like this time, it's for the better.

Eataly New York 200 Fifth Avenue at 23rd Street, Flatiron District
Here's a liveblog from the experts at EATER with menus and more detailed info.

More photos after the jump

ETA CONFIRMED: Trader Joe's Upper West Side Opening Date Confirmed

We did have a couple of sneaky photos of interior progress at Trader Joe's upcoming store at Broadway and 72^nd Street, but that's wasn't very interesting once we learned yesterday that the store is slated to start receiving customers on Monday September 20^th. Though the website still lists it as 'Coming Soon', those signature hibiscus shirts don't lie. We were expecting October or November, so this is an especially pleasant surprise.

Hell, we just got used to shopping at the new, relatively hassle-free TJ's on Sixth Avenue, and soon we will only have to pop down to 72^nd Street! Ah, convenience.

The new store will go head to head with West Side stalwart, the mighty Fairway, and while we don't expect the local favorite to lose much to the popular interloper, it's worth noting that the store at 74^th Street has been spruced up just a bit, probably in anticipation of the coming competition. Regular Fairway customers will have noticed that the most cramped aisles have been slightly reconfigured and widened which has actually helped somewhat in making a visit to the store less of a road-rage inducing experience (seriously, sometimes it's like combat shopping in there).

Previously:
Upper West Side TJ's Watch: Wood Paneling & New Hires Appear At Trader Joe's On Broadway

UPCOMING FOOD PALACE: EATALY Has A Preview

The lucky, lucky folks at EATER got a preview of the long awaited Italian Food complex Eataly hosted by Joe and Lidia Bastianich and Mario Batali. The 50,000 square foot emporium will offer nearly every aspect of Italian food from markets to restaurants and even a cooking school. It sounds kind of like a Chelsea Market concept devoted to Italian cuisine which is more than OK with us. Eater has a whole gallery of pictures and details about what the complex will include when it opens at 4 PM on Tuesday August 31st.

Plan on breaking your diet that day big time.

Welcome to Eataly, a 50,000 Sq. Ft. Italian Culinary Funhouse (Eater)

TASTE TESTS: A Pop-Tarts Gourmet Review

The bloggers of Serious Eats did what The Shophound hasn't the stomach to attempt: taste the specially concocted Pop-Tart dishes at the Pop-Tarts World pop-up shop in Times Square. As you might expect, the critiques ranged from "Please, please don't eat this," "All kinds of wrong," and "Nearly made me gag," to "If you've got the sugar tolerance, you might even like it," the faintest of praise. Ranked on an edibility scale of 1 to 10, only one item made it over a 5 —hard to ruin Trail Mix with bits of Pop Tart mixed in made it to a 7. The "sushi" pictured above rated a 0 as in " I physically could not bring myself to swallow."

This all probably comes as a surprise to nobody, but we suggest clicking through to their slide show for a stunning parade of crimes against the palate which will also save you the trouble of actually visiting the shop yourself just to satisfy your curiosity. At the very least, it's worth a look at their journey through the menu for the some of the most unappetizing food pictures we have ever seen.

Bon appetit!

We Ate at Pop-Tarts World in Times Square (Serious Eats)

TODAY IN NUTRITION: Pop Tarts Pop-Up To Serve Times Square

Is it not enough that there is already a huge store devoted to M&M's in Times Square? Starting tomorrow, Kellogg's will open a 3,200 square foot store devoted to Pop Tarts, possibly one of the American food industry's greatest empty calorie delivery systems (which are, admittedly, sometimes really yummy).

The New York Times tells us this morning that the shop will not just dispense the nutritionally questionable toaster pastries, it will serve 30 snacks and desserts made from Pop Tarts that sound so cloying that we have a sugar headache just reading about them.

The menu includes the Fluffer Butter, marshmallow spread sandwiched between two Pop-Tarts frosted fudge pastries; the Sticky Cinna Munchies, cinnamon rolls topped with cream-cheese icing and chunks of Pop-Tarts cinnamon-roll variety; and Ants on a Log?, which is celery, peanut butter and chunks of the Wild Grape version.

And then there’s the Pop-Tarts Sushi, three kinds of Pop-Tarts minced and then wrapped in a fruit roll-up. “We did an internal tasting here at the building, and it was the winner,” said Etienne Patout, senior director at the Pop-Tarts brand, part of the Kellogg Company.

Visitors can also build their own Pop-Tarts, starting with a basic pastry and asking servers to add frosting, toppings (coconut, sprinkles) and drizzle (caramel, raspberry). They can take their pastries frozen, toasted, microwaved or uncooked, but there will be no self-serve.

Imagine that —desserts made out of something that is basically already dessert masquerading as breakfast (would you like some sugar with your sugar?). It's so wonderful to see companies advancing New York City's tradition of culinary innovation, isn't it? The shop's lease runs through January at which point Kellogg's has the option to make the store permanent.

A Times Square Aura for Pop-Tarts (NYTimes)

THIS MONTH IN REFRESHMENTS: Follow The Coach Stores For Free Snacks!

If we gave in to temptation and bought a snack every time we passed a Treats Truck or Van Leeuwen Ice Cream van, The Shophound would easily be as wide as we are tall, but on a steamy afternoon last Friday, we were utterly unable to resist a free cup of delectable hazelnut ice cream from the truck parked in front of the Bleecker Street Coach store. To help promote its new, more accessibly priced Poppy collection, Coach has recruited the two popular dessert vendors to park themselves outside their various boutiques from noon to 11 PM in specially decorated trucks and distribute snacks to lucky passersby. Van Leeuwen has created a "Poppy" Cherry and Chocolate ice cream flavor in honor of the promotion that will be offered along with their other flavors, and Treats Truck will distribute distinctive heart and flowered shaped cookies. The specially decorated trucks will be appearing near Coach stores in Manhattan throughout the month of July, so keep an eye out for them to satisfy those afternoon cravings. It's certainly enough to get The Shophound out for a stroll on a hot  Summer afternoon.

Fashion Scoops: Poppy's Sweet Tooth (WWD)

BIG IMPROVEMENTS: Things To Know About The New Trader Joe's In Chelsea

There's really nothing in the new Trader Joe's on Sixth Avenue that you can't get in the more familiar location on 14^th Street near Union Square. There are even a few things missing such as hassle, inconvenience, frustration and the need to constantly say, "excuse me, pardon me, sorry, can I just grab that over there?"

Yes, this Trader Joe's appears to have been configured by people hell-bent on correcting all the many ergonomic flaws of the earlier store. And how they have succeeded, making that other store look like it had been laid out by drunken monkeys. The popular frozen food aisle, for example, is especially wide, and no longer bookended by imposing, traffic blocking columns. The tasting station is no longer in a crowded corner blocked by dual checkout lines. In fact, now that this superior location has opened, we wouldn't mind seeing the other store reconfigured to imitate some of its improvements.

For starters, this store feels like it is at least twice the size of the other one, and that means wider aisles and more shelf space for everything. The section of the store that could possibly fill up with a long checkout line, though none had materialized today, was especially spacious. You could practically have held a square dance in the southwestern corner of the store, but instead there was plenty of room to browse the refrigerated bays without feeling like another customer was breathing down your neck to reach that wedge of Roquefort. Perhaps the reason why there was no line to get into the store at noon on opening day was that, for once, the store was actually big enough to hold everyone who came in.

Unfortunately, the folks at Racked tell us that the upcoming TJ's at Broadway and 72^nd Street is still a long way off, but at least it now seem possible to actually run in to grab a few things at the new location and getout before your ice cream melts. Folks, it's the Trader Joe's you were dreaming of while you were waiting in an annoying checkout line for 15 minutes in that other one. Enjoy!

Trader Joe's 675 6th Avenue at 21^st Street, Chelsea
Grocery Groupies Ecstatic As Trader Joe's Hits Chelsea (Racked)

COMING TO RUIN YOUR SUMMER DIET: The Best Chocolate Cake In The World Coming To NoLita

And, yes, that is not only the product, but the name of the cafe coming to the edge of SoHo at 55a Spring Street, nudging up against neighborhood favorite patisserie Ceci-Cela. Actually, it is really called O Melhor De Bolo De Chocolate Do Mundo, but we are expecting a translation for our shores (so far the website does not have an English language version).

The Times reports that this delicacy, imported from Sao Paolo, Brazil, is based on a chocolate dacquoise from Fauchon in Paris, and the boldly named chain has flourished in Portugal and Spain as well, so it comes with a pedigree. How will layers of meringue, mousse and ganache fare with New Yorkers who tend to like their chocolate cakes dense and fudgy? We'll find out this week when the shop opens. A taste will run you from $6.50 for a slice up to $55 for an entire 11-inch cake, and if the store succeeds, we can probably expect more branches throughout the U.S. In the meantime, however, we will be interested to see if this cake will inspire the kind of lines of anxious New York foodies that will form when imported goodies make a claim on our turf. Remember Grom? They just opened their third shop in Manhattan.

The Best Chocolate Cake in the World 55a Spring Street at Lafayette Street, NoLita
Food Stuff: A New Chocolate Cake in New York (NYTimes)

FOOD FIGHT: Trader Joe's Relief In Sight But Why The Rat?

The wait shortens for the highly anticipated Trader Joe's opening on Sixth Avenue at 21^st Street as our friends at Racked report that there is finally official signage in the window. Typically, by the time TJ's gets around to publicly announcing its imminent arrival, the store is almost ready to open, so that's good news.

We have already peeked inside to see that the work of transforming the former Barnes & Noble into a market is nearly finished, but, as usual, no official opening date has yet been released beyond the "Coming Soon" classification on the chain's website.

On a disturbing note, the new signage has been greeted by the kind of giant inflatable rat that indicates some sort of labor dispute, and, having not been down there ourselves in a few days, we are not entirely sure if the rat is there for TJ's, the contractor building the store, the landlord or some other entirely unrelated company with offices in the building above.

Who can say? We are fully distracted by thoughts of waltzing into the store when it opens and buying a few things without having to wait in or shop around a long line that wraps around the store.

Unrealistic? Leave us and our grocery fantasy alone!

New at Trader Joe's Chelsea: Signage and a Big Fat Rat (Racked)
Previously:
Trader Joe's Update: Signage Appears Uptown But Chelsea Likely First On Deck