Specialty Food Magazine is the leading publication for retailers, manufacturers and foodservice professionals in the specialty food trade. It provides news, trends and business-building insights that help readers keep their businesses competitive.
Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/986636
The distillery has an adjacent 750- square-foot tap room that seats 45. There, Polen and Doughan serve a rotating list of four to five varieties of sake ($5 to $36 depending on the size) and small plate nosh- es like toasted nori and fried fava beans ($4 to $22). They also bottle two types of sake and sell it at local liquor stores. The taproom draws large, curious crowds, and with the distillery just steps away, patrons can sometimes sample small- batch experiments and new offerings at dif- ferent stages of the fermenting process. "Just like beer and wine, each sake variety is different, and we're excited to be educating NYC on how versatile this beverage can be," says media rep Angela Pizzimenti. While Brooklyn Kura is focused on the New York City market right now, it plans to introduce more types of sake in the future. Brooklyn Kura has also collaborated with Industry City beer maker Five Boroughs Brewing Co. to produce a custom rice lager, which made its debut in May. DeKalb Market Hall: A Much-Anticipated Food Destination Debuts Descending the escalator down to DeKalb Market Hall in downtown Brooklyn is like enter- ing a gourmet underworld. Out of more than 40 vendors, many if not most are outposts representing borough-born startups such as Fulton Landing Seafood Company, Lioni Italian Heroes, Ample Hills Creamery, and Steve's Key Lime Pie. Other New York culinary favorites include Arepa Lady, Katz's Deli, Ample Hills Ice Cream, and Guss' Pickles. Globally inspired vendors occupy this clean, wide, 60,000-square-foot food hall as well, such as French bakery Café D'Avignon, Hawaiian comfort food Wiki Wiki, and Turkish-German mashup Kotti Berliner Döner Kebab. Japanese crepes, Korean fried chicken, pierogis, and paella are also served up to fans of creative international eats. Opened in June 2017, the hall is anchored by a Trader Joe's and Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, a dinner and movie combo. It's all part of the City Point shopping "destina- tion," a section of downtown Brooklyn that was once shabby and commercial and is now increasingly filling up with gleaming residen- tial highrises and co-ops. GFG Bakery: A Taste of Greece in Hoboken GFG stands for "Greek From Greece," and the team behind it are third-generation descen- dants of artisan bakers from Athens. This culinary heritage is reflected in the airy and inviting space GFG Bakery occupies on the ground floor of a new office building in busy downtown Hoboken, blocks from the train station and the W Hotel. The counter space is divided into sections: bread, meals, coffee, and baked goods. The bread, such as white and rye, is baked on the premises. The coffee selection features Freddo store tour COMING SOON Here are more intriguing destinations to look forward to. • Whole Foods is unveiling another Whole Foods Market 365, its smaller, lower price point supermarket. The New York City area's second 365 store (the first just opened in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, see page 42) will occupy a 33,000-square-foot space on the Hudson River waterfront in Weehawken, N.J., across from Manhattan. • The food hall trend just keeps steamrolling. Celebrity chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten is opening a 50,000-square-foot food hall at the South Street Seaport near Pier 17, anchored by a new seafood restaurant. The market will feature "locally- sourced, organically grown products as well as authentic and accessible prepared foods and merchandise," according to the Seaport's website. • Time Out Market New York, a 21,000-square-foot food hall from the folks behind free weekly listings guide Time Out New York, is set to open later this year. The hall will span two floors at the Empire Stores renovated 19th century warehouses on the DUMBO waterfront in Brooklyn. • Brooklyn-based eatery Mekelburg's will be the anchor tenant at 325 Kent, aka the renovated Domino Sugar factory complex and waterside park. Set to open this summer, it'll be part of the first wave of store openings at the site, slated to have 500,000 square feet of retail space and 2,800 residential apartments. PHOTO: BROOKLYN KURA PHOTO: ESTHER CRAIN 52 ❘ SPECIALTY FOOD MAGAZINE specialtyfood.com