Thursday, December 29, 2016

152 2nd Ave. storefront to yield a combo Greek yogurt and smoothie shop


[Photo by Steven]

Signage went up yesterday for the combo business coming to 152 Second Ave. between Ninth Street and 10th Street — a Greecologies and Pure Green.

Here's more about Greecologies from a June 2015 New York Times feature:

Yogurt is made on the premises at Greecologies, an airy emporium in Little Italy that offers the thick and tangy strained style of Greek yogurt as well as a sweeter, unstrained variety that comes with a layer of cream on top and whey on the bottom. Both use Hudson Valley milk, as does a lovely cultured butter spread that can also be stirred into strong coffee.

The menu includes a variety of Greek yogurts as well as desserts, coffees and teas. This will be the second NYC location for Greecologies.

Here's more about Pure Green, which has multiple NYC locations, from the company website:

Pure Green's focus is to make it easy to live a healthy lifestyle. Our philosophy is everyone should experience sustained energy throughout the day. Starting your day with our cold-pressed juice, drinking our handcrafted smoothies and nutrient-rich snacks will restore your energy and RECHARGE YOUR LIFE.

This is an ultra-competitive market for juices and smoothies. For starters, one block to the north, there's the well-entrenched Juice Press on 10th Street just east of Second Avenue … and Liquiteria on Second Avenue and 11th Street ... and there's beQu Juice on Ninth Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue... with a a shop called JuiceGo opening soon directly across Ninth Street. Plus, there's Juice Vitality at 192 First Ave. between 11th Street and 12th Street ... and East Village Organic on First Avenue between Seventh Street and St. Mark's Place sells fresh juice ... as does Commodities on First Avenue between 10th Street and 11th Street. (Added: The Be Juice shop next to Basics Plus on Third Avenue between 12th Street and 13th Street.)

152-154 Second Ave. is the former Sigmund Schwartz Gramercy Park Chapel that Icon Realty bought, gutted, added three extra floors and opened as luxury rentals.

21 comments:

Abfus said...

How DARE you forget the juice shop next to Basics Plus on 3rd Avenue and 12th Street!

Anonymous said...

Hand-crafted smoothies, eh? That's a new one. This space has been vacant for so long I'd have thought there'd be something more selective. But I guess hand-crafted smoothies work -- particularly high-end smoothies.

Anonymous said...

Oh my fucking god, give it up! This place has become an even worse parody of itself back when everyone thought it was cool.

Gojira said...

More gruel so we don't have to use our teeth. Glad I won't be around to see what humanity evolves into now that Millennials eat nothing but sugar and chewless "food".

Anonymous said...

I'm sure CB3 won't like my idea for a shop that serves smooth-crafted handies.

Anonymous said...

The "juice place" next to Basics Plus is a very good one and the staff are nice kids, and they largely sell smoothies, which everyone here conflates with juicing but is not the same thing (although it makes perfect sense that the two will be sold together). You will pry a healthy, fiber-rich smoothie from my cold, dead, but surprisingly youthful hands one day.

This is not to say that we NEED all of these so-called juice places. But honestly, as someone who drinks a lot of smoothies, I'm glad for them. I used to make them myself, then my blender broke, and I realized I didn't want to spend the money on a decent blender AND having free counter space in my postage-stamp kitchen was nice, as was not having to buy 3 pineapples and 5 banana bunches a week.

Not everyone drinks coffee for energy. Rarely does anyone complain about the saturation of coffee places unless it's to express anger about a franchise/chain, but we don't need all this coffee, either. So I'm not sure why blended fruit and vegetables gets people so het up.

I don't even know if this will go through because about 1 in 10 of my comments passes muster these days, but I do think 8:29 has a point. And I've never had an acai bowl in my life.

Giovanni said...

Something tells me that this former funeral home has not yet buried its last victim.

Anonymous said...

The neighborhood likes being juiced!

Walter said...

I second what Giovanni said. Still wish them the best of luck, but winter is not really the time for smoothies.

EV Grieve said...

Thanks Abfus! I did forget that one! Added to the post...

Ken from Ken's Kitchen said...

There's nothing healthy about cold-pressed juices. Juicing separates the fiber from the juice and it's the fiber that counteracts the sugar spike you get from eating vegetables/fruit whole. Drinking juice is no different than drinking a Coke as far as sugar content goes.

Anonymous said...

Boycott any and all businesses that choose to rent from Icon Realty. They are destroying the East Village and being very nasty about it.

I hate to say it but this will probably be another casualty of Icon's greed and be closed within a year.

How much yogurt do you have to sell to line the pockets of Icon???

Anonymous said...

Make your favorite smoothies at home with a hand blender. Go to Whole Foods and get the fancy ingredients if that's what you're after. It's not like cooking or anything, very easy to do yourself.

Anonymous said...

Ok. Agree that juicing fruit is much worse than eating the fruit whole and the spike insulin response and is fattening, even the juice contains no fat because then the liver turns the sugar spike into fat. Also note that some of these smoothies have added sugars.

Anonymous said...

B&H has the BEST JUICE!

Anonymous said...

Juicy Lucy!
Also, I agree that the whole fruit is way better than just the juice, however there are health situations that benefit from a juice fast. Overtaxed digestive systems can lead to a lot of big trouble. A juice cleanse must be accompanied by some means of flushing the intestines and replenishing the healthy bacteria. So much to be gained, in an appropriate application. Willy-nilly juicing just because it 'seems healthy' can be harmful though.
this concludes my latest rant. thank you.

Anonymous said...

Ken has it right. Far better to eat the whole fruit, like for breakfast 3 strawberries, 9 blueberries, and 3 blackberries. Get 'em at Commodities. For lunch a banana (make sure its organic, as conventional bananas are sprayed with two pesticides, which are easily absorbed by the fruit). For dinner guacamole. I gave up raspberries because of the red juice all over the place.
All fruits should be organic (ditto for veggies), as the conventional ones absorb a lot of poisons.

Bill

Anonymous said...

@7:43 PM: Guacamole? I hope 2017 is a better year for avocados.

Anonymous said...

Does that say green colonoscopies? I don't have my glasses. When can I get an appointment?

cmarrtyy said...

I don't understand the lack of imagination. I don't know why any entrepreneur would open a juicy-smoothie shop when there are so many. It can't be stupidity. Can it? Oh, right... pure stupidity, got it.

JQ LLC said...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8Lp4fLrh-M