Well. This morning, EVG reader @david_fitz sent along the above photo, showing a "for rent" sign on the Birdbath Bakery location on First Avenue between East 13th Street and East 14th Street... everything was cleared out yesterday, he noted.
The eco-friendly Birdbath Neighborhood Green Bakery is the little sister of City Bakery, as they put it on their website.
They had five locations, including the one that opened in May 2011 on Third Avenue and East Ninth Street.
Anyway, can we blame the new Starbucks on First Avenue and East 13th Street for his closure?
Loved that fact that they actually baked their goods there. Too little of that in the neighborhood. Will sorely miss it.
ReplyDeleteOverpriced and sanctimoniously green to the point of pretension. And the cookies weren't good. The marketplace voted.
ReplyDeleteWe need to bring back manufacturing. This was their main facility. I hope another bakery will take it over. Breads, pastries, food products that can be manufactured here will help us because they take up so muck space. I love all of our bakeries. They ship products all over the world.
ReplyDeleteI will miss it too. I must say though, I started going to the other one much more, right on the way back from subway....
ReplyDeleteTheir oldest location (originated as a "testbed" project) Other branches are much more popular, and the rent is probably cheaper (yes, I mean SoHo and W. Village) EV is for Starbucks and other franchises. It's just the prevailing taste and mentality here.
ReplyDeleteBB makes a great blueberry corn muffin, and their cookies are great.But they eventually their prices did get too expensive for me.
E.V. Market has voted. More Starbucks please!
Bummer - I owe a few pounds of my current self to this place. Their products were delish, and their bicycle riders' discount was exemplary.
ReplyDeleteThey replaced a great old Italian bakery that made lovely semolina bread and crunchy white Italian bread and salt-free Tuscan bread with their friggin' cookies. Karma.
ReplyDeleteKarma for who? For us residents? Only people responsible for demise of the Italian bakery are the neighborhood residents and the building landlord.
ReplyDeleteOr maybe (by your logic) the Italian bakery was suffering karma for replacing the business that was at that location before them (?)
Birdbath is doing fine and growing. They gave up a location that they don't need (additional location couple blocks away)
The other store on 9th and 4th prob does better business - it has a better location. I'm not surprised if they move this one to brooklyn where there are less starbucks & more sales & they'll have more space for baking.
ReplyDeleteI am addicted to their pretzel croissants and the scones are ridiculously good.
Gojira...I remember that place they'd give me free rolls at dawn!
ReplyDeleteThis green bakery that replaced it had salty croissants.
I don't remember that bakery (probably a lot I don't remember from that time) but I do remember getting bread passed to me through the scissor-gated doorway of the bread bakery that used to be... hmmm... was it just next to Prana? or next to where Tile Bar is? Somewhere.
ReplyDeleteWee hours of the morning; early 1980s. Nice (sigh)
This sucks for the neighborhood, but I'm not so sure the owners cared so much about keeping this location going. If the owners wanted that location to survive Starbucks' invasion a couple of doors down, they really should have invested in a sign -- if your new competitor is going to bring more coffee-and-pastry seeking foot traffic to your block, you might as well try to siphon off some of that business, right?
ReplyDeleteI'll miss their vegan offerings, though their vegan chocolate chip cookies just never tasted quite right.
idiots give a discount for riding bicycles, (green?) but no discount for people who just walk (not green apparently). no thanks - buh-bye
ReplyDeleteI heard that it wasn't that they were losing business to Starbucks. Quite the opposite. They needed a bigger space for baking.
ReplyDeletedoes anyone know what happened to the people who used to work at the bakery? i've asked their management at city bakery, and the new pop-up birdbath on 18th st at the children's bookstore, but nobody can provide me an answer. the tattooed, glasses-wearing guy, travis, who worked night shifts as of recent years, used to give me extra cookie when i visit after 8pm. i bought cookies from him for more than 6 years, since january 2007.
ReplyDelete