Monday, January 5, 2015

NYU neighbors Just Sweet and Everything Bagels have apparently closed on 3rd Avenue



An EVG reader tells us that both storefronts closed at the start of the New Year here in the base of NYU's Third North dorm at East 12th Street…



There aren't any closed signs… but the interiors have that gone-out-of-business look…





We echo the reader, who said "Rent hike? Lease up? Dunno."

There is an auction today at 3:30 inside the Bagels space. (Details here.)

Meanwhile down Third Avenue … two storefronts remain for rent in the base of NYU's Alumni Hall at East Ninth Street.

Updated 2:12 p.m.

Several readers noted that the auction sign, with an unfortunate typo, is now up on the door. The auction starts at 3:30.


[Photo by Dave Whitaker]

31 comments:

Anonymous said...

Perhaps 4 more Starbucks are on their way?

Boodiba said...

Aww.... that was the only place I know of in the hood to get super fresh bagels!

Anonymous said...

Boodiba- that sarcasm?

marjorie said...

Their bagels were good but the customer service left a lot to be desired. Surly! Slow! No eye contact when you walked in!

I don't think I even know anyone who ever went IN to Just Sweet. Maybe it was a portal to Hogwarts.

Ken from Ken's Kitchen said...

Here today gone tomorrow. Apparently NYU rents retail space by the semester.

BagelGuy said...

Those bagels were not baked in house. They were shipped in from another location. You can not bake on that site because the building is too high and can not be vented. No kettle , no oven.

Boodiba said...

Not sarcasm! Please tell me where the other good locations are.

Anonymous said...

Stick to these and you cannot go wrong ...

David's Bagels (1st ave @ 19th)
Tompkins Square Bagels (ave A @ 10th)
Bagel Boss (1st ave @ 18th)
Ess-a-Bagel (1st ave @ ?)

No other bagel in the neighborhood is worth the money.

BagelGuy said...

Not trying to be sarcastic. The point is , that's a crappy building for any food business that wants to bake or cook on premises. Too high. To vent that many stories would cost a small fortune. This is why you see places on 3rd Ave closing left and right. Also, these places are the first of what will be many casualties of West End Market.

Anonymous said...

These spaces have never had other than a transient tennant

Anonymous said...

I think Just Sweet made the best Bubble Tea in the neighborhood, but I heard it causes Cancer and I drank too much of it.

Anonymous said...

What is bubble tea, a new comic book character?

Crazy Eddie said...

Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble!…Whatever.

Anonymous said...

like the CVS occupying the ground floor of the new school's new building on 14th, academic institutions now bear no responsibility to the public and/or neighborhoods (local businesses) in which they're located. it's despicable and disheartening, and so f*cking boring.

Anonymous said...

Neither business added one iota to the quality of the neighborhood, nor was either popular, nor was either an institution that's been around long enough to have any nostalgia value. Lived two blocks away and never went in either.

Anonymous said...

I won't eat at any of these new places. What's the point? The landlord is only going to drive them out within a year. It's like beginning to date someone who's dying.

Anonymous said...

@190:10am: Nice list, but for those who live near 3rd Ave. and 11th or 12th Streets, NONE of those places is "nearby." When I'm half-asleep in the morning & need a bagel & coffee to go, I'm not going to walk that far out out of my way.

@Bagel Guy: Not clear if this is due to Westside Market or just end of lease/rent hike. To get a bagel and coffee at WSM has its own overhead: the coffee there is strictly serve-yourself (AND all the way in the back of the store), then get in line at the cashiers to pay. New Yorkers want their bagels & coffee FAST.

About that location, NYU got rid of Ferncliff Deli 2 years ago for various reasons, including the complaint that their "cooking" was causing complaints about smell from the students upstairs. That "cooking" was no more than frying up eggs & such for morning to-go sandwiches.

Is NYU that out-to-lunch (excuse the mixed metaphor) in thinking about who'd want to rent space in the base of their dorms? They've gotten rid of East Hardware (absolutely no cooking smells), Ferncliff, and (in the dorm on 10th St.) Ben & Jerry's was replaced by Subway sandwiches.

NYU could run a course called "How universities kill off regular shops in a neighborhood."

Giovanni said...

The last time I went into Everything Bagels I asked the guy behind the counter if they sold bialys. He gave me a look like only a neanderthal can, now that they are extinct I hope they enjoy their afterlife with the dinosaurs.

Why the bagel shortage in the EV? I thought NY was supposed to be the bagel capital of the world, but every time I want one it seems like there's almost no place that will serve a nice fresh hot bagel sandwich on 2nd Ave, and only 1 on Avenue A? Before Tompkins Sq. Bagels there was almost nothing south of 14th and north of Houston St.

You'd think someone would take advantage of Avenue B for the branding possibilities alone (Avenue B for Bagels) but forget about Avenues C&D they still in the bakery stone age.

Maybe the answer is there is not enough lunchtime/ office traffic in the EV. Most of the bagel bakeries are right next to StuyTown, where they also get a lot of breakfast and lunch traffic from the hospitals.

Much further south there is Kossars Bialys on Grand St, the bagels are very good too, but thats just for takeout. Same for Moishe's, but at least they have bialys.

Way up the north are Pick A Bagel on 23rd and 3rd and Bagel Cafe on 31st and 3rd.

Gracefully used to sell H&H bagels before H&H went bust years ago, but they still have a little sign on the bin saying the bagels are from H&H.

One of the bakery sellers at Union Sq Farmers Market has a great organic everything bagel, Moishe's has bagels and bialys, as does Kossar's, but they don't make sandwiches.

And forget Murray's Bagels (in Chelsea), they don't toast no matter how cold or hard the bagel is. Toasting is apparently against their religion, whereas ice cold butter or cream cheese on a cold hard bagel is not.

The Bean makes decent bagel sandwiches but they bring the bagels in from outside, they are pretty good and they will toast them too.

Anonymous said...

@Giovanni: WSM reportedly (according to a friend) has bialys but they are often stale. WSM likely doesn't get a bialy delivery more than twice a week, if that.

I wish *someone* would step up, bagel-wise, in this nabe and make available a tasty & warm toasted bagel with cream cheese, without the customer having to trek a half-mile. The demand *is* there.

PS: Anyone gotten a bagel at Heavenly Market? Are they any good?

Anonymous said...

The Westside bagels are not good, nor in my view were those provided by Everything Bagel. And that place always made me think that there was a side of meningitis served with each bagel. The EV Cheese shop used to sell H&H bagels. Now, nothing at all in this area, and the hike to Essa is rarely worthwhile.

Anonymous said...

About 20 or 25 years ago there was that place next to Katz's on Houston that made their bagels on site. So good.

EV Tomorrow said...

Bialys out, biscuits in! Like, Yah!

Gojira said...

IMHO, Kossar's baked goods are not nearly as good as they used to be before the place changed hands; they used to make bulkas, now they only make "mini bulkas" (a contradiction in terms), and the bagels I have had the two times I have gone since the new proprietors took over were rock-hard and tasteless. Shameful. Russ & Daughters has decent bagels, but I don't know where they get them from.

Anonymous said...

Russ and Daughters has their own bakery --has great bagels and bread.

Crazy Eddie said...

"Gojira said...
IMHO, Kossar's baked goods are not nearly as good as they used to be before the place changed hands; they used to make bulkas, now they only make "mini bulkas" (a contradiction in terms),"

Totally agree, as I once posted, bulkas are the hero bread of the gods but not anymore. The "new" Kossar's is a disappointment to say the least. Open on Saturdays? WTF?

Eden Bee said...

Was the pubic auction silent? Because no one seems to have noticed it! #goingonce

Anonymous said...

Not technically in the EV, but no one has mentioned Bagel Bob's on University Pl btwn 9th and 10th. Pretty good quick and cheap if you're passing through that area.

I generally prefer Tompkins Sq, but boy were the lines long last week, out the door and took about 45 minutes on the 1st.

Anonymous said...

Nothing is going to service there unless its also in a mall in the Midwest. The melniums are not adventitious, they only want the familiar. The chat is I don't like it cause I don't know what it is...

Anonymous said...

DID SOMEONE SAY BISCUITS????!!!!

Anonymous said...

Shitty building. Shitty landlord. Hard to make that unique combination support a thriving business.

Anonymous said...

@ Ken - of course, NYU students don't want to patronize USED stores!