Tuesday, September 10, 2024

From Jamaican patties to macarons at 440 E. 9th St.

Photo by Steven

The owners of Phivi Box, a dessert company offering subscription boxes for macarons and other desserts, are opening a retail space on Ninth Street between Avenue A and First Avenue.

Gene and Rebecca, the husband and wife team behind the business, made the announcement in an Instagram post last week:
On January 1, 2024, we officially moved into our 2,200 SF central kitchen at Sunset Park, Brooklyn. Fast forward to September 1, and we officially signed the lease to our first retail storefront in no other place than Manhattan. For the last four months, we've seen countless spaces and reviewed as many leases, none of which panned out. Thankfully, because you know it’s the one when you know. With every business venture comes risks and uncertainties, but we are so excited about this one. 
While not mentioning the address, their first storefront will be at 440 E. Ninth St., the former home of Murphy's, purveyors of Jamaican patties.

In 2019, the couple quit their corporate jobs and launched Phivi Marketplace, an e-commerce events platform, before pivoting to desserts during the pandemic.

4 comments:

  1. What the heck?? Literally 2 stores to the east is Confectionary! They have macarons, delicious macarons. It is at the "same" address (440 East 9th, EAST storefront).

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    1. Well, the difference is Confectionery is all-vegan and I'm sure Phivi Box won't be vegan at all—which would explain how they got a space in the same building. (Many people still avoid food labeled "vegan" like the plague!)

      Macaroons are not macarons; macaroons are always made with egg whites. As a matter of fact, Maresa Volante of Confectionery! spent considerable time developing the perfect vegan macaron—since French macarons are typically also made with whipped egg whites.

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  2. @ScubaDiva -- yeah, not vegan, but, they taste fine and the staff are fun. Also, I didn't write the name of the egg white and coconut nests, but the french sweet.

    Still seems weird from a biz owner's perspective to be so close to something that fills the same food-ecology niche.

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