By Deborah Lynn Blumberg
For many Downtown restaurants and stores, customers have been harder to come by over the past few years, and owners say business has not been as strong as it once was — but many are still optimistic. In the coming months, many Lower Manhattan food shops and restaurants will boost operations with more products and services that cater specifically to those who work and live Downtown.
Cookie Island
189 Broadway between Cortlandt & Dey Sts. 212-608-5937
Originally a Brooklyn-based mail order business, Cookie Island, now also a small cookie and coffee shop, opened its doors in October 2001 to the Downtown community. Co-owners Billy Baldwin and Geoff Feder make sure that their tempting cookie creations—chocolate chip coconut, oatmeal raisin pecan, and white chocolate macadamia, among others — are baked fresh every 10 minutes.
Baldwin and Feder originally envisioned Cookie Island as a neighborhood hangout, or a “date place,” Feder said, a milk and cookie bar where customers could sit down and relax. But the lack of after work and weekend customers made that concept difficult, and now the business caters mainly to commuters.
“The economy here is strange,” Feder said, “It’s not really a destination spot, and the people who come here are business people. Talking to other retailers in the area, based on how things used to be business hasn’t been as good.”
To help them accomplish the store’s motto, “Every cookie needs a belly,” and attract more customers to the store, Baldwin and Feder recently renovated the shop in December. They relocated the bakery area, a change that created more space for customers, set up an express coffee line for commuters and added four more coffee flavors to the store’s selection.
The two also created a “riddle of the day,” whereby patrons who visit the store can take a guess at a daily riddle to win a free cookie. Those passing by the shop may also get a free treat — one store employee regularly stands out front with a tray of hot, free cookies.
“We try to do fun things,” Feder said. “It’s a depressing area because tourists come down here and all they want to see is the World Trade Center, but the people who work here, they want more. You have to get people fired up, you have to make people happy.”
Baldwin and Feder founded Cookie Island in 1996, and the company still ships cookies all over the world. The Food Network recently featured the store on its “Food Finds” program, and the appearance spurred a number of phone orders, Feder said. The two are currently looking for a space for a second location, uptown, and are positive about the company’s future.
“I think business and the economy are getting better,” Feder said. “But it’s not just about us as a business, it’s about the neighborhood and healing. You’ve got to be positive. What are you going to do, cry on your cookies?”
Bazzini
339 Greenwich St. between Jay and Harrison Sts., 212-334-1280
Once primarily a retail shop offering nuts, coffee beans and candies, Bazzini is now a full-scale marketplace and cafe that caters to families living in the Downtown area. The store fills a void in the neighborhood — a scarcity of upscale food markets—said Micah Damato, son of owners Rocco and Electra Damato, who bought the business from the Bazzini family in 1983.
“We changed and developed as the neighborhood has changed and developed,” Micah Damato said. “The design was to create a place for people so they don’t have to go out of the neighborhood to get their food.” The store is now a place where Damato said mothers and their children stop by before school to shop, and many return again after school for hot chocolate and ice cream.
Anthony Bazzini opened Bazzini Nuts and Confections in 1886. The store has been at its current location, in Tribeca, since 1968. For the last eight months, Bazzini has offered a catering service for customers. The store also prepares in-home dinners, with services ranging from a full butler service to hors d’oeuvres.
Business has been going well, Damato said, even after 9/11, when many area businesses saw a drop in customers and profits. “We rely on people from our neighborhood,” Damato said. “And the neighborhood really stayed strong after September 11th.”
Damato is currently in the process of opening a rosolare, which means “to sautee” in Italian. Customers who come for this special dinner choose from a variety of pastas and sauces, and a meat, fish or poultry dish, and can bring their own wine. The meal will run from $8.95-$13.95 per person. “The whole idea is to be able to come in with your whole family and eat an inexpensive meal,” Damato said.
With the addition of chef Michael Navarro, formerly of Matthews and Choice, Damato said he is confident that the business will continue to flourish over the next year. “The sky is the limit,” he said.
Ulysses
58 Stone St., 212-482-0400
The Poulakakos family has owned and operated eating establishments Downtown for the past 32 years, ever since Harry Poulakakos opened Harry’s Bar in 1972.
Poulakakos retired and closed Harry’s in October 2003, but eight months later, his son Peter opened a new Financial District pub — Ulysses — a popular Downtown spot that attracts both Wall Streeters and Downtown residents. Ulysses joins the upscale Bayard’s restaurant, and Financier Patisserie, a coffee and dessert cafe, as the family’s third Downtown establishment in the Stone Street Historic District.
Like other area business owners, Poulakakos said that several years ago times were tough. But the opening of new restaurants, and recent renovations and additions to Financier Patisserie are signs that business has improved. “It was difficult,” he said. “But we were able to fight through it. Business is good, and I think better days are coming.”
Several weeks ago Poulakakos completed an expansion of Financier, from Stone St. to Pearl St., tripling the size of the cafe to accommodate more customers, and adding to the store’s selection of pastries. “It needed to be bigger because it turned out to be an extraordinary hit,” he said.
Since Ulysses opened, Poulakakos has promoted a special Sunday brunch, all-you-can-eat for $20, and last month he started a lobster night every Monday. When the weather turns warmer and the restaurant’s outside seating opens up, Poulakakos says he may also offer some type of Saturday night special.
“Downtown seems busier and more populated with people,” Poulakakos said. “People have a better frame of mind and are having more fun than they used to. Things seem like they’re shaping up.”
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