Brooklyn’s Natural: Know What? It’s Okay
The owners of Brooklyn’s Natural are nothing if not enterprising. The Bogart Street market has a good selection of organic food both packaged and fresh, numerous imported items, a fantastic offering of beers, and, of course, more soy products than you ever knew existed. They make fresh sandwiches and wraps in house. Smoke Nat Shermans? They have them, too.
Sorry, meat-eaters, your choices are pretty much limited to salami and chicken breast. You’ll realize how vegetarians feel trying to shop in most other markets.
The consensus among the loft set is that Brooklyn’s Natural is a ripoff, and for a while I agreed. But when I started boycotting my corner bodega due to its general repulsiveness and walking the 10 minutes to BN, I realized upon buying a spread of items that the prices are fine for what you get — convenience and quality in a neighborhood not known for it. Sure, I can get handmade pasta in Little Italy for 30% less. Yeah, the Häagen-Dazs is a buck more than it “should” be. But you’re paying to have that stuff on your doorstep in a neighborhood not exactly calling out for the likes of Dean and DeLuca.
So, buck up, North Bushwickers — until we can get some competition in here, Brooklyn’s Natural is what we have. And really, it’s way better than not having it.
49 Bogart Street
Khim’s Millennium over on Bushwick Ave is much cheaper and open 24 hours a day. Also, the preferred term for the McKibbin loft area for those who need to maintain their cred is “West Bushwick” (as used here , here and here).
They apparently don’t need to maintain their geography cred.
A watermelon costs $30 at Khim’s, and it’s a far walk.
Wait, where is this place?
When I lived in the hood I shopped here weekly until Kim’s opened on Bushwick…..place is a god send in Bushwick. Best grocery experience to be had in bodega land.
Okay the problem with Khim’s is that it’s not local for most of Bushwick. I’m not even sure it’s inside the very generous “Bushwick” borders on the business map.
I think Khim’s is only really convenient for those who live around those first few L stops in Bushwick. It’s quite a hike from our place - heck, even Brooklyn Natural is, which is why we’ve only been there a few times.
What I love about Bklyn Natural:
Dogfish Head Beers. When you get sick of Pacificos or coronas from *Eric’s, it’s worth a stop for some serious craft beer. (*my closest bodega, which I think I’ve personally kept afloat with beer, chips and smokes purchases since I moved to B’wick!)
Coffee beans. Oh hell yes. Good selection. Price doesn’t seem all that much more than elswhere.
Empenadas and sammiches. Damn tasty little $2 treats, and decent sammiches.
Dislikes:
Overpriced but nice produce. I’ll go to Nickerbocker, thank you.
def overpriced but it’s a nice environment. I only shop there for certain things, everything else is best bought at Whole Foods before I get on the L train or on Knickerbocker Ave.
i think it’s a cool place for the area. it’s the only market they have unless they walk to associated by maria park i think.
besides that part of the coolness of living in the remote loft area there - no amenities!
Jay, I would say that for a “remote loft area” the hood where BK Natural is in has some decent amenities…..Archive,Potion,BK Natural,Ad Hoc Gallery, Life Cafe, Kings County Bar……not a ton but some.
The place is a local non-organic quasi-healthfood store, with a really marvelous midrange beer selection and everything else about to fuck you over 30% above the cost of Whole Foods.
It is supported by the desperite people of bushwick who really would like some organic/cruelty-free junkfood but aren’t about to travel far from home. For packaged, non-produce goods of a “natural” sort, it is in the end it is your best bet, but it comes at such a ludicrously high price that you are deffiently better off just planning a trip into manhattan than doing this to yourself.
The produce is beligerantly overpriced and worthless as it is. Ignore it. Go there for the afromentioned totally righteous beer selection, all at standard prices, and the prevalace of 30% markup vegan/veg frozen/fried/bullshit capital P Products when in a bind, I guess. They have a sandwich makin/hot food bar, but it’s deffinelty no good to the vegan or vegetarian and as for the meat eater you can do better for less in the area.
Steal freely from them, they have unscrupulous eyes as it goes.
Complete oportunistic bitches doing better than average in a place that has no choice and is somewhat grateful for its late hours and, can’t overstate, wicked beer-related possibilities. Do not buy their produce or anything you can’t live without until tomorrow morning.
“Steal freely from them, they have unscrupulous eyes as it goes.”
No thank you. I would rather vote with my dollar than damage a locally-owned business by stealing. Just because the owners of Brooklyn Natural are successful,and have a large mark up on food, doesn’t entitle you to a piece of the pie. You can’t even justify stealing from local business if you are looking at it from the anti-capitalism/work philosophy of Crimethinc. It’s not like Whole Foods or Walmart where products are insured for loss to a degree. With local business if you steal from a store, your actually stealing from the employees too.
In other words, even their beer selection is overpriced. There is a distribution center on Montrose with most of the same product, at a superior price.
by “unscrupulous eyes” do you mean “korean”?
anyone been to the C-town lately by the DEKALB stop on the L? it was getting better and better over the years though I haven’t been there in a long time.
I go to the Associated around the corner from me on Knickerbocker when I have to. otherwise, I brave the lines at Trader Joes before jumping on the L at 3RD Ave.
[...] let’s look at the landscape of this one block of Bogart. There’s a grocery store (which I hear now delivers, btw), a coffee and and DVD rental shop, a large gallery that hosts many [...]
[...] I propose entrepreneurs trying to gauge demand in a neighborhood for certain services look at what kind of milk is available. As Bushwick approaches the “whole” phase, I look forward to being able to wander into any corner store and get a pint of organic cream for my coffee. Until then, I’m off to Brooklyn’s Natural. [...]
I took a look at Bushwick’s whole foods options and found very few. Any ideas on where in Bushwick (along the Broadway strip) would residents like to see an organic foods spot with competitive prices? What products do you want to see?
I’d like to see more cheap Chinese places, Vlad–bulletproof glass and egg rolls for a dollar or less.
i just found this, so am late in commenting… BN is ok, but hard to swallow if you knew what it was like before it changed owners. previously (before Jan. 2005) it was run by local designer/business people with hippies, musicians, artists and such working in the store. it had wooden shelves and they did the mural etc… i also worked there for awhile. we had a much bigger selection of organic stuff, excellent produce and it was a real health food store then with no cigarettes, soda, or tons of candy and treats lining the register and aisles as now. the prices were low enough that you could shop there for most of what you needed and we kept them as low as we could, not being able to negotiate like Whole Foods or other large stores can. The new owner, who was a previous distributor of specialty items to the store, saw gold in the hipsters coming in and offered to buy it (unfortunately offer accepted), and voila, higher prices instantly, more junk food, mediocre produce and fewer organic whole foods.
he did succeed. he correctly guessed that the new residents cared more about beer, cigarettes, sweet and salty snacks (no matter the price) and less about healthy and affordable groceries. soon after we had Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s added to the mix on the L and the rest is history. now it is a glamorous convenience store and after Vega’s burned, where I go to get my beer. i have wondered why people accept prices that are higher than the East Village and SOHO for the same products as if we are supposed to pay an extra tax for moving here. (I know for a fact that the store’s rent was much lower than those places although it has gone up some but still not close to Manhattan or even Wburg prices). I first moved to Bushwick because it was cheap and convenient to the city. BN is better than nothing, but I wish people wouldn’t accept being targeted and overcharged. It’s all part of the bubble of living there. I’m sure a lot of people don’t get their regular groceries there anymore anyway. and… I hear he’s opening a liquor store when he can.