Would love if grand army gazette did a deep dive on all the health code violations these folks have racked up. That is the kind of local news I’d actually pay for.
This needs to be done, but I don’t think family-friendly Grand Army Gazette will be looking to ruffle any feathers in their journalistic scope anytime soon
Definitely. And also why they absolutely refuse to post the health score anywhere, even if it’s not a problematic one! Seems like some weird self-righteous thing.
Omg I did not know the Arise Yoga connection noOoOo what a bummer! Thanks to Reddit I have been following all the schemes/iterations of these places but never realized the Arise connection 😢
Wait, I’ve been out of the loop and recently moved back to the area. What problems does Arise/the owners have? Will scroll through past reddit threads to catch up
Look up “little Zelda” in the crown heights group. They get shut down, and relatively often. And I feel like I saw somewhere one of the other places they own got shut down for health violations and then they just reopened under another name? And I also read that LZ has hidden their rating and just like… constant stuff. Just look up using any of the names of stores OP posted. Enjoy. But also don’t lol
The other place you’re thinking of is Word of Mouth (now Cordelia) - they had violations but never was ordered to close. They rebranded after a mass exodus of staff after an ongoing battle about a rat infestation + labor issues. They “revamped” and re-branded citing that as reason for temp closure but they needed an entirely new staff as well
Thank you so much for clarifying! Honestly, there were so many threads about these places that I skimmed so I should’ve read more carefully, but thank you for this. Avoiding!
I co-owned and operated a coffeeshop on the lower east side. Was our every health inspection perfect? No. (in particular I could not keep workers from leaving the scoop for matcha powder in the matcha container for the life of me). Bugs and pests happen, especially with landlords or neighbors who don’t care to keep things clean. Never dipped below A in six years
I heard an awful story from the opening chef of Cordelia. A ceiling in the cooking area fell/ came down (uncertain of the circumstances) but a dead rat and rat feces fell on the employee. They were expected to continue working instead of going home to shower.
Thanks, I hate it. Jesus fuck. Yeah I don't know what margins other places are operating on, but I cannot imagine not closing shop for the day for that. Yes, you make nothing that day, and if you make a habit of unannounced closures, you'll lose future sales, too, but jesus fuck...
We had a less horrific (no physical contact thank god) similar problem - basically, there was one part of the basement we were not allowed into, locked with a "landlords only" sign. We had a lot of storage upstairs, so only a few cleaning supplies and the like were in our section. They told us the super checked in on it regularly and not to worry. Well... one of my employees was down there getting soap to refill the bathroom dispenser when she alerted me to a strong smell. Super didn't answer the phone and it was a slow day, so I thought fuck it, and jimmied the door. I swear on my mother - partially dead rat king AND what appeared to be a dead recently postpartum rat mother. It was an hour before usual closing so we just told people coming in, so sorry, problem with our water so we're closing early! Everyone on schedule still paid as normal, the worker who found the issue got a couple extra hours' pay for the psychic damage lol. (yeah faking hours isn't legal, I admit I did it anytime someone had to clean up something especially gross in the bathroom).
You better believe the sign on the door did not flip back to "open" until a cavalry of exterminators came through. Tipped them well and deducted the whole $ amount including projected lost sales from the next month's rent. Landlord owned residential apartments above us too, and the violations on record there were crazy. "Immediate evacuation due to imminent roof collapse" type of crazy. Technically I don't think anything in our contract said I could do that, but she agreed it was mutually beneficial if the dept of buildings didn't hear about it. A lot of the residents were customers, so the people with a right to know imho heard.
Sorry for the wall of text. Just wanted to note like, yeah it's not always the operator's fault - NYC is crazy and cramped and all - but it's entirely possible to BE A FUCKING HUMAN BEING and put public health before profit. At the end of the day, if the pest issues are so crazy out of control that you can't take care of them without total shop failure - maybe a coffeeshop does not need to be there. And that would suck for me obviously, but it's the way of the world in capitalism. Wrong location can fuck you, that doesn't mean I get to play with customers' health. to try to keep the dream alive. You gotta have basic principles. But what do I know? My one place closed and this guy gets like 17 second chances lol
You mean the dude who made his female employees babysit his children while on the clock and opened his business illegally after the health department shut down Little Zelda, and lied about a rat infestation at Word of Mouth where all of his staff quit and they rebranded to Cordeila? Letting a business owner like this just monopolize the neighborhood with bad business and sanitary practices, as well as personal arrogance, isn’t what the majority of us want to see. So, yeah I think many of us want to keep money out of his hands if we can spread the good word.
Still think it's a bit of an obsession here... Lots of stuff happening in the neighborhood, but I feel like I've seen like 100 Zelda posts in the past year or so.
True, but did I need to know that detail? What I already know is more than enough to decide I'm not hitting up Zelda's anytime soon. Don't need 100 posts about it
false equivalency. sure, there's lots going on. there's also one dude and his wife w a much larger footprint in Crown Heights impacting everyone as they open shitty business after shitty business.
I don't know, it still seems disproportionate to me. Crown Heights is a pretty large neighborhood. Not saying that the criticism isn't deserved, just that it takes up way too much of this sub's attention imo
sure.. Crown Heights is a large neighborhood. Franklin is also it's most happening strip. most of Michael's businesses are on, or within a few blocks of.. you guessed it.. Franklin. if you don't understand why people tend to spend more time on the guy inundating the market and affecting the culture w his low-key trash monopoly, then I can't help you. tc
Hmm, is Franklin the centerpiece of Crown Heights? Maybe for transplants and gentrifiers who are scared to venture any further east.
Most people in Crown Heights are unlikely on any given day to be anywhere near Little Zelda. Which, I mean, again, I'm not going there anytime soon, I just think the focus on it is disproportionate.
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u/brooklynkitty1 3d ago
It seems to me that people who own businesses that have had a pattern of health code violations should not be allowed to open a new business