On Friday, we posted a photo of the A&S Pork Store on Fifth Avenue in Park Slope. We put it up because it was a GL Flickr Pool picture and just thought it was a cool image. What we’ve learned since then is that the A&S Park Store, which is the last surviving butcher shop in Park Slope, will be closing soon. The blogger who does Adventures of a Gal, which often touches on Brooklyn real estate issues, emailed us to say that the stores, which has been in the same location since 1942, is being “forced to move out due to a skyrocketing rent, they only have 3 months to find another place.” Another source reports that the same landlord’s rent increases just led the closure of Lucia next door as well. Per Adventures of a Gal:I spoke to the owners at A&S and it seems to be a family squabble gone awry and now the daughter of the former owner (still all family) is jacking their rent up b/c she knows she can get more money for that space and doesn’t care that the family business won’t be able to afford it. They have 3 months to find a new place and so far, can’t find anything in this area that they can afford.
More details may be forthcoming. A&S is said to be looking for another storefront in the Slope, but if they fail, the neighborhood will be butcher-free.
Addendum: The Slope’s other surviving butcher shop, Western Beef, on Fifth Avenue at Seventh Street, closed more than a month ago as originally reported by our friends at Brownstoner.
4 responses so far ↓
1 Gari N. Corp // Jul 14, 2008 at 11:51 am
Not much to say but gaaaaaaaaaaaaah. That store is utterly the flipping best.
2 DK // Jul 14, 2008 at 2:51 pm
I want to throw up. I love this place.
3 bj // Jul 14, 2008 at 3:27 pm
i hope they open a bank of america in that spot!
4 Rebeccah // Jul 15, 2008 at 4:40 pm
The familial piece of the story makes this more complicated. But the issue of soaring rents and closing businesses is a common and troubling one throughout the borough (and beyond). After the initial sadness of these closings fade, many are left wanting recourse, action. Is there room for public suasion in this case– and, indeed, for the other similar cases of equally beloved businesses that will inevitably come? Can we write and petition the landlords? Or, long term, ask our electeds to tackle this complicated but serious threat to local living economies? Many of us are not against change, nor blind to the exigencies of the market— but I would like to think that together, consumers and neighbors can unite to try to shape the fate of their neighborhoods. A consumer republic—something. If someone wants to join me and write a petition urging the landlord toward alternatives, maybe GL can convene a citizens corner for just that. I am game to stand on the sidewalk of this story and get signatures…