Despite the snow (and this is nothing, considering I’m from Buffalo), I purposely got off the C train on the Washington end. So far, I’m pleased with what I saw.
The highlight of the store, as many have commented, is the very full bulk section in the back!
They seem to have everything here from dried fruit to beans to organic candies.
They also have a juice bar:
I tried a 16 oz Blueberry + Creme shake. It was made with some sort of blueberry protein mix, low fat vanilla soy milk and an organic banana, for $3.99 (no tax!). Not dirt cheap, but seemingly reasonable.
They have a lot of “normal” organic stuff that I’d buy regularly, like Amy’s Organic soups and Kashi cereal.
Looks like pretty reasonable prices on both — average to slightly lower than average.
They also have a crapload of vitamins.
Personally, I hate swallowing big pills. I stick to an Advil-sized multivitamin and a C chewable, personally. But maybe you guys are into this stuff.
I didn’t take a pic of the produce section, since my camera battery was dying. It looked kind of small to me, but at least there’s one in there!
Conclusion: Green Planet seems to be an ideal mix of the super hippie-dippie organic stuff, as well as the more mainstream organic stuff, and prices seem fairly reasonable. Staff seemed nice, too. Plus, the hours are AMAZING (8am to 10pm!!!). I’ll probably hit up my Waverly Associated for the basics. But for me, this’ll be a great place to stop for a smoothie while taking a walk, loading up on dried fruit and stopping in for snacks when Associated is closed (ahem, Sunday evenings!). You could probably do a lot of your basic grocery shopping there — they have dairy, pastas, condiments, etc.
(Green Planet is on Fulton St. at Washington Ave)
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39 Comments
this looks great! i go to met so this would be on the way home for me, in case i missed anything. thanks for the pics!
I had an excellent carrot-ginger smoothie-thingy there on Sunday.
the refrigerated section deserves a few snap shots! i bought horizon organic whole milk last night ($4.49) and got a large bag of animal crackers from the bulk section for something like 70 cents. as of last night at around 8, they were still putting in stock.
I’ve been there twice since it opened on Saturday and there have been a bunch of people in there checking it out both times. The owner said they will have a frozen food section in the next week or so. Finally a place to get Amy’s meals where they are actually frozen! There is something wrong with Met’s freezer and I’ve gotten half-thawed meals there.
surprisingly (perhaps) Fresh Direct has good prices on Amy’s stuff btw…i just checked…all the soups are $.40 less than pictured. food for thought if you stock up.
Yay for bulk grains!
#4 you are 100% right – there is something wrong with the Met’s freezer and it makes all the food disgusting! Do not buy any Amy’s from there because all those products have been there for the past 4 years (that’s how long I’ve been living in the nabe). I swear it doesn’t appear that they’ve changed their stock at all, besides rearrange it a little.
I’m very happy about this new health food store and I found it funny that you pictured the exact thing I was most excited about: Amy’s soups for lower prices than at Whole Foods & the Met! I’m happy!
slightly off-topic:I’m SO happy to not be completely reliant on Met anymore. I actually contacted the Department of Health to inspect Met since I’m consistently grossed out by various aspects of the store, and sure enough, the inspector found many alarming things, including having to confiscate the deli slicer and cutting board! Hopefully Met can turn things around…
Great. Smoothies, juice, organic milk, and Amy’s Organics. A bunch of stuff Fort Greene/Clinton Hill already has too much of. Now if somebody would just open another French fusion restaurant that serves roasted chicken and hangar steak, now that would be great. There’s more small business diversity in Ohio than there is in Brooklyn these days.
I have to agree with you Abita7. Not to mention on this stretch of fulton I don’t know how good a business can do solely appealing to the people who yearn for this type of market. Mind you the 99 cent store, crown fried chicken, bargains r us, various barber shops, nail salons, beauty salons etc. all do fine with out appealing to this crowd. Most of the people that frequent this site wouldn’t miss these businesses at all. Now can a business survive when its the other way around? Time will tell…
#7– Health Department does not take away machinery/ products even if they are contaminated. They might say to replace or clean better, but they do not confiscate things.
Sorry for the wrong choice of words, litte. In this instance then, Met was coerced to replace the machinery. I don’t have the letter with me, but the language they used was stronger than simply asking them to clean better. The things they found on the slicer/cutting board sounded bad enough that drastic measures had to be taken.
I hope they’ll stock Quorn in their frozen section. Carrot doesn’t have much of a Quorn selection, although, to be fair, I haven’t asked them to stock more.
Eww #7. Thank you for the update on health dept. Met is truly gross, even though I have to sometimes. Yeay for a new option!
Abita7 – where can you get an organic smoothie in clinton hill? We desperately needed a health food store on Fulton. And hey, if someone wanted to open a good French fusion restaurant on Fulton, I wouldn’t be opposed to that either.
Ari–there is a new French fusion restaurant on Fulton Street–it’s called Autour Du Monde and opened about a month ago in the old Bodegas space. Not sure I’d call it good, but others have liked it…
I wish Met would just sell to another purveyor of food. They have been consistenly horrible for the past 5 years I have lived here.
Sorry, there’s just something ominous about smoothies, juice bars, French fusion restaurants and organic groceries. Once they appear, it’s almost certain that the people who have lived in a neighborhood all their lives are about to get the boot. No doubt, the neighborhood needs a better grocery, not to mention better restaurants and bars, but once you start seeing a few too many people walking around enjoying their organic smoothies, juices and Franco-Japanese victuals, it kind of scares you into thinking that the neighborhood is about to undergo the same transformation that’s made so many other Brooklyn neighborhoods completely uninteresting.
Abita 7, you’re being unnecessarily cranky. This isn’t Dean & Deluca, already. It’s organic, but it’s still small and funky (not dirty, but teeny, with no fancy shelves or sexy lighting, and hand-written signs, etc.). Cashier was Japanese, wearing a pin with a picture of Bhudda on it, and handed me my credit card with both hands while bowing, which I consider charming and not at all boring.
My point being: There are and have been small Asian grocers all over NYC in all manner of hoods, rich and poor, for decades. These people seem cool and they’re providing fresh, good food in a nabe that has some of the piss-poorest markets I have seen anywhere in the developed world.
You should visit the place before you get all crabby about it.
Oh, and by the way, they did have an excellent selection of bulk stuff, including mung beans and a couple of other exotic beans and grains that I’m looking forward to cooking.
Amen Abita7
I understand your point abita7 but that stretch of Fulton is pretty far from becoming one of the bland mall like neighborhoods you describe.
Barb,
You’re right. I was in a crabby mood yesterday. I have nothing against this place, and it’s probably a needed addition. My irritation was misdirected. My problem is that I live in Fort Greene, which has become just a little too trendy and expensive since I moved here five years ago. I am highly irritated by places like Smooch, which has the most overpriced coffee I’ve found in New York, and while I like the smoothie place on DeKalb (can’t remember the name), it’s just a little too yuppie for my taste. Most of the restaurants are too expensive for me to frequent on a regular basis, and, with a couple of exceptions (Frank’s, Moe’s), the bars just suck. I’ve already written a post on the Hideout, which has a bouncer who looks you over at the door to make sure you’re cool enough to come in for some $18 cocktails. And it seems every new bodega or “organic grocery” that opens here offers the same products—namely Amy’s Organic & Horizon Organic Milk. I just don’t get excited about that stuff anymore, but I guess it’s still hard to find in CH. I’ll admit, though, that I’m happy about the Green Grape’s Provisions shop, which is just as yuppiefied as everything I’m complaining about. Still, it’s nice that I can finally get good meat and fish right here in the neighborhood. Alas, I am part of the problem.
In that case I retract my amen lol
No, don’t retract. I still mean everything else about people getting priced out (I’m sure I’m about to be one of them).
No I think I will. Initially I thought you were thinking in a communal sense. But the last post made me realize that it was just about ABITA7. Carry on…
I’ve said so often that’s it’s practically become a mantra but here goes:
Clinton Hill needs some moderate/inexpensive restaurants and businesses that are NOT specialty stores and are run by people with some business sense. Diners that close at 6 pm? Hemp milk and bulk mung beans but no place to get basic groceries when the Met (ugh) isn’t open? A new place that promises to be a neighborhood staple that charges 11 bucks for a plate of eggs and has a list of indictments a mile long for bad food/service? These are our choices? Bizzare to me.
Green Planet supplies fresh organic produce ,twice a week .A pretty good selection I might add!
Please make corrections to the blog regarding this .
Thank you
what days are there produce delivery?
houseowax:
There is no reason you couldn’t do all of your “basic grocery shopping” at Green Planet. I went in yesterday and found all of my staples: produce, bread, vegetables, milk (cow and soy, didn’t see hemp…), cheese, grains, cleaning supplies. And at reasonable prices.
I thought I was the only one to notice how crappy Met Food’s freezer is. I flat out REFUSE to buy anything in their frozen food section because it’s just disgusting. Having said that, I spoke with the owner last week and apparently they are going to do a complete renovation — making the store bigger, less cluttered and SUPPOSEDLY getting organic and gourmet foods. Whatever. I’ll stick to Green Planet for my organic goods. I’ve known the owner since he had his health food store on Flatbush avenue (many years ago). He’s a good guy.
i once bought a block of cheese from the met that had an expiration date 2 months prior to my date of purchase. i almost threw up. i never went back. i wouldn’t even trust toilet paper from that crap hole
A few years back I bought a six pack of Mike’s Hard Lemondade from the Met and when I got it home there was a HUGE dead waterbug in the carton
ChuckT–any idea when Met will be starting these renovations? That’s great news!
I welcome green planet but I also agree with houseofwax.
you bought mike’s hard lemonade?
Met renovations would be welcome but they’ll still need to fire their entire staff. The other day after being in line for awhile I then had to wait with all my purchases on the belt as the woman running the register finished her bag of doritos. She then opened a piece of gum, popped it in her mouth and started scanning my produce, all without so much as wiping the dorito dust off her hands. The produce there is bad enough without a coating of dorito dust on it. Almost everyone who works there is as bad or worse. I hate that place.
One thing about the Met unrelated to food I just can’t understand… Someone (owner? staff?) lets the video pirates blatantly sell their pirated DVDs inside the store, right next to the checkout lines. I’m no straight-laced anti-pirate wanker, but isn’t this outright stupidity? If a police officer who actually gave a crap came into the store, wouldn’t the store owner be complicit in allowing these illegal DVD sales to go on inside the store?
The juice bar is def worth it. I ordered greens with apple and carrot and watched as 3 whole bunches of organic spinach, then parsley, then apple and carrot was juiced. A bunch of organic spinach is at least $2/bunch.
He filled my cup, let me drink half of it, and topped it off with what was left in the pitcher.
Awesome, plus the late hours are good for me.
“Personally, I hate swallowing big pills. I stick to an Advil-sized multivitamin and a C chewable, personally.”
You used the word “personally” in two consecutive sentences in your article. It’s sad that nowadays ANYONE can be published “bloggers” with a readership….without even knowing how to write.
Maybe you should blog about Clinton Hill Community College, then take a class there, and then learn how to write well before you continue to write. It’s a shame.
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