I found this four-leaf-clover habanero at Nam's, the super-bodega at St. Johns and Franklin. They've just re-arranged the store, which has created a unified refrigerated section on one side of the space while leaving a mostly-empty corner at the other. In between is a ridiculously tight (not even a yard wide) aisle that is stocked from floor to ceiling.The merits of the reordering aren't clear to me, but the food is as good as ever, with a pricey but impressive array of cheeses, olives and high-end salamis now facing a cleaned-up and well-stocked produce case. Nam's, as plenty of people in the area know, offers the only organic food to be found between Eastern and Atlantic on Franklin (the Associated by Crown and Franklin also stocks some goodies), and they're open 24 hours.
I got a vague answer when I asked today, but I wonder if they've always offered tofu, small-batch brie, and Muir Glen organic canned tomatoes at Nam's. These items seem aimed at a particular clientele, especially given their prices when purchased (as I assume Nam's must) in small batches. The store itself seems to have been around awhile, so my current hypothesis is that it's operated by some savvy managers taking aim at the neighborhood's better-off. It must have initially been a gamble (though I imagine they didn't switch their whole stock all at once), but now they've got a captive market on lockdown. By doing so, they've succesfully carved a space for themselves between a few rather different populations who shop on Franklin. Judging from some of the businesses along the way, this is no easy task, but that's a topic for another night.
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nam's shut down this summer to go organic, though they may have carried some of that stuff earlier.
ReplyDeleterumor had it that Fisher's, too, was going to shut down for a while to go organic, but I think the timeline for that has come and gone.
Crow Hill meetings are the place to get all the gossip on this.