(New York, NY) Introducing the newly opened Battery Place Market, located in the Visionaire condominium at Third Street and Battery Place in lower Manhattan’s Battery Park City stocking only the finest brands available in the United States and many are exclusive or near exclusive for New York City.
Battery Place Market’s General Manager and Head Buyer, Ken Jackson, formerly a partner at New Orleans’ famed Herbsaint restaurant and a manager with Fairway Markets runs the show. The Nashville native has been cheese maker in Indiana and has worked with organic farms in upstate New York. The independent store is owned by Sung Kim, whose family owns U.S. Meats in the Bronx, one of the biggest meat purveyors in the northeast.
According to Jackson, “Battery Place Market is an interpretation of what ‘gourmet’ is today. By this I mean traceability and sustainability without sacrificing high-end quality, or sacrificing products that are inherently natural because they are made in the traditions which pre-date industrial food practices. I think it's a reflection of the Northeast's evolution towards its identity as a strong regional food resource, similar to what California has traditionally been.”
Jackson adds,”Sung’s youthful exuberance towards opening an ‘organic’ market in a green space is perfectly paired with the needs of our community.” What I’ve tried to do is interpret what we all see as relevant and find what is the best of everything currently available.”
Cases of prepared foods take up one part of the 4,500-square-foot market, with changing menus depending on what produce and ingredients is available, a lot of the produce being used for prepared foods is either organic or local, or both, this reflects the values of all the market principals. New York food icon Mitchel London developed the menu with modifications and additions by Battery Place Market’s executive chef, Robert Sckalor, who has been cooking for the last 37 years in such establishments as Agata & Valentina, the Waldorf Astoria and the Four Seasons.
Some of the great items stocked by Battery Place Market include:
• Coffee By Design from Portland, Maine (a New York exclusive)
• Stumptown Coffee Roasters, based in Oregon, roasting in Red Hook
• Intelligentsia Teas
• Narragansett Creamery – fresh mozzarella daily, award winning ricotta, etc.
(Rhode Island’s only creamery)
• Capriole (Indiana)
• Sullivan Street Bakery, Orwashers and Eli’s Breads
• Il Laboratorio, Van Leeuwin, Ciao Bella, SoCo Ice Cream & Sorbet
• North Country Smokehouse Bacon and Hotdogs (New Hampshire)
• Woods Cider Jelly and Syrups (Vermont)
• Lady M Cakes
• Balthazar Pastries
• Samaki salmon
• Serrano and Iberico Bellota hams from Fermin in Spain
• Battenkill Valley Creamery Dairy Farm milk, and from New York’s Hudson Valley dairy cooperative
• Eggs from Feather Ridge Farm
• Private label confections from Tumbador in Brooklyn
• Abita Beer Grain Mustard from Cochon Restaurant in New Orleans
• Creole Rose Popcorn Rice from Garber Farms in Iota, LA
• Steen’s Cane Vinegar
• Broadbent Bacons and Smoked Sausages from Virginia
• A range of cheeses imported from noted affineurs: Rolf Beeler in Switzerland, Neals Yard Dairy in England, Luigi Guffanti in Italy and Jean d’Alos in France
• Markristo Farm Winter greens from Hillsdale, NY
One of Battery Place Market’s unusual specialties is their sourcing of home-bar items for the best in home entertaining that include:
• Employees Only Grenadine
• Regan’s Orange Bitters
• Robert Lambert exotic fruit syrups
• Fever Tree Tonics
Sourced Greens, Vegetables and fruits from the best local farms (several exclusive to Battery Place Market), Organic if possible, but only the best available anywhere, especially when in season.
The LEED-certified market also serves hot breakfast sandwiches, frittatas and Spanish tortillas, as the back of the store has a bar with stools for those who want to linger and maybe have a second cup of great coffee that will rotate from one of the great roasts of either Stumptown or Coffee By Design. Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) is an internationally recognized green building certification system, providing third-party verification that a building or community was designed and built using strategies intended to improve performance in metrics such as energy savings, water efficiency, CO2 emissions reduction, improved indoor environmental quality, and stewardship of resources and sensitivity to their impacts and developed by the U.S. Green Building Council.
Battery Place Market was designed by Larry Bogdanow, Co-owner and founding Principal of Bogdanow Partners Architects, PC. Among the most notable restaurants are Union Square Café, Cub Room, Union Pacific, Beppe and City Hall in New York City, Caliterra in Chicago and Rubicon in San Francisco. The firm is best known for its work in hospitality design, although Bogdanow and his colleagues have designed award winning stores, as well. Their design of Grassroots, a natural foods store, won an NASFM Grand Prize for food retailing. Not only is Battery Place Market LEED, but it is sleekly designed and uses wood, glass and stone to accentuate the natural/organic shopping experience.
Source: Battery Place Market