Right after Dr. Pete and I moved here, and despite the delectable stores all around us, we found ourselves bemoaning the lack of Boars Head products. Yep, leave it to us to always find something to bitch and moan about. So one day, on the way to Whole Paycheck, we passed by a little shop in a called Kingswood Market, and it was advertising Boars Head. A few days later, Dr. Pete stopped in and came home with one of those Flintstone's Steaks. Now, I am not a steak eater myself, but even I have to be impressed by a steak the size of a toddler.
So we started going to the market regularly. Not only were we impressed by the hominess and impressive selection of goods, but the absolute highlight is the butcher/bakery section. Aside from the Brontosaurus Steaks, there are these fresh baked chocolate chip cookies that make your head swim and your blood sugar sing. But, for me, the holy grail of all holies - the perfect macaroni and cheese. Not too fancy, not too plain, just honest mac-n-cheese unadorned by nouveau ideals of soul food, but fresh and modern enough to make even the most cynical hipster swoon.
In short, perfect. Go for the edge piece where the cheese is brownish and seals in the macaroni.
And excuse me while I drool on myself just thinking about it.
But, as they say in that Eagles song I like to quote all the time, call something paradise and kiss it goodbye. The landlord of Kingswood Market, who is like the Once-ler guy to Kingswood's Lorax, is looking to make it impossible for Kingswood to remain in business. He says that Kingswood, which has been in business for decades and still delivers food to its elderly clients, should "get with the times." Nuts to that. In this day and age, if I go to a market and the guy at the counter slips in a chocolate chip cookie, just because they are piping hot from the oven, into my grocery bag, they have my heart.
Someone else can take the sit-ups!
http://www.courant.com/news/local/hc-ctwhdkingswood1019.artoct19,0,6593031.story
WEST HARTFORD - Kingswood Market, an old-fashioned grocery store that still makes deliveries to neighborhood customers, is facing closure at the end of next month after some 70 years in business on Farmington Avenue.
Market owner Dave Bornstein, whose father bought the business in 1958, says he couldn't negotiate an affordable rent with the building's owner and probably will close at the end of next month when his current multiyear lease expires.
The building's owner, Al Nweeia, says he isn't kicking Bornstein out. Bornstein just wouldn't agree to a fair rent that the market would bear, Nweeia said. And Bornstein, he said, hasn't changed his business to keep up with the times.
If you are a local or even a friend who'd like to contact Kingswood to give them a nod of support, here is their Citysearch profile:
http://hartford.citysearch.com/profile/2008162/west_hartford_ct/kingswood_market.html
3 comments:
This is similar to the demise of Cheese and Stuff in the West End way back in 2000. Wild Oats came to West Hartford and ended up buying Cheese and Stuff and then promptly closed it. Booooo...
Have you heard what might replace Kingswood Market in the actual store space? If they are forced to move, that is...
The irony is, now Wild Oats has been bought out by Whole Paycheck! Circle of life, I guess.
I haven't heard if the landlord has anything to replace Kingswood. I mostly hope they get a new space, if they do have to move.
Man, a store named "Cheese and Stuff" sounds so up my alley, I wish I had experienced it!
Yes, the Wild Oats will be transitioning into another Whole Foods, I believe by the end of the year.
I, too, did not ever experience Cheese and Stuff. However, my neighbors still lament about it 7 years later, so it must have been good. It was located where the Dollar Store is now in the Kinko's strip mall.
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