I’m sad to report that the Greenpoint Food Market has been temporarily shut down as the Health Department investigates concerns about proper permits for the vendors. As I mentioned in my previous post, this could mean the end of many of the locations as permits require that they prepare food in commercial kitchens - which cost upward of $250 for as little as 5 hours.
The market’s website credits the New York Times for both helping to put it on the map for consumers and the map for inspectors - a brutal double edged sword. Instead of a fair they will now be hosting a Think Tank Potluck on the 26th, for vendors and consumers alike to discuss how to help the market get back on its feet. Topics to be discussed are included below and a panel including a representative from the Department of Health and city council will be present for the discussion.
Topics to discuss include:
- How you know when you’ve got a viable product to start a small food business with.
- How to figure out city codes and regulations.
- How to tap into available commercial kitchen resources.
- What changes need to be made in legislation to make it more accessible to food start ups with high overhead and low profit margins.
- How possible it would be to run a non-profit incubator kitchen funded and supported by local gov that all vendors can use and can host GFM (long term project).
- Cooking Up a Dream (dinersjournal.blogs.nytimes.com)
