The Garden of Eden is coming to Morningside Heights, regardless of what forbidden fruits people are eating.
The gourmet supermarket is set to open in mid-November on Broadway at 107th Street, in the space abandoned by Gristedes last March. Since that time, the space has undergone extensive renovations.
Many neighborhood residents complained that the loss of Gristedes, coupled with the April closing of West Side Market, left a shortage of supermarkets in the area.
Garden of Eden customer representative Carmine Dellaporta said that the company was moving in at the request of the co-op board, a group of tenants that owns the building. The company has four other locations in New York: Grammercy, Brooklyn Heights, Chelsea, and Union Square.
"In American business, you either grow or you fail. That's certainly an up and coming neighborhood. The revitalization of Harlem is going to be a boom to [Morningside Heights]," Dellaporta said.
For better or worse, Garden of Eden is a completely different type of store than Gristedes.
Eden offers an extensive collection of cheeses--from 17 different cheddars to Danish Havarti-- along with produce, gourmet pastries and chocolates, and a store line of spices, sauces, and other products.
"We're not the neighborhood bodega or supermarket. We're an upscale store. We handle upscale merchandise," Dellaporta said, noting that Garden of Eden carries only food, not paper products or housewares.
An informal survey of several items found that the prices at the Garden of Eden store in Chelsea were substantially higher than Morton Williams on Broadway at 115th Street.
The cheapest pound of ground coffee (Maxwell House versus Venizelo's) is $2 cheaper at Morton Williams. An 18-ounce jar of Skippy brand creamy peanut butter costs $4.49 in Chelsea and $2.99 uptown.
"We need the Gristedes because [Garden of Eden] is very expensive," said Natalie Dickson, who lives on 108th Street.
But shoppers in the Chelsea store sang heavenly praises.
"I feel they are passionately fond of food--they know the best food," 80-year-old Joyce Fuller said of the 24th Street Garden of Eden store.
Fuller went so far as to proclaim it "the best grocery store I've found in my life." She said the prices are "fair enough."
Judy, a shopper from Prospect Heights in Brooklyn, agreed.
"They're comparable to other similar stores. You could get cheaper at any grocery store," she said. Judy, who declined to give her last name, is not a regular shopper, but she said she was impressed by the freshness of the produce.
Judy added, though, that she feared the store's gentrifying effects.
"I wouldn't want one to open up in my neighborhood. It's nice to have the local people," she said.
Others passing by the boarded up storefront of the future location were optimistic.
"Gristedes was really dirty, so Garden of Eden should be better," Lisa Gallagher of 106th Street said.