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Sullivan Street Bakery to Open Next to Co.

Posted by Carey Jones, September 30, 2009 at 10:00 AM

We'll say this about Jeremiah at Vanishing New York: he has a knack for flipping over what you might think great news. Reporting that a Sullivan Street Bakery will move next door to Jim Lahey's Chelsea pizza place Co., he pens an elegy to the pastry shop that sits there now. Called Les Desirs Patisserie, it's a hangout for many elderly residents of the Penn South housing complex:

I visited Les Desirs and found only one seat available in a packed shop, bustling with talk—and song. A table of women, most in their 80s, were singing "It Had to Be You" and "I Can't Give You Anything But Love." I sat down with Jeannie and Phil, Hell's Kitchen and Chelsea natives who've been coming to this bakery since the 1960s.

"See how comfortable we all are," said Jeannie, "We can sit, talk, argue. This place is where everybody meets to hear what's happening in the neighborhood. This is where you find out who's sick and who's died."

... Simply put, Sullivan Street's prices are more than the Penn South crowd can afford. I asked them where they will go, once their bakery is gone. "McDonald's," Betty said, "That's all we can afford around here now."

"McDonald's," echoed Jeannie sadly, "But the atmosphere will be gone."

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