{"id":307168,"date":"2026-07-27T23:47:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T23:47:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/307168\/"},"modified":"2026-07-27T23:47:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T23:47:14","slug":"beloved-brooklyn-heights-market-peas-n-pickles-closes-after-30-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/307168\/","title":{"rendered":"Beloved Brooklyn Heights market Peas N\u2019 Pickles closes after 30 years"},"content":{"rendered":"

BROOKLYN HEIGHTS \u2014 After more than 30 years in Brooklyn Heights, neighborhood grocery, deli and produce market All in One Deli Mart, fondly known as Peas N\u2019 Pickles, has closed its doors.<\/p>\n

The market, on the corner of 79 Henry St. and Pineapple Walk, is still known to many in the neighborhood by its original name, which changed when it expanded in 2012<\/a> to take over the adjacent Pineapple Walk storefront. (To add to the name confusion, the front awning is labeled \u201c79 Green Apple Corp.\u201d)<\/p>\n

Throughout its last weekend, customers streamed into the store to reminisce, load up their carts, and say goodbye to owner Minki Lee, his family and familiar employees.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"FellowFellow small business owner Estela Johannesen says goodbye to All in One Deli Mart owner Minki Lee. Johannesen owns James Weir Florist on Montague Street. Photo: Mary Frost\/Brooklyn Eagle<\/p>\n

Lee told the Brooklyn Eagle that he wanted to say \u201cthank you\u201d to his customers. He added that he has not made any future plans at this point.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would like to thank everyone for their kindness and support. We\u2019re sorry that we could not stay,\u201d the Lee family said in a statement. The family pointed to the rising cost of goods which affected sales, plus higher property tax and rent after COVID -19, as making the business \u201cunsustainable\u201d for the past few years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re very grateful to have had the opportunity to serve Brooklyn Heights and have interacted with many wonderful people all these years,\u201d the statement said. Thank you so much. We will miss everyone.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Lees have been helping to find some of their workers alternate jobs. One employee found a spot at Han\u2019s market on Clark Street.<\/p>\n

Dalila Gomez, who has worked behind the register in the mornings for roughly 12 years, told the Eagle she first started there when her daughter was in middle school. \u201cShe\u2019s been out of college for two years now,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Angus Hortsch-Kearney said he worked the register at night for just four months. However, as a local resident, \u201cI\u2019ve been coming here my whole life.\u201d Other familiar cashiers included Zee, Indigo and Henry.<\/p>\n

\"NeighborNeighbor Debbie Prince shakes the hand of All in One Deli Mart owner Minki Lee. Photo: Mary Frost\/Brooklyn Eagle<\/p>\n

\u2018Felt like a real community\u2019<\/p>\n

Numerous customers said Peas N\u2019 Pickles played an important role in the life of their families.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI might cry,\u201d said Debbie Prince, who has lived next door for 42 years. \u201cI come in every day. I depend on this place so much. I\u2019ve been trying to think of where I will go now and I can\u2019t \u2014 it\u2019s irreplaceable.\u201d Prince\u2019s adult son Andrew said he grew up with the store. \u201cI don\u2019t remember it ever not being here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another mother said her older son Noah, now almost 14, \u201cKind of grew up here; he knows all the people who have been here and looked after him. And when you live in a small apartment, your home extends to the bodega on the corner. \u2026 It just felt like a real community.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been coming here my whole life,\u201d Noah said. \u201cThank you for being one of the good things in this town.\u201d<\/p>\n

Noah\u2019s brother Ezra, age 7, added, \u201cIt\u2019s been around here so much, and now that it\u2019s closing it feels like so sad.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"DalilaDalila Gomez, right, worked behind the market\u2019s register in the mornings for roughly 12 years. Photo: Mary Frost\/Brooklyn Eagle<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were here multiple times a day,\u201d said Tarik Tosun, shopping with his wife Elissa Wolf. Tosun described the time he and Wolf were planning dinner over text messages, and Wolf texted a recipe to him. So he stopped in at Peas N\u2019 Pickles to buy the ingredients. \u201cI was in the market with my hands full of groceries when they told me she had been here already,\u201d saving him the trouble of having to return all the doubles.<\/p>\n

The couple said they considered the market to be their pantry. \u201cLots of times we\u2019d make a list, and be back 15 minutes later when we realized we forgot something,\u201d Wolf said. \u201cAnd we\u2019d always have a nice conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Peas N\u2019 Pickles\u2019 closing hit him hard, said Nico Allais, a neighborhood father. \u201cIt\u2019s very sad for me. There was a little ritual between me and my sons. The store is close enough that we would literally run here during half time of the sports shows we would watch, and make it back in time.\u201d While they picked up a snack or a beer, \u201cWe would have conversations \u2014 serious conversations, funny conversations.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"KidsKids join their dad in picking up some essentials on the last day of operation for All in One Deli Mart, also known as Peas N\u2019 Pickles. Photo: Mary Frost\/Brooklyn Eagle<\/p>\n

Both of his sons are grown now. \u201cI\u2019m going to miss that little late-night ritual.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBusinesses like Peas N\u2019 Pickles are so important to a community,\u201d said local mother Mary Kim. \u201cLongtime customers, including me, are saying they\u2019re devastated, and it\u2019s really not an exaggeration. It\u2019s like losing a close friend.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kim said people often don\u2019t realize how much the small, daily interactions they have with people who work at places like Peas N\u2019 Pickles affect them until they lose them.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMr. Lee, the family, and the cashiers who worked there over the years knew my son since he was a baby, and always asked about him if he hadn\u2019t been to the store in a bit. You don\u2019t get that at Whole Foods or other corporate supermarkets.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"BrooklynBrooklyn Heights neighborhood grocery, deli and produce market All in One Deli Mart, fondly known as Peas N\u2019 Pickles, has closed its doors. Photo: Mary Frost\/Brooklyn Eagle<\/p>\n

Can a small market still survive in Brooklyn Heights?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always really upsetting to lose a long-standing neighborhood small business, and I know many people in the neighborhood will miss them,\u201d Lara Birnback, executive director of the Brooklyn Heights Association told the Eagle.<\/p>\n

But a neighbor asks if the community could have done more to help Peas N\u2019 Pickles survive.<\/p>\n

The loss is heartbreaking, the neighbor said. \u201cAnd there are important questions \u2014 Is this a defeat for everyone in the community? How can a small market face current operating costs, with insurance and taxes so high? Could our community leaders do more to support small businesses? Possibly check in with them, and keep in touch with our real community?<\/p>\n

Andrew Porter, who has lived in the Heights since before the Whitman Owner complex was built in the 1960s, called the whole situation sad.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cEmpty properties benefit no one, neither the landlords nor the business owners, and definitely not the consumers who shop there,\u201d Porter said. He noted that the market\u2019s closing places more financial pressures on the remaining stores in the row, which lose walk-by customer traffic. \u201cIt is, sadly, a lose-lose situation for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

The market\u2019s landlord \u2014 cooperative Whitman Owners Corp. \u2014 owns and leases out the retail properties on the north side of Pineapple Walk. Last August, another long-time Pineapple Walk business, Park Plaza Restaurant<\/a>, which fronts on Cadman Plaza West, closed. Owners told the Eagle at that time that the COVID-19 pandemic was one of the main factors.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"FromFrom left: Customer Paula Gerson, market owner Minki Lee, and customer Janet V. Photo: Mary Frost\/Brooklyn Eagle<\/p>\n

Years of memories<\/p>\n

So many neighbors reached out to the Eagle to share comments there isn\u2019t room to print them all. Here is a sample:<\/p>\n

\u201cReally bad news,\u201d said Dr. Jon Berall. \u201cFor so many things \u2014 for the vegetables, for the fruit, for the fresh fish. It\u2019s such a loss, a tremendous loss.\u201d<\/p>\n

Janet V. said she has relied on the market for \u201cfor anything one might need \u2014 veggies, coffee,\u00a0 plant soil, candles, tools, a little bit of everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paula Gerson said she remembered when her mother, an original tenant of the tower at 75 Henry St., used to shop there. \u201cI\u2019ve been shopping here my whole life,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"ShoppersShoppers and friends (from left) Janet V. and Cat DeWan. Photo: Mary Frost\/Brooklyn Eagle<\/p>\n

Pat Ross Spiller said she was \u201cso sad to see them go. I\u2019m always here for flowers and really great fresh fruit and sushi. And their ATM only charged $1.75.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kathleen Wolf said, \u201cOur family has used it for the last 25 years, and we\u2019re really going to miss the Lee\u2019s and everybody else.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBesides having the best fruit and vegetables, this place was like \u2018Cheers,\u2019\u201d said neighbor Beverly Closs. \u201cEverybody knew each other even if we didn\u2019t know their names.\u201d<\/p>\n

Historical note: Brooklyn Heights in the 1970s and early 1980s was home to a large number of gay residents and bars. Before Peas N\u2019 Pickles opened at 79 Pineapple Walk, the spot was occupied from at least 1978-1981 by a gay bar\/discotheque called Sal\u2019s, according to \u201cQueer Happened Here<\/a>\u201d and the recollection of long-time residents. An ad for the bar proclaimed it the \u201cHome of the Harlequin Players,\u201d which performed a show there called \u201cBasically Bette Davis.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The site may also have been the location of another gay bar known as Gracie\u2019s Mansion, though some sources put it at Henry and Clark streets.<\/p>\n