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Founder Sammy Nussdorf sitting in front of his fresh bread and produce at Meadow Lane in Tribeca in NYC.<\/p>\n
Matthew Kappas<\/p>\n
Founder and owner Sammy Nussdorf describes Meadow Lane, which opened in mid-November in Tribeca in Lower Manhattan, as a \u201cgourmet prepared food market. Prepared foods are the bulk of our business.\u201d Its opening has caused quite the buzz in Manhattan, mostly because of Nussdorf\u2019s 130,000 TikTok followers with 6 million likes, who have been anticipating its arrival for over a year.<\/p>\n
Indeed, photos of crowds lining up before its noon opening are cropping up on TikTok. So why has it generated such a crowd and so much anticipation?<\/p>\n
Nussdorf attributes it squarely on the impact of TikTok. \u201cI\u2019ve documented this journey from the beginning. People have been seeing this business built for a year and a half. Many New Yorkers are excited when a new food concept arrives,\u201d he explains.<\/p>\n
Nussdorf continues as director of the Spring St. Group, a New York City venture capital firm, so he knows his way around money and financing businesses. In this case, Nussdorf is capitalizing the launch, without requiring angel investors, a rarity these days. He acknowledges that \u201cliquidity is obviously crucial for building and maintaining any sort of brick-and-mortar business, especially in Manhattan.\u201d<\/p>\n
He describes the food at Meadow Lane as a combination of items such as roasted chicken from well-respected Snowdance Farm, turkey chili, salad and soups, as well as Meadow Lane fried chicken tenders.<\/p>\n
Prepared Foods and More<\/p>\n
Inside the store, it has a special coffee and pastry section with coffee from La Cabra (which has several retail shops in the city), matcha from Montauk General Store, its prepared food section, fresh dairy and produce and then its curated section of pastas and grains. Because of Nussdorf\u2019s interest in floral design, there\u2019s also a special section in the front with plants for sale.<\/p>\n
Nutritious But Also Indulgent Food<\/p>\n
Nussdorf describes most of the food sold at Meadow Lane as specializing in \u201chigh-quality ingredients. It doesn\u2019t mean low-calorie, but appeals to someone who wants clean, nutritious and dense food, but if someone wants to indulge, there\u2019s that option.\u201d Hence, the chicken tenders.<\/p>\n
Asked to compare Meadow Lane with Whole Foods or Erewhon, the noted California gourmet grocer, Nussdorf notes that Whole Foods is totally different and not in the \u201csame stratosphere since they\u2019re a high-end big box and grocery store.\u201d Erewhon is more similar since they\u2019re also offering \u201chigh-quality organic produce and prepared foods and coffee but we\u2019re much smaller and don\u2019t have plans to expand to that scale.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEverything is grab and go,\u201d because that\u2019s what busy New Yorkers expect these days, he explains to me on a press preview, a day before its official mid-November debut. Grab and go, of course, means take it from the gourmet grocer, put in the oven or microwave, heat it up, and voila, instant gourmet dinner.<\/p>\n
Why Grab and Go Works for New Yorkers<\/p>\n
He explains that grab and go works for most New Yorkers because \u201cpeople are stuck between either going out and buying groceries, which is time-consuming, and not conducive for the lifestyle of most busy, gainfully employed New Yorkers.\u201d<\/p>\n
And the other option is dining out at Sweetgreen, Cava and Dig Inn, which he says are \u201cgood but can get redundant.\u201d And most others restaurants are pricey. At Meadow Lane, they can buy prepared food and stock their refrigerators for 3 days, without worrying.<\/p>\n
Why does it open currently at noon, which seems late, and closes at 8 p.m.? Nussdorf replies that \u201cWe\u2019re trying to keep up with the demand and prioritize quality control. We\u2019ve been selling out of most products in several hours,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s located in Tribeca, which recently surpassed the Upper East Side, as NYC\u2019s wealthiest zip codes. In fact, Nussdorf says that he\u2019s been accused on social media of contributing to \u201cgentrifying\u201d the neighborhood, which he says, is far from the truth since it has been gentrified years ago. <\/p>\n
He considered several neighborhoods besides Tribeca, but he was searching for the \u201cright street, right corner, right clientele\u201d as well having the right mechanics and plumbing. Moreover, Tribeca seemed fitting since it contained \u201caffluent residents and families but also many younger people, including many gallery workers, doctors and nurses, students and West Side Highway runners.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nussdorf was raised on the Upper East Side of Manhattan and graduated from New York University so he\u2019s a native New Yorker through-and-through.<\/p>\n
Despite its luxury identification, Nussdorf has said he wants it to appeal to a cross-section of New Yorkers, not just the elite, and several prepared foods are priced under $15.<\/p>\n
He also says delivery will play a major role at Meadow Lane. It has an entirely separate entrance and system for third-party deliverers and its apps. It\u2019s also signed contracts with Uber and Doordash, which will start after they get off the ground and feel comfortable. \u201cWe want to perfect the in-store experience before we move on to delivery,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
More to Come But Not Soon<\/p>\n
He clearly sees this venture as a prototype and thinks it would mostly work in affluent neighborhoods, appealing to mostly locals. But he adds that the next move won\u2019t happen until Meadow Lane \u201cbecomes a well-oiled machine and our kinks are worked out and we learn from our mistakes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Speaking of mistakes, TicTok loyalists have questioned some of what is going on at Meadow Lane including some mislabeling of items. He replies, \u201cLegitimate feedback we take seriously. If something is mislabeled, we take that seriously and correct it.\u201d However, Nussdorf has tried to pay no attention to snarky comments about his being a nepo baby and worse than that.<\/p>\n
Asked the keys to its future success, Nussdorf replies that: 1) We need to be consistent, 2) Operate as a strong unified team, 3) Be honest and accountable and do right with our customers, giving refunds where appropriate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Founder Sammy Nussdorf sitting in front of his fresh bread and produce at Meadow Lane in Tribeca in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":47344,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[26825,26822,26823,26819,26821,9,56,63,65,64,26820,26826,26824,6071],"class_list":["post-47343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-cava-and-dig-inn","tag-different-from-whole-foods-and-erewhon","tag-grab-and-go-food","tag-meadow-lane","tag-mostly-healthy-food-with-also-indulgent-food","tag-new-york","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-sammy-nussdorf-launched-it","tag-spring-st-group","tag-sweeetgreen","tag-tribeca"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47343"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47343\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}