“Shoppy Shop” Thoughts

Happy Friday to all. I hope everyone has that back-to-school energy coursing through their veins. I am slowly recovering from what felt like the longest (?) summer of our lives (this is neither a compliment nor a critique!). 

There’s no recipe this week, but for those curious, I did make hard shell tacos last Sunday. Because it’s been a lot of hard shell taco weeks (metaphorically or literally), I’ll be sending out more newsletters like this one in between recipes—quick hellos, updates, recommendations, etc. One day, I’ll get around to writing my Personal Essay Magnum Opus about how there might be too many recipes (but not before I write a few more recipes, of course).

Alright, so let’s kick things off with…my cat died? But really, thank you for the tremendous outpouring of love and sweetness following my beloved Margaux’s passing. It was a tough week, but there was also a lot of relief in knowing she was no longer in any sort of pain. After she left us and I combed through the photos of our life together, I realized how little of herself was left at the end and knew for certain that we made the right call. For anyone who might find themself in a similar situation and is curious, we used a service called Paws at Peace—they came to our house and put her to sleep in her favorite napping spot while we petted her and told her how much we loved her. This was far less traumatic than I thought it would be, and certainly preferable to her, a cat who simply hated leaving the house and going to the vet. I can’t say I recommend a pet dying, but I can recommend this service. 

Anyway! 

I wrote a little piece for Feed Me about one of my favorite burgers in New York (and no, it’s not “the best,” though some might disagree). I love an assignment. 

I’ve been quiet on the tomato sauce front because there will be some big/fun tomato sauce news coming your way in October, but in the meantime, I wanted to let you know if you spend $70 or more, we’re offering FREE SHIPPING (finally). Also, if you’re in New York, you can get the sauce same-day if you order Monday-Friday before 3 p.m. Ideally, you try it and love it and leave a review but I won’t tell you what to do!! Head here to buy this perfect-to-me (and a lot of you) sauce.

In First Bloom Brooklyn-related news, a newsletter published yesterday cited that our paperwork was approved for the start of construction. While I did not confirm or deny this to the writer (I’m bad at email!), I will say here that it's true: We have been approved! 

There’s no such thing as bad publicity, etc., etc., but I will say I didn’t LOVE it when they referred to First Bloom as a “shoppy shop.” For those unfamiliar, this article written by Emily Sundberg for New York in 2023 lays it all out, but the TL;DR thesis here is that around this time lots of new stores around the country (but especially in New York/LA) started looking the same, all carrying the same sort of brightly designed, Instagram-famous CPG brands you know from your phone, now available to buy in real life. 

I have my opinions about these sorts of places, and one could argue the phrase itself—much like the aforementioned summer that was long—is neither a compliment nor a critique. Even so, I can’t help but feel like it gets used by certain writers in a vaguely pejorative way, a light neg, which I find interesting. Sort of like calling a serious writer a blogger to indicate you don’t take them all that seriously. 

While I suspect my irritation at First Bloom being called a “shoppy shop” will only inspire more people to call it that, I wonder what the term actually means now, three years after that article was written (for context, Graza had just come on the scene) and launched the phrase into the New York vernacular. While it used to be defined by what’s on the shelf (Social-first CPG brands) and the general aesthetic (bright, primary colors, bubbly, blocky letters, a cartoon here and there), it seems that now (considering First Bloom does not check either of those boxes), any small business that sells food items could be called a shoppy shop? Or maybe only if the business/business owner has “an online presence” or, less generously…*whispers*...is a woman?

In any case, I’m almost certain the writer in question hasn’t been to Bloomville, and First Bloom Brooklyn isn’t open yet, which would make both hard to gauge on the shoppy shop spectrum.

I’d genuinely like to know what people think about all this—the comments section is open for discourse!—but my take is that while “shoppy shops” certainly exist, the phrase has become a sort of lazy description, a term like “artisanal,” overused to the point of meaninglessness. Related: Why does it bother me so much? Even in its current iteration upstate, where we sell basic things like eggs, bread, milk, pasta, and produce with nary an “Instagram brand” on the shelf, I guess First Bloom simply hates to be misunderstood!

At any rate, things are progressing nicely over at First Bloom Brooklyn, and I can’t wait to have you all in later this year—whatever you want to call it. 

Thanks and see you next week, maybe the store will be finished by then? (It won’t be.)