Clash of the Mamdani voters
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Swanky new NYC grocer facing death threats over insane prices — but has ‘lines around the block’ in first days
A swanky new grocer in downtown Manhattan has been getting death threats over its stratospheric prices – even as the shop was forced to briefly shutter this week after its shelves were emptied by a customer frenzy….
Meadow Lane, a posh store in Tribeca at 355 Greenwich St., has drawn such massive crowds since it opened last Friday that it was forced to impose quotas on goods. Those include $625 tins of Siberian caviar, $65 bottles of extra virgin olive oil, $74 containers of matcha powder and gluten-free chicken nuggets priced at $15 per half dozen.
“We can’t keep up,” founder Sammy Nussdorf, known online as “Brokeback Contessa,” told Side Dish. “We outperformed all of our projections.”
Meanwhile, the 28-year-old New Yorker said he’s also been receiving death threats and hate – with online loons enraged by his prices as socialist Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani has relentlessly attacked the rich.
“I have death threats. People are threatening to burn down the store and throw rocks through the windows. The hate is out of control. They focus on any imperfection. It’s politically charged,” said Nussdorf, whose parents previously made Forbes’ list of America’s richest families.
Now, Meadow Lane is selling out hundreds of pounds of chicken per day and doesn’t “have enough space in the fridge to keep up with demand,” according to the shop’s director of operations.
Customers have been wolfing down the nuggets, which are crispy and delicious, along with a $20 Chinese chicken salad. It is packed with tangy dressing and edamame, cabbage, cucumbers and carrots that lend the dish a mysteriously satisfying crunch.
As for the haters, Nussdorf says, “All it is doing is increasing my engagement and making this more relevant. I have lines around the block and more than 100,000 followers because of the haters. That’s the antithesis of what they want, but it is what’s happening.”
“People are lining up. There is a market for this,” he added. “That doesn’t mean other people aren’t suffering.”
Meadow Lane was sold out of most of its products by Friday afternoon. The crowds kept coming through the weekend, and by Monday, it had to close to reassess and restock.
…. Even the checkered blue and beige Meadow Lane reusable tote bag, reminiscent of a Louis Vuitton pattern, is in demand.
The striking interiors, from designer Sarah Carpenter, include carved nooks where customers can put their baskets while paying the cashier.
Kate Friedman, 24, was waiting in line Tuesday morning while visiting New York from Chicago with her boyfriend, on a work trip.
“I love [Nussdorf] on TikTok and I am also gluten free [Ed - of course she is] . I want to try the chicken nuggets and the matcha,” she told Side Dish.
The fun part of all this is that the patrons and the protesters are almost surely all Mamdani socialists; the rich Tribeccans expect to keep what they have even as Mamdani Magic™works to raise the living conditions of the underclass, while the yowling liberal arts baristas believe that Mamdani will make everything level so that, while the rich will be denied their triple soy lattes, everyone will be able to sip single-shot skims in their own elegant kitchens located in rent-free luxury apartments. Power to the people, right on.
If history is a guide, my guess is that some, but not all of the Meadow Lane deli grazers will retain their money no matter what form of rule is established, and those who can’t join the new power structure will join in mutual discovery with their same-age-group baristas that in a system that takes from those who have and distributes the loot to the have-nots (after suitable deductions for administrative expenses and salaries), there will always be people who have louder voices and less than you do, so it’s your trading desk income, and your waitress tips alike that will be stripped and given away. No truffle soup for either of you.
“Better I have no cow than my neighbor have two” is a sentiment that’s powered many revolutions, and it’s always worked out the same: the masses do end up with no cows, and discover that they’re tending the massive dairy herd owned by their (now former) neighbor. Too bad Howard Zinn’s disciples in our school systems don’t mention that.