On June 15, Peter and David Hong closed Plymouth Cafe at 90 Henry Street for the last time. They taped a handwritten sign to the door that read "Closed for alterations; under new management," and thanked the neighborhood for 42 years of loyal patronage. Photos filed with a later city application show a public notice for a new restaurant taped over that goodbye.
Across the street, the paper on the door tells a different story. All in One Deli Mart, which most of the neighborhood still calls Peas N' Pickles, had closed its storefront at 79 Henry Street and Pineapple Walk by the time the Brooklyn Eagle reported it on July 27, after more than 30 years in business. Two months later, no successor has been named.
Both stores sat at the same intersection, both sold daily groceries and sandwiches, and both closed within about six weeks of each other. Their reported circumstances differ in one important way: who owns the storefront.
One Corner Owned by the Operator, One Leased From a Co-op
Peter Hong owns the three-story building at 90 Henry. When he retired, he told the Eagle that a new food business was already moving in, though he didn't yet know the concept. "Maybe a salad bar or restaurant," he said. The building has held a deli for a long time. Before the Hongs, it housed Plymouth Food Center, whose owner, Louis Weisberg, got a license to sell beer there in 1944. His estate sold the property in 1989, according to city records.
79 Henry works differently. Minki Lee and his family ran the market as tenants. The retail landlord is Whitman Owners Corp., a cooperative that owns and leases the retail spaces on the north side of Pineapple Walk. The Lee family's statement named the pressures directly. Rising costs of goods hurt sales, and higher property taxes and rent after COVID-19 had made the business "unsustainable" for several years.
This isn't the row's first loss. Last August, the Eagle reported, the long-time Park Plaza Restaurant closed. It fronts Cadman Plaza West and sits in the same Pineapple Walk retail row, and its owners cited the pandemic as a main factor. The Eagle's closure report named no plans for the market's space, and neither did any later coverage in our research.
Andrew Porter has lived in the Heights since before the Whitman complex was built in the 1960s. He described how one vacancy affects its neighbors:
"Empty properties benefit no one, neither the landlords nor the business owners, and definitely not the consumers who shop there."
He added that the remaining stores in the row now get fewer walk-by customers.
What Doubles Filed for 90 Henry
The tenant heading into the Hong building is Doubles, a Caribbean counter from the Hamptons. The Brooklyn Heights Dispatch reported on September 22 that it had filed plans for the corner at Pineapple Street. Brothers Daniel and Evan Bennett have run the original location in Amagansett Square since 2022 and have a second in Sag Harbor. Henry Street would be their first location in the city.
According to The Soft Open, the application to serve drinks came with a full operating plan:
- The namesake dish: curried chickpeas on fried bara with cucumber relish and tamarind and mango chutney, listed at $13 on the filed menu
- Mornings: breakfast roti, and scrambled eggs with rice and peas, until 11 a.m.
- Later in the day: chicken and potato, pumpkin, or chickpea curries served on a roti wrap, rice and peas, or jasmine rice; a grilled mahi-mahi bowl at $21; a smash burger; sweet plantains; and a kids menu
- The room: about 650 of roughly 2,500 square feet for customers, with five tables, 16 seats, and eight more at the bar
- Hours requested: 8 a.m. to midnight, seven days a week
- Outside: the operators are in the city's outdoor dining program and have applied for sidewalk tables, number still undecided
The Dispatch printed higher prices, including $15.50 for the signature doubles, but those were estimates from the existing Hamptons menus. The filed Henry Street menu is the more direct guide for now. Doubles was not open as of September 1, and no opening date has been announced.
Two doors north, Fascati Pizza has been open on Henry Street since 1971. Hong told the Eagle he remembers when its current owner was a little kid. If the filed hours are approved, that block would once again have a food counter open from breakfast until late at night.
Where the Daily Errand Goes in the Meantime
Doubles is a restaurant, so it fills the sandwich-and-smoothie side of Plymouth's old role. It doesn't replace a corner market. The pantry run that neighbors described making "multiple times a day" at Peas N' Pickles now needs a new destination. Debbie Prince, who has lived next door for 42 years, told the Eagle she had been trying to think where she would go and couldn't come up with an answer.
Here are the nearest options found in reporting and store listings:
Store | Address | What the sources show |
|---|---|---|
Han's Market | 51 Clark St. | A former Peas N' Pickles employee took a job here after the closure |
Gristedes | 101 Clark St. | Listed with daily 7 a.m.–10 p.m. hours |
Prestige Market | 60 Henry St. | Current delivery menu covering deli, produce, pantry, and household goods |
Key Food | 102 Montague St. | Store page lists daily 7 a.m.–10 p.m. hours |
Foodtown | 101 Clinton St. at Joralemon | Opened June 7, 2024, in a former Rite Aid space |
CVS | 156 Henry St. | Pharmacy with prescription services |
Several of these hours come from directory and delivery listings, not recent in-person reporting, so check them before you head out. In the comments on a July 28 Brooklyn Heights Blog post, one resident said they had started shopping at Gristedes more often. Others pointed to Foodtown while noting it is a long walk from some Fruit Streets homes.
Pharmacy options also got thinner this summer. The Walgreens at 120 Court Street at Atlantic Avenue closed at noon on June 4, and prescriptions moved to 386 Fulton Street. The Eagle reported plans for a 14-story, 75-unit mixed-use building on that site.
The Montague Street Grocery That Might Come Next
The most closely watched incoming food retail is on Montague Street. Alison Roman has announced First Bloom, a cafe and grocery for Brooklyn Heights, and said it would open this fall. Neighborhood reporting has tied it to 144 Montague Street, the former Bentley's Shoes, and noted a fit-out permit on September 14 and a food-and-beverage liquor application on September 11. The plan calls for a produce floor, a cafe, and prepared foods. Roman has not confirmed the address, and no opening day has been announced.
Even if First Bloom opens at 144 Montague, it would be south of the Fruit Streets, closer to Key Food and the CVS on Henry. The block of Henry between Orange and Pineapple would still have the same gap it has had since July.
The Brooklyn Heights Association's executive director, Lara Birnback, told the Eagle that losing a long-standing small business is "always really upsetting." One neighbor asked whether community leaders could do more to support small businesses and check in with them. For now, the storefront at 79 Henry and Pineapple Walk has no announced tenant. The one across the street at 90 Henry has a filed menu, 24 proposed seats, and a request to stay open until midnight.
Whether a corner storefront is owner-occupied or leased from a co-op can affect how quickly a new tenant arrives. The same question comes up when you're weighing a building's value. If you own in the north Heights and want to know how a storefront on your block factors into your property's worth, the Peter Mancini Team can walk you through it with a clear, no-pressure home valuation.
