Peanut Butter & Company Closes its Greenwich Village Shop After 17 Years
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Over the weekend, we found ourselves jonesin’ for a fluffer-nutter (i.e. Fluff + peanut butter), so we headed westbound to Greenwich Village. Emotions quickly changed from hungry excitement to disappointment. Tombstone leasing signage now sits in the windows of 240 Sullivan Street – home of the famous Peanut Butter & Company.
The popular sandwich spot closed its doors forever last week. The brand and business lives on, however, through its wholesale operation. You’ve probably seen its peanut butter product in your local supermarket.
Lee Zalben founded Peanut Butter & Company at 240 Sullivan Street seventeen years ago. It’s never changed locations. This business is often considered the progenitor of the “single ingredient” restaurant so pervasive in the city these days (e.g. Meatball Shop, Rice to Riches, S’Mac).
“I love this little shop,” Lee Zalben noted in a statement. “This is the place where Peanut Butter & Co. was born, so of course I’m a little sad to see it close. But the truth is, it’s just sooo small. In the last several years we’ve grown in so many ways – and when customers visit, they’re expecting a grand flagship for the brand, not a homey little shop.”
However, a new location or dedicated food truck is reportedly in the works.
“In the future, we hope to find another location with enough space to expand the menu,” Zalben says. “Until then, we’re excited at the opportunity to try out some pop-ups and maybe even go mobile with a PB&J food truck!”
Circumstances of the closure are not fully known. The aforementioned press statement is obviously spun in a cheery manner without explanation. Reading between the lines, one could jump to a conclusion that perhaps the company was forced from the premises.
In the meantime, wholesale dominates, albeit with little New York City presence. You see, production of the spread moved its facilities to Georgia in 2006 to be closer to their peanut farms. Before that, much of the hard work was conducted in Greenpoint.
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