Met Foods Closes this Saturday After 25 Years in Little Italy

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Twin leasing banners have spanned the Met Foodmarket storefront since October, as we were the first to report. Now closure is palpable. The Mulberry Street supermarket will close forever at the end of business on Saturday, capping a twenty-five year tenancy in Little Italy.

A farewell sign in the windows thanks “valued customers” for their patronage through the years.

Brothers Paul and Santos – who started out stocking shelves in a Spring Street grocer in the late 1970s – opened this location at 251 Mulberry Street way back in 1991. Back before the real estate industry carved Nolita into a refuge for the rich. Now that it’s so, a “regular” grocery apparently isn’t as appropriate. That’s probably why signage for the market was never reinstated.

Even though Met is a chain brand, we are told that it is independently owned and operated. “The two brothers run it like a family business, catering to the needs of the neighborhood’s old timers and buying from local suppliers,” one tipster notes.

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As for the now-available retail real estate, neighbors are relaying rumors that the new occupant is much the same, only more upscale. In other words, a “gourmet” grocer that can pay more than the $90,000 Met doles out. We have been unable to confirm the identity, though.

Neighbors are incensed at the loss of a low-cost supermarket option, enough so to get Councilwoman Margaret Chin to bandwagon. There’s a rally planned outside the establishment this afternoon at 2pm.