Business & Tech

Subway Moving into Leaf N Bean Space on Seventh Ave.

The submarine sandwich chain will replace a vacant storefront between Union Street and Berkeley Place, becoming the second location of the chain in Park Slope.

 

Park Slope is full of mom-and-pop shops, but their doors have been closing throughout the neighborhood, only to be replaced by big chain stores and fast food franchises.

A perfect example of a national franchise replacing a small, local business that closed on was confirmed Wednesday:

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According to the building manager, the space formerly home to on Seventh Avenue will become a Subway, the submarine sandwich chain.

Abraham Sigman, the manager of the building between Union Street and Berkeley Place, said that a construction crew has started building the Subway, which will be the second location on Seventh Avenue, but he is not sure when it will open.  

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Leaf N Bean, which opened in 1973,  this year.

The coffee and tea specialty shop had hit hard times, according to Victoria Cook the co-owner of the shop, and business was bad starting in 2008. Back in January, Cook said that six months before the recession hit the rest of the country, Leaf N Bean started to feel the economic downturn. 

Cook said that they weren’t going out of business, but rather closing down the shop and moving out until they can find a cheap space somewhere in the neighborhood. They have opened just down the street, on Lincoln Place off Seventh Avenue.

A construction worker at the new Subway space, John Li, said on Wednesday that the fast food sandwich shop may open in two months.  

A Park Slope resident who lives near the old Leaf N Bean space, which has a great big storefront window that the former tenants used to decorate with holiday scenes, said that she doesn’t want to see Subway fill the vacant space.

“I am extremely disappointed such an amazing space with a great old storefront is being turned into a cheap and ugly chain food franchise,” Samantha Safer wrote to Patch in an e-mail. “People need to stop this before the space is completely destroyed.”

What do you think about Subway replacing Leaf N Bean? Let us know in the comments section below. 

This article was updated on Thursday to include Leaf N Bean's new location on Lincoln Place just off Seventh Avenue. 


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