Bleecker Street Series #53A
Bleecker Street Tour begins here: <A HREF="http://www.fotolog.net/ronni/?photo_id=6907957" TARGET=_top>http://www.fotolog.net/ronni/?photo_id=6907957</A>
Bleecker Street Map is here: <A HREF="http://www.fotolog.net/ronni/?photo_id=7695350" TARGET=_top>http://www.fotolog.net/ronni/?photo_id=7695350</A>
Shed a tear, please, for everyone who patronized Zitos Bakery which we visited earlier [ <A HREF="http://www.fotolog.net/ronni/?photo_id=7630004" TARGET=_top>http://www.fotolog.net/ronni/?photo_id=7630004</A> ] on this tour. Anthony Zito sold his last loaf on Sunday morning, 30 May 2004, 80 years after the family first began providing some of the finest bread on planet earth, from this same location, to the neighborhood and to many of New York Citys finest Italian restaurants.
On Saturday, the guys behind the counter at the pork store [ <A HREF="http://www.fotolog.net/ronni/?photo_id=7718925" TARGET=_top>http://www.fotolog.net/ronni/?photo_id=7718925</A> ] told me that economics forced Zito to shut down - a combination of increased rent, skyrocketing cost of ingredients and weariness. Mr. Zito had been baking bread in the basement of the shop seven nights a week for 30 years. It may be myth, or maybe not, but the guys at the pork store also said that
Anthony Zitos mother had kept the books for the business up until the last day.
Dieters contributed to the demise of Zito`s too. Bread sales had decreased due to the low-carb fad. Whether you believe it now or not, Atkins IS a fad and it will fade as all fads do. But too late for Mr. Anthony Zito and his carb-eating patrons. I bought six loaves on Saturday and froze five, but even those will gone eventually.
This is a terrible loss of both an excellent, venerable product and of an historical location on Bleecker Street. I am, with my neighbors, bereft.
NOTE ADDED 2 JUNE 2004: Don`t miss these two terrific shots from fellow fotologgers of Zito`s when it was still in business:
<A HREF="http://www.fotolog.net/cbonney/?photo_id=1599008" TARGET=_top>http://www.fotolog.net/cbonney/?photo_id=1599008</A>
<A HREF="http://www.fotolog.net/vladsven/?pid=7703681" TARGET=_top>http://www.fotolog.net/vladsven/?pid=7703681</A>
-------------------------------------------------
Until fotolog improves, this is a one-time post in honor of the great loss of Mr. Zito`s store. It took two or three minutes for my f/fs to load and I waited five minutes for the upload page to come up.
On May 31 2004 117 Views
Arto On 14/06/2004
I have always loved walking that stretch of Bleecker, with its little food shops and used record stores. Sad that this one is no longer with us.
Sylvia On 09/06/2004
It is sad. I have ended up learning to bake bread as there is really no decent baker near ...and no decent baker left in my home town and no decent baker ...well, where are they? Are there any left? :(It was okay here yesterday, today is ... intermittant. Not bad enough for me to close the browser and give up (which is nice, I`ve spent 3 hours wandering around photographs and drinking Rioja ... it`s a rough life :) but just enough "broken images" to make me mutter. I still hold out hope.
Tomswift46 On 05/06/2004
Its always sad when these places close. Most places the horror that is Walmart destroys mom and pop stores.
Yolima On 05/06/2004
Ahhh, to bad. I walked passed Zito`s many a time and may have popped in to buy some bread but generally I would by the excellent bread in Hoboke, at Marie`s bakery, also an institution. You could see the bakers at work, shoving the bread into the ovens.... And a very simple store, very much like Zito`s. Glad to see you back Ronnie and sorry to hear you have such a hard time uploading, here, fotolog has been having hiccups, but nothing that drives me crazy...Hope it will improve soon.
Vladsven On 03/06/2004
thnx for linkin` to the image that i snapped of zito`s -- (in your honor) just a few weeks ago. may the zito spirit live on!
Zinetv On 03/06/2004
No! No! No! No! Not Zito`s!!!!!!!This is worse than going to sleep for 20 years, I was on Bleecker street just 2 weeks ago. Damn!!!
Boogers On 02/06/2004
The active photo *is* taking a while to load right now. The service is usually fast for me, but I`m on the west coast and tend to use it at night when the east coast is asleep. So, maybe there`s a heavy load when you all use the system. I was also just thinking that I think Ronni has a cable modem and maybe it has to do with her cable service caching the pages on a local server. Probably not, but it`s a possibility.
Hillspan On 02/06/2004
F`log is generally unusable for me most of the time. Today is ok, but still taking SO long to load the active shot. I`ve been mentioning it on discussion boards, and finally now others are speaking up about it too. It`s not just you, apathy is setting in, I think, and some of us are just too fed up to complain to deaf ears anymore.
Airchild On 02/06/2004
This is really sad! Having just come back from Paris, I know what great daily break means! I can relate to how you feel about the loss of a great bakery!
Mseidman On 01/06/2004
And when the tourists stop coming (as you suggest at cbonney`s site), the t shirts will become rags and the people will reclaim the street and strengthen the sense of neighborhood and, well, power to the people, anyone?
Ronni On 01/06/2004
ribena, ibanda - thanks for the thoughts about what might be wrong with my site. When I get a moment, I`ll try the free one and see what happens. It`s all very haphazard - sometimes it works - usually at hours when I don`t have time to be surfing and upload and then is slow as molasses when I do have time. The haphazardness is what makes it so awful - I never want to attempt because I can`t even depend that it will work. And blah, blah, blah
Ibanda On 01/06/2004
Ronni - have you tried creating a new free account an seeing if that has the same problems? I still think there is something very peculiar about what is happening to your pages.
Ibanda On 01/06/2004
Cbonney is right - many small towns in the UK have virtually no locally owned businesses and are totally at the mercy of large chains. That means the money taken goes out of town too and so the decline continues. Locally owned businesses are more than just part of the community, they are an important part of making sure your community has a strong economic footing.Look at <A HREF="http://www.pluggingtheleaks.org/" TARGET=_top>http://www.pluggingtheleaks.org/</A> for more
information.
Cbonney On 01/06/2004
I`ll be happy to send you a copy of the picture at Zito`s if you like. (Color or b&w!) My private e-mail address is in my "about."
Artofgold On 01/06/2004
Ronni, I was strolling through some galleries at pbase.com and saw this and immediately thought of you. Thought you might enjoy. <A HREF="http://www.pbase.com/jando/old_bw" TARGET=_top>http://www.pbase.com/jando/old_bw</A>
Cbonney On 31/05/2004
Good lord, Ronni. I just discovered that I took and posted a picture of Zito`s last October (<A HREF="http://www.fotolog.net/cbonney/?photo_id=1599008" TARGET=_top>http://www.fotolog.net/cbonney/?photo_id=1599008</A>). Now this is getting personal!
Cbonney On 31/05/2004
Saw a sign in front of the Polka Dot Bakery that said "Carbs Schmarbs. What June Payoff?" I guess I`ve been to Italy enough and am enough of a proponent of the "slow food" movement that it really bugs me when people see food as the enemy. I don`t even know Mr. Zito. But I will mourn the loss of his business. As you`ve recognized, the texture of your community is weakened every time a business like Mr. Zito`s closes. It used to be that Mr. Zito`s place would be taken by another baker anxious to
make his name and win favor with the neighborhood`s shoppers. Nowadays the likelihood`s greater that you`ll end up with some chain operation run by people who see the store as a "unit" rather than as a member of the community. At least in the Village there`s a chance you might get something interesting, or at least marginally usefull, in Mr. Zuto`s place. If you want to really cry, go visit some small town whose entire Main Street has been decimated in one swoop by a Wal-Mart.
Av_producer On 31/05/2004
My father was shocked. He told me yesterday. Rumor was that the rent was going up to 15K per month. I was surprised they didn`t own the building - they could have survived even Atkins if they had.
Ribena On 31/05/2004
I remember you had some strange problems many months back--when your fotolog pseudo-disappeared (it was there, but only available via back channels; not by typing your url). there must be some problem on the server...
Ribena On 31/05/2004
this saddens me.ronni--I think we should troubleshoot your page... or maybe it`s a technology interface issue. I don`t have nearly so many problems and I`m also on the "r" server (which hosts m, n, and other letters, too, and was acting up a few weeks ago). hmmm.
Echolalia
"Echolalia" is an interactive installation based on images, sound and expressive typography.
What I am after is to create a bank of images related to the theme "Echo .
Peace_on_earth
War is the plague that human beings bring upon themselves. It is also a plague we might be able to end. On any given day since you and I were born, some part of the world has been at warin 2003 the total number of open conflicts was thirty. In the twentieth century at least 108 million people died in wars. Of the 20 largest military budgets on earth, 14 belong to developing countries. The United States spends more on its military than the next 16 countries combined
![Bleecker Street Series #53A <BR>Bleecker Street Tour begins here: <A HREF="http://www.fotolog.net/ronni/?photo_id=6907957" TARGET=_top>http://www.fotolog.net/ronni/?photo_id=6907957</A> <BR>Bleecker Street Map is here: <A HREF="http://www.fotolog.net/ronni/?photo_id=7695350" TARGET=_top>http://www.fotolog.net/ronni/?photo_id=7695350</A> <BR> <BR>Shed a tear, please, for everyone who patronized Zitos Bakery which we visited earlier [ <A HREF="http://www.fotolog.net/ronni/?photo_id=7630004" TARGET=_top>http://www.fotolog.net/ronni/?photo_id=7630004</A> ] on this tour. Anthony Zito sold his last loaf on Sunday morning, 30 May 2004, 80 years after the family first began providing some of the finest bread on planet earth, from this same location, to the neighborhood and to many of New York Citys finest Italian restaurants. <BR> <BR>On Saturday, the guys behind the counter at the pork store [ <A HREF="http://www.fotolog.net/ronni/?photo_id=7718925" TARGET=_top>http://www.fotolog.net/ronni/?photo_id=7718925</A> ] told me that economics forced Zito to shut down - a combination of increased rent, skyrocketing cost of ingredients and weariness. Mr. Zito had been baking bread in the basement of the shop seven nights a week for 30 years. It may be myth, or maybe not, but the guys at the pork store also said that Anthony Zitos mother had kept the books for the business up until the last day. <BR> <BR>Dieters contributed to the demise of Zito`s too. Bread sales had decreased due to the low-carb fad. Whether you believe it now or not, Atkins IS a fad and it will fade as all fads do. But too late for Mr. Anthony Zito and his carb-eating patrons. I bought six loaves on Saturday and froze five, but even those will gone eventually. <BR> <BR>This is a terrible loss of both an excellent, venerable product and of an historical location on Bleecker Street. I am, with my neighbors, bereft. <BR> <BR>NOTE ADDED 2 JUNE 2004: Don`t miss these two terrific shots from fellow fotologgers of Zito`s when it was still in business: <BR> <BR><A HREF="http://www.fotolog.net/cbonney/?photo_id=1599008" TARGET=_top>http://www.fotolog.net/cbonney/?photo_id=1599008</A> <BR><A HREF="http://www.fotolog.net/vladsven/?pid=7703681" TARGET=_top>http://www.fotolog.net/vladsven/?pid=7703681</A> <BR> <BR>------------------------------------------------- <BR> <BR>Until fotolog improves, this is a one-time post in honor of the great loss of Mr. Zito`s store. It took two or three minutes for my f/fs to load and I waited five minutes for the upload page to come up. <BR> - Fotolog](http://spc.fotolog.com/photo/44/42/5/ronni/1086029900_f.jpg)
