Specialty Grains and Beans in Manhattan?

[Bexb]

I'd love to find a store where I could find specialty beans and grains. In particular I'm looking to find borlotti, appaloosa, amethyst and christmas lima beans as well as red quinoa and organic rye berries. I'd also imagine/hope any store stocking these would have a whole heap of other fun grains and beans.

Any suggestions? Manhattan would be best but if there is a good store in the boroughs I'd be happy to travel.

Thanks!

[Fat Guy]

They have a lot of things like that upstairs in the natural foods section at Fairway on Broadway between 74th and 75th. They have both bins and packaged products, including a pretty extensive selection of the offerings from Bob's Red Mill. In addition, downstairs near the produce they have a pretty good inventory of specialty dried beans. You kind of have to poke around the store to find everything in the category, but they have quite a lot of different stuff. I don't know if they have the exact items you're searching for, though.

[baroness]

You may find these at Kalustyan's and/or Integral Yoga Natural Foods (on west 13th street). They both have extensive collections of beans, grains, etc.

[azlee]

The biggest concern once you find a brick and mortar source will be whether or not the stock is fresh with sufficient turnover that you get good product and good results in the cooking. Perelandra Health Foods in Brooklyn Heights and Back to the Land Healthfoods in Park Slope, Brooklyn will have some of what you are looking for. For the beans, I've had terrific success with Rancho Gordo products, bought over the internet, they have a few specialty grains as well. Rye berries and quinoa should be fairly easy to find in NYC but you'll need to find a busy place with lots of turnover so that they are less likely to be stale. Good luck. Let us know what you find and how fresh it is

[vloglady]

My SO and I would sometimes go to Gandhi, a restaurant on 345 E 6th St. While walking there, we would stop in this Indian grocery store on 1st avenue, maybe between 4th and 5th street. They have all sorts of grains and beans there, great selection. Lots of beer too, from all over the world. And a little cat that wanders around.

this place is definietly on 1st, on the west side of the street. You have to go down a few steps.

good luck.

[weinoo]

My SO and I would sometimes go to Gandhi, a restaurant on 345 E 6th St. While walking there, we would stop in this Indian grocery store on 1st avenue, maybe between 4th and 5th street. They have all sorts of grains and beans there, great selection.  Lots of beer too, from all over the world. And a little cat that wanders around.

this place is definietly on 1st, on the west side of the street. You have to go down a few steps.

good luck.

←

That place is Dowal (spelling may be wrong, as it has changed a few times over the years) - between 5th & 6th Streets on 1st Avenue.

Kalustyan's, as mentioned above, has many exotic beans and lots of grains. Lexington and 28th St.

[Bexb]

Thanks for all the suggestions, I'll try to find some of the stores this weekend and report back on my findings. I've been to both fairways and integral yoga but never seen any of the grains I mentioned (fairways has great beluga lentils), but I'll take a closer look next time.

For online ordering I've been very happy with purcell mountain farms (www.purcellmountainfarms.com), but it would be nice to have somewhere that didn't require waiting 3-4 days for shipping.

[weinoo]

One of the things I find with these grains and beans is that they should be used fairly quickly (and packaged in plastic or vacuum packed), otherwise they sometimes have a tendency to, shall we say, start multiplying...I ended up with a pantry full of visitors after keeping something or other for too long.