RIP Sutton Place

[hillvalley]

The end of Sutton Place

No more gluttonous pig. Will we survive?

[jhlurie]

Sutton Place Gourmet fed me through 4 years of my life. Balducci's? It just won't be the same. At all.

But I will admit that even all those years ago, it kind of sucked to have to flag down an employee to ask a price... And I NEVER bought stuff like Orange Juice or milk from them. Ever.

[hjshorter]

I've been there twice in the last month, and things seem to be improving. As the first "gourmet" store in Washington it gets business from me purely for nostalgia's sake - nice if there could be some other reason to shop there in the future.

I was interested to read that their CEO started Fresh Fields.

[Busboy]

I hope he can change the place -- I've been going there pretty much since it opened and, while the competition has improved, the quality has declined, the selection has narrowed, and the prices have risen. And the people who work there often seem neither to know about the food or care about the customers. Kind of sad, given how groundbreaking their performance once was.

[Jason Perlow]

Sutton Place Gourmet was one of the few guilty and extravagant pleasures I had as a student at American from '87-'89. As I recall they made some -really- good special sandwiches (the one with sliced steak was always my favorite) in the 7-8 dollar range (now they are probably $10) but everything else was so expensive that I pretty much passed on their wares. Its sad to hear they are gone, though.

[mnebergall]

Sutton Place Gourmet was one of the few guilty and extravagant pleasures I had as a student at American from '87-'89. As I recall they made some -really- good special sandwiches (the one with sliced steak was always my favorite) in the 7-8 dollar range (now they are probably $10) but everything else was so expensive that I pretty much passed on their wares. Its sad to hear they are gone, though.

Sutton Place is not gone, they are just changing the name to Balducci's. The stores will still be there.

[jhlurie]

They got bought, Jason. Under new management and finally abandoning the old label. And apparently they'd grown from the old Sutton Place of those years back in the 1980's, when they were one of the first place in the country to stock Jelly Belly Jellybeans (because Reagan loved them) and by most accounts became pretty sloppy. Although they'd really always been too expensive on "basics", and had that irritating "no prices on the shelves" thing.

[hannnah]

Sandwiches aside, for the past few years, unless you were looking for something really unusual meat-wise (they could get lion and zebra!), there were better sources for pretty much everything else. I know the opening of Harris Teeter across the parking lot really put a dent in the business at the Reston location, since HT had better, cheaper produce and a similar selection of specialty items. Hopefully they'll keep the good stuff and get rid of the irritating, like deciding to rearrange the store back to front at least twice in the last 3 years.

[hillvalley]

A few years ago the Bethesda branch added an ice cream parlor under the name of Balducci's. They also began to carry more ready to go food ala Fresh Fields. They still carry sandwhiches, and make a great Italian sub, for the middle of Bethesda.

BTW Jason, I assume you went to the SP on Mass. It closed a few years ago and I think now is a bagel place. Every just goes across the street to Wagshall's now.

[Jason Perlow]

BTW Jason, I assume you went to the SP on Mass. It closed a few years ago and I think now is a bagel place. Every just goes across the street to Wagshall's now.

Yes, it was the Mass Ave one.

[hwilson41]

IMHO this is not bad news, it is good news. The new CEO seems (from the article) determined to bring Sutton Place back to its former glory, and has the capital behind him to pull it off. SP was apparently undercapitalized for years, and took the Giant route of raising prices and letting quality slip to try to make more money. A smattering of Econ 101 will tell you that is probably not the way to go. And so what if they call it Balducci's? As far as I'm concerned, they can call it Fred Smurf's if they want to, as long as the quality and some sensible pricing are restored. I say more power to them.

THW

[Mark Sommelier]

Years ago the Balducci name actually meant something to New Yorkers. The name was purchased, and to apply it to a chain of corporate stores seems a little disingenuous to me.

[hjshorter]

Years ago the Balducci name actually meant something to New Yorkers. The name was purchased, and to apply it to a chain of corporate stores seems a little disingenuous to me.

Why change it to Balducci's instead of keeping the Sutton Place name? Haven't the New York stores closed? SP is the name that has meaning in the Washington area.

[bilrus]

I think it might be because the meaning of the name here has taken on some negative connotations. I went there for lunch today and the staff already had on the Balducci's uniforms and the bags were already in use.

And Jason, their sandwiches are still $6.95.

[Suzanne F]

Isn't this the same Sutton Place that bought Balducci's here in NYC and turned it from a wonderful place into schlock? And now the new owner has the chutzpa to use that name for all the stores? Feh.

Yeah: we talked about it here.

Edited April 7, 2004 by Suzanne F (log)

[tastedc]

Sutton Place name changed to Balducci's - I think it's a Big Mistake...since when has New York set the food trends for DC? From NYC to DC - Sporting News Cafe on 13th & F, fails then the New Yuckers change it to Christopher Marks, fails - now it's a successful restaurant run by Chef Geoff...Nick and Steph's steakhouse at MCI, will be closing soon... the whole concept of lounge/restaurant from NYC has pretty well failed here (exception Chi Cha Lounge), I forget all the other failures...The Attitude of New York is, hey if it succeeds in NYC, they'll LUV IT in DC -- Boy, they don't know how conservative we are!

Mark Ordan was a Big success with Fresh Fields, sold it to Whole Foods...completely designed his business for that purpose, to be sold...maybe he already has a buyer for Balducci's in mind???