There’s obviously been massive amounts of coverage of Meadow Lane already, so this is not your average New Kid post. I mean, Fox5 was there with a camera crew as I was shopping, which is not the usual sitch in Tribeca.

In the seven days since they opened, there have been lines stretching down Harrison. They have had to close early nearly every day and didn’t even open the doors on Monday, just to give the staff a rest. I met owner Sammy Nussdorf, who said he’s not sure what the hours will be in the future since so far, they have been selling out of product. “We don’t want people to come in to see empty shelves, but we also want people to enjoy the store so we are trying to find the happy medium,” he said. They had instituted a five-item limit for prepared foods when I was there on Tuesday.

So given all that, how to assess? For me the question is, if and when the hoopla dies down, is Meadow Lane going to be a useful spot for locals? And I have two caveats before I answer. One, my comments only apply to the post-line era, since no self-respecting Tribecan is waiting on line for anything let alone a market. And two, put aside price — otherwise, it’s a pointless exercise. So with those two assumptions, yes, I think it will be a good spot to grab a snack and a coffee (the gluten free bakery items were truly exceptional — I had the donut and the cinnamon swirl muffin — and there’s nowhere in the neighborhood for that until Modern opens) or lunch with one of the boxed salads, which were all original, robust and creative in their combinations of flavors.

(NB: there is no indoor seating save two small benches facing the front door. There are seats set up outside.)

It may be that their prepared hot items are also worth a try, but they were completely cleaned out when I went by on Tuesday at 3p. The chicken nuggets are gluten free; the lasagna looked like a good sized serving for two; there’s turkey chili, meatballs, soups, buffalo cauliflower. Some of these come frozen as well.

The front of the store has the bakery and coffee bar on the left, with its own register. The floral studio is on the right — that’s floral designer Sophia Mullin below who is helping get the program started. Produce and dairy line the main aisle and in the back are the prepared foods and pantry items. There weren’t many things in that section I had not seen before between Whole Foods and The Tin Building and actually, Morgan’s, but there are some fun items: spicy mayos, kimchi from Korea, loads of snacks.

There are at least six different prepared salads — we had the Chinese chicken salad and the Osaka beef bowl for dinner with some left over and both were excellent. They also make their own pantry items: granola, oat milk lattes, pasta sauces, dressings.

So the elephant in the room: price. Outrageous. The beef salad was $27. The GF muffin was $9. (Prices are not listed for the baked goods at the counter, so beware.) The eggs were $18. Compare that to Cafe Clementine’s E’s Big Salad at $20 or Frenchette Bakery’s kouign-amann at $6.50 or Happier Grocery’s eggs at $13. None of these spots are slouches in the pricing department, so Meadow Lane made an impression. I spent $25 for a glass of Greek wine on Monday night, so maybe none of this should be a surprise. But it certainly is a consideration before you make it to the register.

They have some work to do on the exhaust system on the Harrison Street side — it’s still enclosed in plywood — but otherwise, Meadow Lane seems to have opened fully formed.

Meadow Lane
355 Greenwich at Harrison