by Seth Rogovoy
(HUDSON, N.Y.) – I cannot vouch for their authenticity, but these flyers announcing that Citarella — the New York City-based gourmet food market – is coming to Hudson in August 2014 are taped to the pillars of the Eric Galloway-owned “Arcade” building near the southwest corner of Fifth and Warren streets that has previously been identified as the potential home for a food market.
Most recently, the rumor mill had it that the Hawthorne Valley Farm Store was going to open a store in that location. Residents of downtown Hudson were looking forward to the arrival of a full-service market such as Hawthorne Valley.
While the addition of Citarella to downtown Hudson would certainly be a significant step in the city’s resurgence, catering as it would to weekenders from the city and full-time residents of the “foodie” persuasion, the city already has a fine gourmet market in Olde Hudson. One wonders if the downtown could support both stores.
Then again, with plans for some sort of Guido’s-style market still moving ahead in the former Ackerman’s building on the corner of Warren and Eighth streets, with Hawthorne Valley still on the lookout for a downtown Hudson location, and with the potential addition of a second weekly farmer’s market – this one in the Seventh Street Park — perhaps the day will not be far off when Hudson will in no way still qualify as a food desert.
On a personal note – in 1984, I lived in Manhattan on 75th Street just west of Broadway, three doors down from Citarella, which at the time was simply a corner fish market. I think it would be kind of funny if all these years later, after a circuitous route, I wind up again shopping at Citarella.