Remain Calm: Whole Foods Bowery Opens Tomorrow

Please excuse the inexcusable cellphone image above. These things happen.

Yesterday evening, we received an excited call from a friend. "I'm on Houston, in front of the new Whole Foods. There's a huge! line! out the door!"

Confusion. Whole Foods is set to open tomorrow (Thursday) at 8AM. Would they pull a Shake Shack and step out two days early? But then why the line? And why did people dress nice for this?

False alarm. It's a fundraiser for Riverkeeper (open to anyone who wanted to donate $25). We've seen a few Whole Foods markets in our day, but mill around briefly anyway.

Passing by the crowd of gawkers, we spot Niki Federman, who now runs Russ & Daughters with her cousin Josh Tupper (Niki is the great granddaughter of the original Russ.) She chuckles and saus she's "just taking in the spectacle," and it is funny--haha or peculiar, we're not sure--to watch the changes. For its part, Whole Foods will pay homage to the historically delicious neighborhood by featuring local picklers in its cheese department.

Whole Foods - Bowery

95 East Houston Street