A oung man stepped in from a wet and howling Friday afternoon, letting the door swing shut behind him. Inside the shop, the air was thick with incense and spice. A European soccer match on a small television set competed with the reggae playing on the stereo and the crackle of mock salmon steaks frying on the stove.
“Hey, Scoops!” the man, Sheldon Davis, called to the shop’s owner, Tony Fongyit. The two men shook hands across a counter of warming trays. For nearly three decades, Mr. Fongyit has run Scoops, an ice cream parlor and health food store on a nondescript stretch of Brooklyn’s Flatbush Avenue, near Fenimore Street, in what he calls Little West India. And over the years, he and his shop have come to share a name.
-----
From the outside, Scoops, with its candy-colored awning decorated with green and pink ice cream cones, looks like a run-of-the-mill Caribbean sweets shop. But this Prospect-Lefferts Gardens institution is dedicated to good Rastafarian living, having established a loyal following among those who adhere to the meat- and dairy-free ital, or vital, diet; the occasional vegan; and people in the neighborhood who simply like Mr. Fongyit’s cooking.
The shelves are stocked with vegan essentials — cans of meat-free Vienna sausages; bottles of Bragg Liquid Aminos, a protein concentrate; cartons of powdered egg replacement — as well as the odd container of rosemary hemp hair oil or herbal shampoo. The limited wall space is taken up with posters and photographs of Haile Selassie, the Ethiopian emperor; the Obamas; and the Jackson 5.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/15/nyregion/at-scoops-in-brooklyn-ital-food-even-ice-cream.html?_r=1&ref=religionandbeliefI'll be in Brooklyn Tuesday and I'm dropping in, Jackson 5 notwithstanding.
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
