In the NYT City Section Today: Christie's vs. Crunch

Street Level | North Flatbush Avenue
On a Mom-and-Pop Block, the Big Boys Arrive

By PAUL BERGER
Published: August 6, 2006

FOR 40 years, people made the pilgrimage from across the city to Christie’s Jamaican Patties, on the northwest corner of Sterling Place and Flatbush Avenue, for savory pastries stuffed with spicy beef and chicken. A line of customers often trailed out the door of the shabby-looking shop, which sat on a cheese-shaped wedge on the end of the block.

Still, when an outcry arose among patrons after the owner, Paul Haye, announced that he had lost his lease, he was surprised.

“I didn’t know so many people cared about me,” Mr. Haye said in a soft Jamaican lilt.

The customers, it turns out, will not go hungry. Mr. Haye now has a bright new shop one block south and across the street from his old location. But the episode was not easy. Wearing an off-white apron and a small white baker’s hat, Mr. Haye recounted the story of how his family business was uprooted from the block and said, “It has been extremely stressful.”