I ACTUALLY KIND OF CAN'T BELIEVE I AM SHARING THIS INFORMATION FREELY
But here I go with it. Welcome to the first Vibe-Based Review :)
FIRST: A TIKTOK TEASER FOR YOUR VIEWING PLEASURE. more here.
VIBE BASED REVIEW #1 : LIFETHYME NATURAL FOODS, 6TH AVE, WEST VILLAGE, NYC
EST 1995
MOOD BEFORE ENTRY: HUNGRY, FRANTIC, TROUBLED, OVERWHELMED
MOOD UPON DEPARTURE: SATISFIED, QUIET. FEELING YOUNGER.
The NYC I grew up in had a musty, macrobiotic element to the food scene. Some sort of pre-internet utilitarian nature to food spaces of a certain ilk. There were numerous spots and spaces where the lighting was bright, the smell was kind of weird, and the food was ‘health’.
I remember Village Natural (RIP), a favorite place on Greenwich Avenue, across from where I grew up. Here you would descend down to a basement below Greenwich Treehouse and slide into a sticky wooden booth. Fellow patrons were Greenwich Village Old People, vaguely cantankerous, quiet beatniks who lived in the same beautiful, unchanged studios on Grove Street or Perry for decades and decades. You would see them with pen and paper, reading the Village Voice, or talking in hushed tones with a long-haired friend about poetry and gossip.
Likely due to the introduction of ‘wellness’ towards the center of our culture, the presence of the unique musty health food space has migrated from peripheral and niche to basically obsolete. Or it exists more in places like Joshua Tree and Topanga Canyon and Northampton Mass, but not so much downtown Manhattan. Sure, we have Souen (which I love), but we also have Dig Inn and Sweetgreen and Honeybrains and whatever. And who am I to judge (I’m me!) but sometimes I miss when health food was kind of unglamorous and challenging and transparent.
Now and often, in New York, I am overwhelmed. Even though I am from here. It’s built to make a person feel that way! But I think only in the last few years have I consciously clocked my nervous system going haywire.
I have, however, located an oasis.
On busy 6th ave, close to Bigelow, we have LifeThyme. LifeThyme Natural Foods is in many way just market. Too expensive, decent produce, healthy snacks, a huge tea section and many supplements. But there are idiosyncrycies here that feel meaningful.
First, the buffet. Not terribly appetizing, but tremendously reliable. Vegetables are sometimes tired, but always well-seasoned. Proteins are actually pretty great — little salmon cakes, lemon chicken, sesame tofu. I prefer this to the pre-packaged refrigerated dessert and savory section, which it feels like allowed items like vegan lemon bars and chard carrot wraps (poorly marketed but containing optimal raw sustenance) to walk so that Erewhon could take them, up the ante, and run.
What else? I haven’t lingered in supplements because there are just SO MANY, but they likely have all you need and more. The cashiers are typically disinterested, which feels more than fair.
Once you get the lay of the land, here’s what you do. Grab a drink (for me, it’s coconut water or a green tea) and fill a little aluminum container with stuff from the buffet /salad bar. Don’t be scared. Pay at the register, then grab plastic silverware by the door and walk upstairs. When you ascend, you’ll think it’s only a bath and body section until you peer through the aisles and see tables, about nine of them, in front of two big windows. The windows stream in light. Walk toward them and sit down.
The space is quiet, with ancient magazines and a no-cellphone sign. Try to get a table close to the window, then, so you can watch the people zooming around below, while you sit in stillness. Maybe the food impresses you, maybe it’s mid. Either way, you’ve found more Thyme.