The Taste of Excess: Balducci's Closes in New York

More financial bloodshed in the yuppie market: seems there is no taste for overpriced gourmet oddities like mango chili vinegar or chocolate covered goji berries--even if they are tasty.
 
Balducci's Makes a Quiet Exit From Manhatten

“Do you really need chipotle raspberry finishing sauce? What is finishing sauce?” asked Barbara Colasanti, a 45-year-old teacher who lives in the West Village, as she perused the scanty pickings at Balducci’s vaulted, marble-walled and echoingly empty Chelsea store at Eighth Avenue and West 14th Street. “People don’t need all this stuff. It’s a lesson.”

The closing of Balducci’s, the World War II-era gourmet market that was once the foremost pit stop for New York foodies, elicited myriad reactions from its customers, who met news of its last days in the city with surprise, sadness and, in the case of Ms. Colasanti, shrugs. Some viewed the closing as tragic, others as a necessary corrective in these newly pared-back times.

“They priced themselves out of the market, it was hubris,” said Ms. Colasanti, who was a devotee of the flagship Balducci’s at Sixth Avenue in Greenwich Village, which closed in 2003 and is now the site of a Citarella.

While I still maintain that those stupid bowl bathroom sinks will remain the most iconic symbol of the excess, I suppose the $5 chocolate bar can't be that far behind.