"That's it Gromit… cheeeeese… We'll go somewhere where there's cheese!"
I stop by the Dean and Deluca in Georgetown periodically, and Balducci's is colonizing a couple of long standing gourmet shops in the area. (And I do my best to visit D&D in the SoHo when I visit NYC, too.)Their expansion might find them competing against the likes of Dean & Deluca, a corporate foodie giant that had its eyes on Philly.
The sad thing is that D&D is coasting on fumes at this point. Their tea shelves seem impressive on first glance, until you look deeper and see the selection isn't really that broad or great. And a decent part of their stock still says Best Before 12-2003. And that's just the stuff that has best-by dates. I could go on, but overall, D&D is just depressing now, especially compared to what it used to be, and what it could be if they just put a little more effort into the operation.
Balducci's is better, but still misses something. If nothing else, it doesn't have that personal touch that you get at DiBruno's.
