Bay Ridge Staple Nordic Delicacies Has Closed
Good luck finding your salted lamb ribs and Reindeer meatballs now. Nordic Delicacies, an emporium of Scandinavian treats on 3rd Avenue in Bay Ridge, has shut its door after almost thirty years. The shop was part of a strip once known as Little Norway, an enclave for Scandinavian immigrants stretching between Bay Ridge and Sunset Park in South Brooklyn. As the population of the neighborhood changed, the “Little Norway” aspect also faded, and Nordic Delicacies was one of the last remaining Scandinavian shops in the area.
Thanks to dwindling business, the owners of Nordic Delicacies officially closed up shop on January 24. “It was bittersweet, but I think it’s time. The neighborhood has changed enough for us to realize that it’s not going to ever swing back,” owner Arlene Rutuelo told the New York Daily News.
The Norwegian population of Brooklyn has dropped from about 30,000 in the 1940s to around 3,500 now, according to the latest census data. “You could walk on Eighth Ave., and they were speaking Norwegian everywhere,” said Rutuelo’s mother and Nordic Delicacies founder Helene Bakke. “There were a lot of different Norwegian shops. Olsens, and Larsens and Pettersens. That’s what it was.”
Now, when you want a taste of that Scandinavian fish pudding, you’ll probably have to go into Manhattan. So long, Nordic Delicacies.