((PKG))  RESTAURANT TURNED GENERAL STORE   
((TRT:  04:50))  
((Banner:  A Pandemic Pivot))  
((Reporter/Camera:  Aaron Fedor)) 
((Producer:  Kathleen McLaughlin)) 
((Editor: Stefan Pildes))  
((Map:  New York, New York))    
((Main characters:  1 male))    
((Sub characters:  2 female;  1 male))   
((Popup Banner:  As much as 40% of New York City 
restaurants are projected to go out of business this year due 
to the pandemic))  
((NATS))
((Courtesy:  John Frizell)) 
((St. John Frizell, Owner, Fort Defiance General Store)) 
I'm St. John Frizell.  This is my restaurant Fort Defiance on 
Van Brunt street in the Red Hook neighborhood of Brooklyn.  
Fort Defiance opened in 2009 and we have served 
breakfast, lunch and dinner here for 11 years.   
((NATS)) 
((St. John Frizell, Owner, Fort Defiance General Store)) 
In late March, I started to order vegetables for the store, 
really for myself.  And I put a post on Facebook to see if any 
of my neighbors wanted me to get them some, too.  And a 
lot of people responded because they were afraid to go into 
supermarkets at the time and online delivery was sort of a 
mess.  So, a lot of people responded.  I ordered groceries for 
all of us and it just kind of went from there.  
((NATS)) 
((Red Hook Resident))  
When the pandemic shut everything down, it was actually 
my daughter who found out that they had turned into a 
general store, basically.  And so, I started coming over here 
and getting stuff for my two daughters who live in 
apartments, separate from us.  Great salmon, eggs, you 
know, milk, great produce, really good avocados, lemons, 
limes.  Stuff that is running out at different moments all over 
the city, they seem to be able to keep a semi-steady supply 
of.  I mean, we're all making do.  
((NATS)) 
((St. John Frizell, Owner, Fort Defiance General Store)) 
There was a reason that we chose the name General Store. 
General stores were, you know, cornerstones of their 
communities all over America.  And I'm hoping that's what, 
you know, Fort Defiance can become too.  Everyone's sort of 
doing things in a different way now, like our vendors, who 
sell us meat and fish, are used to sending us, you know, just 
20-pound [9 kg] boxes of stuff and now they're breaking it all 
down and packaging it, labeling it.  I mean, everyone is 
learning how to be more consumer facing.  You know, we're 
all going through this together and you know, figuring it out 
and surviving together.  
((NATS)) 
((Red Hook Resident)) 
I'm so happy that they are doing what they're doing.  I mean, 
to be able to access like really nice produce, high quality 
fish, meats, kind of do the market shopping that other 
neighborhoods have but we don't have in Red Hook, I think it 
really fills a hole. 
((NATS)) 
((St. John Frizell, Owner, Fort Defiance General Store)) 
Early on, I sent out a survey to my customers, 40% of them 
replied to the survey.  We're talking about hundreds of 
people, which is amazing.  Every day I was getting emails, 
you know, thanking us for providing this service, which 
seemed crazy to me because we were making money from 
selling these groceries, but people were not only happy to 
pay us, but they were just so thankful that we were doing it.  
That gratitude really just kept us going and really helped to 
guide the path of this business.  
((NATS)) 
((Red Hook Resident)) 
I've been coming to Fort Defiance for about five years.  It 
was one of the places that when I first was considering 
moving to Red Hook, I kind of wanted to get a vibe for the 
place and what would it be like to live down here.  And Fort 
Defiance, I think is sort of a….definitely gave me the sense 
that there is a community, that there's really good food and 
there's always someone amazing and interesting to get into 
some random, wonderful conversation with. 
((NATS)) 
((St. John Frizell, Owner, Fort Defiance General Store)) 
To be honest, I'm really excited to get into the general store 
business.  I really like buying products to sell to my 
customers.  I love talking to them about it.  I love the quality 
of the goods that we're getting here.  And honestly, there's 
not a business like this in the neighborhood now and I think it 
could really find a permanent hold here and, you know, be 
as much a part of the community as Fort Defiance was as a 
restaurant.  Water is free.  We've got Milk Bones out here for 
dogs.  So, you know, come by and say, hello. 
((NATS))