Around the time that the Gap debuted a Mast Brothers chocolate bar, we noted that the Brooklyn Flea aesthetic had finally gone mainstream. Now the Times does the same, in a larger piece that has inspired the food section to coin the term “boroughwashing,” for the mainstream appropriation of Brooklyn artisanal food culture. Of course, the Brooklyneer gets a mention, and Jeffrey Steingarten expresses the kind of reservations that he first voiced in his New York Diet: A certain Brooklyn pâté is “made by someone who has probably never been to France, or if he has, he wasn’t there very long.” But the Times fails to ask: How exactly did the whole Brooklyn scene blow up like this, anyway? Maybe, just maybe, the Times had something to do with it?
Brooklyn: The Brand [NYT]
