Occasionally the extremes of the Manhattan real estate market makes things that are implausible possible.  Before being razed six years ago, a Morris Lapidus building on Fourteenth Street was taken over, briefly, by Odd Job.  And ten years ago a portion of the Bridgemarket, a Guastavino-vaulted space under the Manhattan entrance to the Queensboro Bridge, was taken over by Food Emporium.

The ceiling is a full story higher than the fixtures are, and nowhere in the store do you get a wondrous, all-encompassing view of the space.  When you look straight up the vaults seem shadowy and oppressively church-like.  But as you’re moving through the narrow aisles the height is luxurious and liberating, as if you’re in a supermarket in California.  I was there on a weekday evening and the after-work crowd at the check-out lines, with twelve-packs of toilet paper and salad-by-the-pound, seemed lifted, just a bit, by the exalted environment.  Guastavino vaults for a supermarket?  Why not.