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Trader Joe’s in the bank

Trader Joe’s in the bank
The Brooklyn Paper / Craig Dilger

The deal is done: Trader Joe’s is coming to Atlantic Avenue.

The long-rumored arrival of the quirky supermarket was heralded on Thursday morning with a bizarre parade featuring Borough President Markowitz, steel drummers and Downtown boosters — all wearing the retailer’s trademark Hawaiian shirts.

“Brooklynites know a great value when they see one — and now our long wait for our own Trader Joe’s is over,” said Markowitz. “We’re thrilled that this acclaimed store is setting up shop. Trader Joe’s will bring more customers to Downtown Brooklyn and residents will have even more choice … for fresh produce, prepared foods and groceries.”

The store will hawk its chicken dumplings, organic coffees and fresh produce — but not its famous “Two-Buck Chuck” wine because of city booze laws — from the landmark Independence Savings Bank building at the corner of Court Street and Atlantic Avenue.

The building, now a Sovereign Bank, is owned by Two Trees Management. The Sovereign branch will relocate across Atlantic Avenue into Two Trees’ Court House building.

Trader Joe’s arrival was the latest salvo in a war for the borough’s upscale stomachs. This week, the environmentally and socially conscious Whole Foods market announced that its location on Houston Street and the Bowery in Manhattan will now deliver to Brownstone Brooklyn and Williamsburg. (To see a delivery map, check out www.WholeFoodsMarket.com).

The charge for delivery — between 10 am and 6 pm — is $5.95.

The Whole Foods “Gold Zone” in Brooklyn extends all the way from Williamsburg in the north to the very bottom corner of Park Slope — one block from where local rival Union Market is building its second gourmet emporium. The area includes Brooklyn Heights, Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill, Boerum Hill, Fort Greene, Clinton Hill and DUMBO.

Curiously red-lined from Whole Foods’ delivery map, however, is Red Hook — possibly because that neighborhood’s stomach is already sated by Fairway, which opened its first Brooklyn store last May.

That store will get some serious competition next year, when Whole Foods’ first Brooklyn store is expected to open along the banks of the mighty Gowanus Canal in the gentrifying area between Park Slope and Carroll Gardens.