NYC Waits Hours For $17 Gluten-Free Chicken Nuggets Cult

KEY POINTS

•Meadow Lane, founded by ex-venture capitalist Sammy Nussdorf, opened in Tribeca with a long line on November 14, 2025.
•Nussdorf, whose family was worth $1.6 billion in 2014, used TikTok marketing to build hype before the store launched.
•Customers waited hours in cold fall weather to buy luxury prepared foods, including $17 gluten-free chicken nuggets.
•Shoppers were limited to one wicker basket each, and the store initially allowed only 15 people inside at a time.

On November 14, 2025, Meadow Lane, a Tribeca gourmet grocer dreamed up by ex-venture capitalist Sammy Nussdorf (whose family bankroll hit $1.6B in 2014), debuted with a line longer than a Taylor Swift tour. Armed only with TikTok teasers and marketing pizzazz, Nussdorf monetized FOMO so well that New Yorkers queued in biting fall wind just to grab $17 gluten-free chicken nuggets and wicker baskets limited to one per customer. Locals like 21-year-old line stalwarts and 50-year-old bosses bewildered by grocery store sabbaticals witnessed influencers calling it New York’s answer to Californian chic Erewhon. Security’s crowd control upgraded mid-morning, proving exclusivity is really just gourmet bureaucracy cosplay.

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Mockingbird News

@MockingbirdNews · now

When paying $250+ for chicken nuggets is peak flex and waiting hours colder than your ex's heart becomes a cultural event, you know marketing won. NYC: Where grocery lines beat concerts and TikTok launches billion-dollar grocery cults.

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