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K-Slope Marketplace - Brooklyn, NY (Park Slope)

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By Zachary
K-Slope Marketplace
Opened: November 2025
Owner: Brian Kim
Previous Tenants: Steve's 9th St Market
Cooperative: Key Food Stores
Location: 329 9th St, Brooklyn, NY
Photographed: December 1, 2025 and February 11, 2024 (Steve's)
Supermarket closures often prompt sadness, frustration, nostalgia. Here in Park Slope, the emotion that best describes the reaction to Steve's 9th Street Market closing is outrage. The longtime store -- a CTown that opened in 1998 and was owned by Steven Reifinger -- closed abruptly in September with no apparent explanation. Shortly thereafter, though, a Key Food operator announced they'd signed a lease and the store would reopen as K-Slope Marketplace. K-Slope's soft opening was November 23, and a grand opening is upcoming.
At just under 20,000 square feet, Steve's (and now K-Slope) is the largest supermarket in Park Slope. It was also previously a vaudeville theater. Steve's was a pretty normal neighborhood supermarket -- a mainstream store with a straightforward selection. It's not totally clear why Steve's closed, but it is clear that K-Slope is seeking to do some of the same things that Steve's did while adding some new selections. It's very possible that Steve's closure was prompted by the K-Slope owners approaching the landlord (or even perhaps Steve himself) with an offer to take over the supermarket.
The most notable change is the introduction of a significant Korean food selection, in part because of Park Slope's growing Asian community and in part because the owner, Brian Kim, is Korean-American. This is in the front-left corner of the store, right inside the entrance, where I believe Steve's had floral. The rest of the layout is almost identical, but more on that soon.
K-Slope's floral department is between the entrance and Korean food area, and the front-end.
The bones of the store are the same -- it was closed for just over a month and a half, so there wasn't time for too much extensive renovation -- but K-Slope has brightened up the store with new lighting, replaced the flooring, and replaced certain fixtures while also adding sushi, service seafood, and a service butcher.
The decor is all but identical, though, as K-Slope has just put a few K-Slope signs over the existing Steve's signs. Now is a good time to address: what the heck is a K-Slope? The store says the K stands for Kings County, people on Reddit say it stands for Korean. In fact, K-Slope even made a social media post (before the store's opening) playing on that exact question. Another possibility: they wanted a name that had the same feel as CTown, given that it was a familiar brand here, but couldn't make it as similar as something like K-Town.
The owner of this store, Brian Kim, appears to be related to Kevin Kim, who owns two SuperFresh stores and a Food Universe in New Jersey. That makes me wonder why this store isn't simply a SuperFresh.
The produce and deli departments are in the first aisle on the left side of the store, with beer in the back of that aisle. Meat lines the back wall, with dairy and frozen on the right side.
K-Slope has kept most of that the same, aside from moving bakery away from deli to accommodate a sushi counter. Right now, baked goods are in the beer case until they get a liquor license.
K-Slope has also added a service seafood counter at the back of the first aisle. It looks like baked goods might be eventually moved into that case to the left below.
The basic setup of the meat department is the same, too, but K-Slope has replaced the fixtures and added a service butcher counter in the middle of the back wall.
Even though the store is pretty much the same, it's quite a bit of work to get done in just about two months.
A truly tiny Foodtown just around the corner has also just completed an expansion, and while the space is very beautiful, even with the expansion it's only about 5600 square feet. (I assume there's also a basement.)
The grocery aisles are definitely brighter, with the lighting moved up to the ceiling instead of built into the shelves.
Another Key Food-affiliated store, an Urban Market, is about four blocks south of here. That's owned by different owners, though, the Mujalli family. Another five blocks south is a different Key Food affiliate, the Marketplace of Park Slope, owned by yet different people.
Steve's was not in bad shape at all and didn't seem neglected. Some of the fixtures were on the older side, but generally it seemed to be a well-run and pleasant store. It does seem like K-Slope intends to be as similar as possible to Steve's, even hiring the same store manager to run the store.
New or at least refurbished dairy and frozen cases in the last aisle.
Ice cream continues onto the front wall next to the registers.
Not a whole lot has changed up here on the front end, except for some new lane markers and flooring.
That's all for K-Slope, and it's good to see this store remain a supermarket as it's clearly in demand here. Here's a look at this weekend's other posts!

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Comments

  1. BillyGrDecember 6, 2025 at 6:24 PM

    The name may also be a play on the area (being called park slope), or even that it was originally a theater (which generally have a slop to the floor to allow for better viewing for those seated there)?

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