Open Thread Wednesday

By on September 15, 2021 6:03 am in open thread

What’s on your mind? Comment away!

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  • kizz

    Inga’s Bar (formerly Jack the Horse Tavern) is looking at a late October opening, assuming all goes as planned. Brown paper sheets are covering the windows now as they work on the interior.

  • KDHicks

    Excited for this! Finally some good news about openings. Seems like every day something else is shutting — I wish Montague St could take a cue from what they’ve done over in Prospect Heights with Vanderbilt Ave. Several great shops and bars on a walkable pedestrian-only street. Do we know if there are any plans coming off of that survey earlier this year? Seems more vacant now than ever.

  • Cranberry Beret

    No, the Montague businesses and landlords refuse. Lots of them drive to the neighborhood and can’t imagine giving up their street parking. They’re still living in the 1960s not the 2020s hence their businesses will suffer (along with the rest of us) due to their narrow self-interest.

  • pizza

    does anyone know what’s going on with the opening of l&b spumoni gardens?

  • Nomcebo Manzini

    I’m sure there’s lots of truth in that. There are a few businesses on Montague that look so 1960-1990 that I can’t guess how they’ve survived.

    But it seems to me – I used to compare Montague St. to Seventh Avenue in Park Slope – that Montague is like the canary in the coal mine: Post-Amazon, what SHOULD one expect but banks, cellphone stores, restaurants – and even THEY seem somewhat superfluous.

    Vanderbilt serves MORE PEOPLE (especially now that the Atlantic Ave. end has been built up and UP) and much younger people. If Montague doesn’t have less retail and more residential – wrenching though that may be – I predict that it will get worse before it gets better.

    People have long said that the “old Starbucks” is owned by someone a little unhinged. Now that her storefront has at least a dozen clones, I wonder.

    Let’s hope Lincoln Restler will run with his campaign proposal to introduce DISINCENTIVES (fees & taxes) to pricing (rents) inelasticity. “Market forces” seem to have stopped working, and as people buy more and more online, it’s even harder for retail to hack it IRL. Key on Montague now prices like Gristede’s – likely because Fresh Direct and others have dramatically reduced Key’s volume.

  • Jorale-man

    PSA: Please remember to wear a mask when waiting to purchase items at the Borough Hall Greenmarket. Most of the vendors are no longer enforcing social distancing in their lines, making face coverings all the more important. Gracias.

  • Nomcebo Manzini

    Announced TWO!! years ago. Yes, it’s been a wacky 2 years, but I’ll guess that it’s an operation with one or 2 people running it who seriously care about “their brand.” (Or maybe one of them got sick.) In some ways, it’s easier to move than it is to open a 2nd place. Especially since they’re going from mostly locals who’ve patronized them ALL their lives to as different a target patron as could possibly be.

    Saw a “healthy” line, btw, outside the new coffee place a block or 2 down that looks like a subway entrance. Anybody here try their brew yet?

  • Andrew Porter

    Last of my old photos of the Heights. This is from the early 1900s, looking north toward the 3 bridges spanning the East River. Next week, might start using my own Old BH photos, which now go back 50 years (gasp!):
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/02493e98923a1c732f36c25d77cd436101549f63c3c41a6bdc89a85cf57f94c4.jpg

  • aeshtron

    “There is not a single documented Covid infection anywhere in the world from casual outdoor interactions, such as walking past someone on a street or eating at a nearby table.”

    The above quote is from NYT article “A Misleading C.D.C. Number” which was written by David Leonhardt and published on 5/11/21.

    No thank you to wearing a mask outdoors. Yes please to wearing a mask in shared indoor spaces.

  • meschwar

    That article was pre-delta. I haven’t seen anything that indicates on way or the other as to whether outdoors transmission is still so unlikely with Delta.

    And there’s really nothing wrong with being extra careful.

  • Jorale-man

    Exactly. See the NY Times from 9/9/11. “The Delta variant seems to replicate in amounts that are perhaps 1,000 times as much as those seen in people infected with other variants, defeating immune defenses in the nose and throat.”

    At a 1,000 times more transmissible, I don’t want to be standing next to a maskless person, indoors or out. Especially since anti-maskers are more likely to be anti-vaxxers as well.

  • Rick

    “It took just seconds for a person to be infected with COVID-19 as a stranger walked past them while shopping at Bondi Junction Westfield.

    And it hasn’t happened just once.

    Australian health officials are warning it no longer takes up to 15 minutes to pass on the deadly virus.

    It can be a “fleeting moment” of just five to 10 seconds.”

    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-06-24/covid-delta-kappa-variant-spread-in-fleeting-moment-nsw-vic/100238680

  • kizz

    New York Icery will be opening this weekend at 18 Columbia Place.

  • Andrew Avrin

    Why did they cut down those two trees in Squibb park?

  • KDHicks

    Interesting – is that the old Clover Hill spot?

  • kizz

    No. It’s neither affiliated with Clover Hill nor in the location of Clover Hill. Different space altogether.

  • cool

    I’m guessing that front most block is Cranberry between Willow & Columbia Heights. Gone forever the cupola.

  • Mary Kim

    In restaurant news and following up on Claude’s previous post, I think a “Mad for Chicken,” a Korean fried chicken franchise, is opening up at the old Teresa’s location. I asked a construction worker and he said what sounded like “Master Chicken” with his accent. It took a while to figure he probably said, “Mad for Chicken.” Will confirm if I can. I was hoping more for a Korean bbq place, but will take what we can get.

  • http://selfabsorbedboomer.blogspot.com/ Claude Scales

    I was also hoping for a BBQ place, but I’ve yet to try Korean fried chicken, and suspect it’s a good deal more interesting than the other KFC.

  • Banet

    Your photos might be a lot more interesting actually. Bring ‘em on!

  • Banet

    Another casualty. The short-lived Novel Kitchen on Atlantic next to the (quite serviceable) Brado:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cddfb70df5fe1cdd3c40a55d75c4070f690112a8858b3a8997e5b15354c3601c.jpg

  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7nPOzGeyaw Arch Stanton

    Probably taken from the roof of the Margret Hotel

  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7nPOzGeyaw Arch Stanton
  • AEB

    So I pop unto Le French Bakery to have a look and what to my wondering eyes did appear but, among so much else, canellés, Époisse, duck confit (albeit Cryovac’ed) baguettes of the real sort, even French polenta(!)…Swear that I haven’t had psychedelics since the seventies. Putting quality aside (for the moment), can this be real?

  • Heightsguy77

    The quality is there, as well. The place is amazing!!!

  • Nomcebo Manzini

    Just wasted 5 minutes Googling “le french bakery” brooklyn – What?/Where? – just a couple of days ago I looked at the place near the old Henry’s End location that was “Cardinal” – soon to be “French something.” … “Help wanted” signs, seemed not yet open…. IS THAT IT?

  • HgtsShpr

    I suspect Key Food also took a volume hit because of their terrible response to masking requirements in the early days of the pandemic. My household used to spend about $1000 a month on groceries there, but after complaining about the same handful of maskless employees over and over again with no result, we took our business elsewhere via Instacart and never went back.

  • AEB
  • Nomcebo Manzini

    Thanks. Looks a little rich not only for my blood & other organs, … but for the nabe, but I’m probably wrong. Obviously, with Cranberry’s gone – anybody have a clue if that space is even on the market? – it’s got a better shot. (And how does the deli at Pineapple & Henry keep going?)

  • Nomcebo Manzini

    Another “branch”‘s review copied & pasted from the web [anybody hungry?] –
    This mini-chain is the go-to restaurant for Korean fried chicken. They serve wings, drumsticks, and boneless chicken breasts in flavors like soy and spicy garlic – giving you more than enough options to change up your order on every visit. We particularly love the drumsticks, which are lightly battered and taste like savory chicken lollipops that have been marinated in a garlicky sauce bath for days.

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