Almost Rejected from Kickstarter, Colonie Launches to Raves

By on February 18, 2011 7:32 am in Food, Video

“We were initially rejected from Kickstarter,” Colonie [127 Atlantic Avenue] owner Tamer Hamawi tells BHB contributor/restaurant maven/filmmaker Karl Junkersfeld about the new restaurant’s innovative plan to crowdfund its opening. Find out why they met with some resistance and if their fare meets the high standards of Mr. J’s palate in his video report after the jump.

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  • AEB

    Excellent! Good luck to them–and very nice vid, Karl!

  • David on Middagh

    Professional restaurateurs talked Kickstarter into funding another of their restaurants? That’s a riot!

    Very good video.

  • DrewB

    Ate there last night and it was excellent. They really done a lot with that space.

  • Topham Beauclerk

    “Kitchen is our theatre, restaurants are our art form.” What pompous rubbish. A cook, even a great one, is not an artist and a restaurant owner, even the most successful, is just a businessman.

  • David on Middagh

    @TB: You almost have to applaud the chutzpah, tho’.

    Well, folks want to go out, and the banks are less free with the purse strings. If the “crowd” wants to “source”, so be it. I don’t begrudge the eaters a decent restaurant.

  • AEB

    Oh, Topham, come on! He’s a biz guy who said what he needed to say to get the job on its way. If he said it at all.

    Of course cooks and restaurants aren’t artists/art repositories. But good that he got Kickstarter to kick in.

  • my2cents

    Karl, this is your most polished video yet! I’m impressed with the editing and camera work! Good job!

  • Topham Beauclerk

    “If he said it at all.” AEB, I was quoting the man.

  • mommaHeights

    @ Topham Beauclerk I totally disagree with you.
    There absolutly is an artistic element to any culinary form. Art is objective and I believe there most definitely is an artistic creativity that is required of any good chief.
    I’ve seen a handful of restaurants/food focused projects on Kickstarter. I wish them all the best of luck.
    I also just checked out Colonie’s Yelp page and so far, the reviews are excellent.

  • Jason-Mill

    Never really considered going to brooklyn heights to eat but Homer’s review got me pretty stoked. I might check it out this weekend with my girlfriend, she’s all about supporting local trade, so think she’ll be impressed with my restaurant choice. Hopefully.
    Side NOte: funny how people want to argue over what is and isn’t art or who is or isnt an artist. I’d have to agree that art is objective. What about a food sculpture!!? (j/k) ALso, building a restaurant from the ground up takes some major artistic creativity for sure!

  • MarieGiletto

    I just watched their kickstarter video. It looks like their goal was to raise $10,000 and they raised over $15,300? Seems like a lot of folks believed in their project.
    (is this review done by Karl or Homer?)

  • AEB

    OK, here’s why food–cooking, dishes–can’t be art, though it/they can be artisinal, the work of people highly trained to perfect a form.

    1. Art isn’t made to please, though of course it can. Cooking IS.

    2. Food, ingredients, even when masterfully combined lack expressivity; dishes tell us nothing about ourselves, our experience as people living in the world. Art does. Thus

    3. Food, as much as it may excite us, can’t yield an aesthetic experience. Not like reading a wonderful book, hearing great music, seeing terrific art. It can make us very happy, it can even educate our senses, but finally, it ain;t art.

    There! Oz has spoken!

  • Karl Junkersfeld

    My video. I did it all by myself, though, without this great blog, that Homer Fink created, I wouldn’t have a vehicle to show my ART FORM. lol

  • tollen

    Dissagree with just about all of your points “Oz”. Art is in everything. And it is made for reasons known only by the creator. The objective of a song or a painting could very well be to please.
    Good discussion though. Agree to disagree.
    Good video, food looks great and so does the space.

  • Heightsman

    Ate there last night. Very good but great atmosphere and an extremely friendly staff. Great addition to the hood. Told me 1 hr wait but it was on 20 minutes.

  • Arch Stanton

    As usual AEB is wrong:

    Point 1 while a simplistic true statement dose not invalidate culinary craft as an art. Most art is intended to be aesthetically pleasing.

    “Food, ingredients, even when masterfully combined lack expressivity; dishes tell us nothing about ourselves, our experience as people living in the world. Art does”

    The definition of art does not require it must to tell us something, only that it that it evokes a sensory or emotional response. cooking can do both.

    “Food, as much as it may excite us, can’t yield an aesthetic experience”

    Chefs often use ingredients for color to create a visual harmony to a dish, that is aesthetic.

  • nabeguy

    A truly gifted chef can use his palette to appeal to your palate…that’s art.

  • AEB

    Arch, you’re absolutely right and I’m absolutely wrong–as usual. I wasn’t aware that I’d thrown down a gauntlet, but I’m thankful you picked it up.

  • AEB

    PS, I’d forgotten that Careme, who could surely rassle those pots and pans, DID opine that pastry making was a branch of architecture.

    And I’d always taken that as a wonderfully giddy remark….

  • Judi Walden

    Hooray! Will come up from Atlanta to feast on the fabulous offerings and enjoy the atmosphere! Hugs! Judi and Jimmy