Open Thread Wednesday

Last week's open thread was a lively discussion, so let's try it again.

Anyone try Taze, the new restaurant in the Kapadokya spot?

Will a national chain ever open in one of the huge spaces available on Clark Street?

If you could open any kind of store in the neighborhood what would it be?

Brooklyn Bridge Park – ever gonna happen?

And just who is that guy with the dog

Blue Pig Party Place — the newspapers are off the windows… thoughts? Have a photo? 

Brooklyn Eagle, Brooklyn Paper or The Courier? Read 'em?

…and anything else you've got on your mind…. 

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  • mcleaniac

    I haven’t tried Taze, but they bombed my co-op with colorful flyers over the long weekend. I noticed the flyers use Kapadokya’s (well deserved) Zagat testimonials and weren’t so much a menu as they were an announcement that the place is open for lunch (for instance – no prices). Appears to be the same fare, though — hope they have not 86’d the Mixed Grill – the best thing on Kapadokya’s menu IMO.

    I think a national chain is bound to open up on Clark Street — sounds like they may be the only viable tenants given the outrageous rents.

    As I mentioned last week, I’m single but I think a baby clothes and supplies store would make a billion dollars in BH.

    Finally, I think the park will definitely happen, and we can look forward to more colorful neighborhood characters like the guy with the dog, who I have seen at least twice.

  • epc

    Any leads on what is going into the former bookstore space on Hicks at Middagh? I walked by the other day and peered inside, it has the look of a real estate office or some other sort of office.

  • http://www.petebrush.com pbdotc

    brooklyn eagle web site: worst ever?

    i brooklyn papes.

  • Justin

    Does anyone know the difference between the “Brooklyn Eagle” and “Brooklyn Daily Eagle?” Are they affiliated? It doesn’t seem that way.

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

    Anyone try Taze, the new restaurant in the Kapadokya spot? Not yet. I tried to get my wife to try it a couple of nights ago when she had dinner with a friend, but they stuck to the tried and true Teresa’s.

    Will a national chain ever open in one of the huge spaces available on Clark Street? Only if they’re looking for a huge tax write-off.

    If you could open any kind of store in the neighborhood what would it be? I’d try to ressurect Capulet’s – a decent bar and grill with bluegrass music on weekend nights.

    Brooklyn Bridge Park – ever gonna happen? Yes.

    And just who is that guy with the dog? Haven’t had the pleasure yet.

    Blue Pig Party Place — the newspapers are off the windows… thoughts? Have a photo? No and no.

    Brooklyn Eagle, Brooklyn Paper or The Courier? Read ’em? We subscribe to the Brooklyn Heights Paper, which I enjoy, although Dennis Holt’s writing style is so baroque that I feel like Hemingway by comparison. I pick up the Brooklyn Paper now and then, but don’t like it as much. Courier? Don’t know it.

    …and anything else you’ve got on your mind….

  • rms

    Will a national chain ever open in one of the huge spaces available on Clark Street?
    Not a chance. Too many senior folk on fixed incomes in our neighborhood makes for lousy retail prospects. The owners obviously have different assumptions about the kind of tenants that space can attract and the rents it can generate, but I think they’re naive. The maintenance pmts I’ve seen for apts for sale in the St. George are astronomical, which suggests they badly need retail rents. I don’t see that changing.

    If you could open any kind of store in the neighborhood what would it be?
    A better grocery store, to run that nasty Gristedes out of business.

    Brooklyn Bridge Park – ever gonna happen?
    Yes. Definitely.

    Blue Pig Party Place — the newspapers are off the windows… thoughts? Have a photo?
    Can’t see how this place will make money, but haven’t seen their business plan either.

  • LD

    How about a Border’s or Barnes & Noble on Clark St.? If it takes a chain store to pay the rents, a bookstore would be better than bank/drug store/r.e. office.

  • BP

    Former bookstore on Hicks/Middagh is going to be an interior designer’s office. At least, that’s what I was told when I called the realtor while they were still in contract.

  • Mary

    Anyone know what happened to the Children’s clothing store just up the block from Middagh and Hicks? There used to be a french women there, and now the front of it looks very odd – they kept the window showcase but put a door up. It looks like maybe it’s commercial space being used for residential but disguised?

    I’m not crazy about blue pig there ice cream is so/so. What their other location suppose to be – what kind of party place?

    BTW, I like Monty Q’s pizza but think Fascati’s is awful. Am I alone on this?

  • AES

    Maybe I’m wrong about this, but I always pictured in the former Mike’s Steakhouse/Bagel Lady etc. space on Clark an old-fashioned ice cream parlor with the classic soda fountain plus tables. There are so many families here that if you added simple sandwiches to get you through the winter plus old-fashioned candy and small toys for the kids, it might work. Clearly, I’ve given this too much thought!

  • Mr.Bingo

    A good grocery store on Hicks would be what’s needed, and the only thing that would survive. Nothing needed on the scale of Garden of Eden, but along the same like of organic and varied produce, a good meat and deli counter, and interesting sundries… I would be there every day! And it would teach those Pace students how to eat right, too.

  • Tom

    You may like Monty Q’s, Mary, but the Board of Health sure didn’t.

    It’s been shut down, with an amazing 56 violation points.

  • C

    Wow, thanks for the Monty’s link. That’s nasty. But it’s not shut down yet, unfortunately, I just ate there (it wasnt my choice, I swear). I guess they need a hearing or something first.

  • ECK

    Did anyone notice that MontyQ’s was closed by the health inspector. Also, a thrift store is going in where fish eddy’s was. I think a WholeFoods or Trader Joe’s or something like that would be great on Clark street. One thing we really don’t need is another bank. I would be in favor of Gap giving the hood another try. I really miss that place.

  • http://www.danrosenbaum.com Dan

    There’s something odd with the Monty Q’s closure. (It was shut down on the 16th, and I saw people in there last night frantically trying to fix stuff.) If you look at previous inspections, it passed with no particular problems. Yet the things that the health department dinged it on are pretty systemic — no place to wash hands, incorrect surfaces, dim lighting in food prep. Those aren’t temporary matters; they’re the kind of things that come from design/construction flaws. What in the world happened there over the last year to rack up so many points?

    Whole Foods? Never happen. Whole Food stores need a bazillion square feet. The place their building in Gowanus will be bigger than the Red Hook Fairway, at 60,000 sq ft. Maybe a Trader Joes, which would be pretty good, but I don’t know if they do spaces as small as 5,000 sq ft.

    The “thrift store” going into Fish’s Eddy is HousingWorks, which is about as high-end a second-hand store as you’re going to find anywhere. Its stock will probably be nicer than Ann Taylor’s or Jennifer Convertibles.

    The Eagle and the Daily Eagle are different businesses entirely. There was a “Patsy’s” type lawsuit some years ago about who had the rights to the Eagle name.

    Me, I’m hoping for a good utilitarian kids clothing store. Somewhere in the market between a Children’s Place and the frou-frou place on Henry that went under.

  • CMC

    Stores: That Gristides is Nasty! I call it the Stinky Gristides. The people who work there are rude and it is overpriced. I live about a block away but end up walking to the Key Foods on Montague or going into the city (whole foods, TJ’s) to pick up groceries. I don’t think we really need another grocery store…being that there are 5 within walking distance, but I sure wouldn’t mind the Gristedes being taken over and remodeled!

    I would love to have a yarn shop, arts & crafts store of some sort.

    Brooklyn Bridge Park: It will happen, but the plan will be so different from when it started, my guess is it will barely be recognizable as a PUBLIC park.

  • F

    I would love to see a Crate and Barrell type store on Clark Street. Very excited about HousingWorks. I bet they will do well.

  • yo

    I don’t think another food store in the neighborhood is necessary. Gristedes and Key Food are both atrocious, but most people I know use a combination of Fresh Direct / Garden of Eden to satisfy their food needs.

    I think a Trader Joe’s could work in the ‘hood, but not sure how necessary it is given Garden of Eden’s presence.

    I agree that a bookstore would be great, but it’s chances for success have to be questioned since the Walden books on Montague wasn’t able to stay in business.

    An independently owned, neighborhood-centric business (e.g. coffee shop / bookstore, clothing store) would be best, but high rents make it difficult to survive. Not sure what the solution is.

  • Elisha Manning

    Gallery space? I don’t know how much rental income it could generate, but they’d be interesting and would also bring people into the neighborhood.

    A brooks brothers could also work for the open storefront on Clark, but it may need more square feet.

    Borders seems to do better than Waldenbooks, and at least it sells music.

    Whatever it is, I suspect the invisible hand will come up with something.

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

    Brooks Brothers on Clark? Spare me!

    I need the discipline of having to go to Manhattan.

    But, seriously … when I moved to the Heights in 1983, there was a top quality men’s clothing store in one of the upstairs spaces on the south side of Montague just east of Henry (I think it may have been where Fuji San is now). It was called David Rayne. For a couple of years (it closed, I think, in ’85) I did most of my shopping for dressy/business attire there. I guess you could say its niche has now been taken by Banana Republic, but I’ve never cottoned to their style.

  • Alan

    I think a Boston Market or similar type chicken place (like peruvian style, or like Chirping Chicken) would be great for the neighborhood, either on Clark Street, or maybe where Mr. Souvlaki is on Montague.

  • SG

    I don’t understand why or how Gristedes survives. It is the most atrocious supermarket I have ever seen. The quality of the produce is awful….the cleanliness of the store dreadful… the store staff abominable not to mention that it is ridiculously overpriced. Can someone please explain to me why residents have not banned together to boycott it and shut it down? What could you possibly need from there?

  • Martin Schneider

    this is an OFFER, not a comment. We’ve got a small box of very pretty, offwhite, rectangular tiles, 3X6 inches. Made in England. Would cover about 12 sq. feet.
    Yours for the taking by March 8. Call 718-875-5100

  • picky eater

    Key Food Deli

    Has any one else noticed that one of the deli guys in Key Food has had an open sore/wound on his nose for the past year? Why hasn’t it healed and why is it never covered if he’s handling food?