Christie Rizk unveils the identity of the mysterious Cranberry Corner “partners” as well as their plans for the shuttered Aficionada space in this week’s Brooklyn Paper:
And now Aficionada has shut down (no surprise there, frankly. It was billed as a Spanish restaurant, but served more Mexican food than anything else).
So what did the owners of these establishments do to drum up business for themselves? They joined forces and created a Web site. With menus.
You are forgiven if you haven’t bookmarked it yet.
Chris Fehlinger, Maestro’s general manager, tried to explain the idea behind glomming together an “American bistro” with an ice cream shop and a Spanish place to rake in the customers.
“The three restaurants used to be one huge place,” he said. (Oh yeah — Chez Henry.) Maestro and Aficionada are co-owned by nabe attorney Alan Young, who is also partners with Blue Pig owner Julia Horowitz in another venture, Cranberry Place, the kiddie-party-place-by-day-wine-bar-jazz-lounge-by-night right across the street. (This gets more incestuous than an Appalachian family reunion.)
The problem is being partly solved by turning Aficionada into a pizza place (and changing its name). There’s an unused space in the restaurant that would be great for a pizza oven, and they wouldn’t need to use Maestro’s kitchen — or not as much.
It’s still unclear as to how the Web site is going to help business, though. Perhaps, like Simon and Garfunkel, the cast of “Friends” and Germany, we’d all be better off if the three spaces reunited.
After all, wouldn’t it be more efficient if, say, Maestro and the restaurant formerly known as Aficionada devised a menu together and, oh, I don’t know, served desserts provided by the Blue Pig?
It sure would beat all the finger-pointing going on.
Now anyone who can drop a hillbilly reference into a story about Brooklyn Heights will always be a friend of ours, but Christie can’t you give BHB credit where credit is due:
“The problem with Aficionada was that it wasn’t as focused as it needed to be,” says Fehlinger. But isn’t that Maestro’s problem as well? Brooklyn Heights bloggers recently ridiculed the restaurant as “American Bistro in a French Country–style restaurant with an Italian menu, California wine list, and a Wall of Tea.”
No hard feelings, after all we’re just “bloggers” with “day jobs” but a little love (and our address – brooklynheightsblog.com) wouldn’t hurt either. (In return, Christie, “Robot” beer is on us at the March 7 Dick Swizzle trivia night at Magnetic Field if you’re up for it!)
Wait! Did we just read the Aficionada is going to become a PIZZA PLACE! Half a block away from Fascati and a stone’s throw away from Grimaldi’s? Are “the partners” insane?!
