No word on whether this is related to credit card fraud alleged recently by some BHB commenters.

UPDATE: The NY Post is the first with the story on Dan Kaufman:

The manager of high-end ice cream shop Blue Pig and adjacent eateries catering to Brooklyn Heights parents and hipsters was busted for double-dipping on customers’ credit cards, allegedly pocketing $25,000 in stolen cash, law-enforcement sources said.

We were expecting something like this to happen. And this choice quote:

“He has certainly made an effort to be part of the community, and be supportive of causes,” said Brooklyn Heights Association executive director Judy Stanton. “I am really surprised.”

Really, Judy. Perhaps you should visit our blog more often.

A BHB tipster sent us this moldy display from a Henry Street eatery. We’re sure they’ve been freshened up by now and we do give kudos to them for not using icky plastic fruit as decoration. For the record, we prefer Moldy Peaches.

A few days ago, the papers came down in the windows and Busy Chef officially opened its new location on Court Street. The front of the store serves as a coffee bar, while the back room has refrigerated units for their prepared foods, and a handful of tables for downtown workers to sit and enjoy a sandwich. The offerings looked pretty similar to what is available at the Henry Street location. While the Chef is now open for business, there unfortunately is still no movement on the supposed Boar’s Head storefront at Court and State.

BHB March 19, 2007: The mysterious “partners” who own and operate Corner of Cranberry have fired their first salvo in the rebirth of the location formerly known as Spanish themed restaurant Aficionada.

On Sunday, BHB spotted a small sign in the papered-up windows of the restaurant begging the question to passersby “curious, aren’t you?” Read more

Update: Oven and Busy Chef are nearing their first anniversary, with BC opening another outlet soon on Court Street.

The Brooklyn Eagle reports today on the planned 111 Court Street location of NoHe’s Busy Chef. The article mentions that during renovation of the store, workers uncovered many original architectural details. There’s also an outdoor patio, which begs the question is Busy Chef a fancy 7-11 or bistro?:

Brooklyn Eagle: Court Street’s Busy Chef: The new location will serve as the central quality-control kitchen for the expanding Busy Chef empire. Already, there are stores planned for Chelsea and Fort Greene, to compliment their thriving outpost in the North Heights, on the corner of Cranberry and Henry streets. For those fortunate enough to frequent this place, you know of what we speak: a wide and tasty variety of homemade style entrees, salads, wraps, soups, and sandwiches that are reasonably priced — basically, the food you’d cook yourself if you had the time (or in some cases the skill). And the service is all about making you the customer happy and satisfied.

Brooklyn Eagle: Corner of Cranberry Gets Social: Amanda Green, general manager, does admit to having put a lot of thought into what was going to work. “We wanted something fun, something simple, and something for the community to enjoy.” And for those Brooklynites who were here in the 1990s, you may remember her as the co-founder of La Bouillabaise on Atlantic Avenue, which belongs on any Brooklyn culinary timeline (and set the stage for a Patois or Grocery on Smith).

For the food they have small plates, soups & salads, desserts and of course some stuffed olives on the long wood bar. Some of your choices: Diver Scallops seared rare, Cold Water Oysters on the half shell, Mini Kobe beef burgers with smoked paprika and aged Cheddar, Seasonal Mushroom Soup with parmigiano-reggiano or goat cheese and roasted beets with red oak. And for the sophisticated sweet tooth: Greek Style Honey cheesecake with dried fig compote and crisp walnuts and an Apple Crostata with caramel and brown sugar ice cream.

The decor of the space, which has been under renovation of a few months, seems to be more in line with the other eateries on the Henry Street strip. The restaurant has a new website and menu as well. CB2 approved outdoor seating for restaurant last year.

The board voted to allow the proposal: 6 for, 2 against, 3 abstentions. The CB2 Executive Committee will make a final ruling before the board’s next meeting.

Check this out, that coffee place Uncommon Grounds must be affiliated with Seattle’s Best Coffee in some way. On the Uncommon Grounds site it says this:
Brooklyn hasn’t always been the center of the coffee universe, in fact the city once served as much bad coffee as the rest of the country. That changed when a group of passionate coffee lovers started a revolution.

And on the Seattle’s Best site it says this:
Seattle hasn’t always been the center of the coffee universe, in fact the city once served as much bad coffee as the rest of the country. That changed in the early 70’s when a group of passionate coffee lovers started a revolution.

Actually, that entire blurb on the Uncommon Grounds website was taken from the Seattle’s Best website, not just the quote above. (note: looks like someone noticed the above comment and took down the copy. You can view the full blurb here) And this isn’t an isolated case of vigorous copypasting. When Busy Chef first came onto the scene, the language used both on the website and in emails sounded rather “Marketese” for such a small operation. So, we did a little research. The initial Busy Chef promo copy we received, and at one time on the website, seems to be taken directly from a business called Cena To Go, a prepared gourmet foods franchise based in the Pacific Northwest. In fact, the Busy Chef slogan printed across its shop window is just Cena’s “Only at Cena..can you see, smell, touch, feel and TASTE the difference!” slogan with the name replaced. I guess since there isn’t a copyright symbol next to it means it’s fair game.

After inquiring about the then new business at the end of March, an email we received from “Michael Burak, Director of Marketing” of Busy Chef was very suspicious. It turned out it was a slightly edited copy of Boston Market’s marketing factsheet. This is the first paragraph of the email:

The Busy Chef, is based in Brooklyn Heights, and its goal is to become a leader in the fast-casual restaurant category, providing time-pressed consumers with great-tasting, convenient meals and fresh bakery items. The company will translate its passion for fresh, great-tasting food into two distinctly different concepts. Busy Chef restaurants – will be noted for their easy, convenient, home-style meals and bakery items. The company also is partnering with leading supermarket chains to bring restaurant-quality, Busy Chef-branded meals so shoppers can enjoy the one-stop convenience of purchasing ready-to-heat meals at the same time they do their grocery shopping. Busy Chef is a wholly owned subsidiary of Busy Chef, Inc.

And from the Boston Market factsheet:

Boston Market Corporation, based in Golden, Colo., is a leader in the fast-casual restaurant category, providing time-pressed consumers with great-tasting, convenient meals. The company has translated its passion for fresh, great-tasting food into two distinctly different concepts. Boston Market restaurants – 630 locations in 28 states – are noted for their easy, convenient, home-style meals. The company also partners with leading supermarket chains to bring restaurant-quality, Boston Market-branded meals into the deli department so shoppers can enjoy the one-stop convenience of purchasing ready-to-heat meals at the same time they do their grocery shopping. Boston Market Corporation is a wholly owned subsidiary of McDonald’s Corporation.

The rest of the email follows a similar pattern. (What’s also interesting about that email blurb is that “Busy Chef, Inc.” actually should be “The Busy Chef, LLC“).

Also, the Busy Chef Cakes page, no longer linked to on the homepage, seems to be entirely ripped off from the Cakes page of Layers Bakery in Nevada. For instance, from the Busy Chef site:

We do not do SHEET CAKES. It’s just not what we do. We make ours round and with 3 layers sometimes 6 layers. If you need cake to feed a crowd, we suggest you get MORE THAN ONE! What a concept huh? You might even consider getting DIFFERENT KINDS so you offer a VARIETY.

And from the Layers Bakery site:

FIRST OFF, we don’t do SHEET CAKES. It’s just not what we do. We make ours ROUND and with 3 LAYERS, sometimes 6 layers (see coconut cake below). If you need cake to feed a crowd, we suggest you get MORE THAN ONE! What a concept huh? You might even consider getting DIFFERENT KINDS so you offer a VARIETY.

It all seems so silly to us: Why go through all this trouble for your nascent store to search, copy and paste from other existing businesses, when a simple “Hey, this is what we offer” would suffice?

In other news, Busy Chef appears to be opening a location in Crown Heights, according to an ad in rotation on brooklynpaper.com?

UPDATE: “Dan” from Uncommon Grounds contacted us with this response:

Uncommon Grounds is a co-branded retailer of Seattle’s Best Coffee. To become a retailer of their product, a business must undergo a thorough “screening” process. Furthermore, partners of Seattle’s Best are required to replicate – in many contexts including the web – certain graphics and language in their promotional materials. Much of this is provided on a CD, and is taken verbatim from their website, brochures and press materials. You may find all of this information on their website: http://www.seattlesbest.com/services/foodservice.aspx

We have found an example of this: Seattle’s Best Austin, however the Uncommon Grounds site was not executed in the same manner.

Busy Chef spokesman Michael D. Burak answered us as well:

I am an avid reader of your blog, and your recent email was forwarded to me just moments ago. As you know we are small start-up business, and do not have big budgets for a full marketing and web design staff.

One of our employees designed our initial site, and provided copy. Including copy for me as well. Her intention was one of good, and it is my fault for not looking into this before posting.

We have removed all of the said text from our site, and apologize to you and the community for this mistake.

In starting a new business you learn allot, and we hope that we can regain your trust and business going forward.

On another note, Uncommon Grounds which is a wholesale customer of ours, and is not owned or operated by us in any way, is affiliated with Seattle’s Best Coffee, and it’s parent company Starbucks.

Since it’s a little late for April Fool, the sign posted on one of the vacant stores at 60 Henry (aka Flower Mart) that claims the location will be home to Cigar Bar is at best questionable. Here’s what the fine print says:

The Cigar Bar will be the most luxurious of New York’s cigar bars. It will have the finest cusy leather couches, vintage liquors and of course cigars to be had this far north of Cuba. Highlyrecommended by Hans Rickneit of Leavitt and Pierce as well as Cigar Afficionato [sic] this is the best smoke in town for a young beginning smoker. Although this establishment does feature a physical bar the real scene will be found in the back lounge. The lights are warm and low and the dark wook paneling evokes an Old Worl ambiance. Choose from a wide selection of ports sherries and wines brought to you by our highly trained staff. Light fare such as quesadillas or hummus and pita bread will also be available.

Too good to be true? Plagiarism? You bet. Unless this is the most extreme coincidence in the history of man the text for the sign is directly lifted — down to the misspelling of Cigar Afficionado — from Cigar Masters of Boston (original here). Add that to the fact that it’s illegal to open a new cigar bar in NYC, it appears that we have a nabe prankster on our hands.

Update: The sign has been taken down.

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?!