A reader asked: "Could Carroll Gardens have won?
Well, maybe. Neighbors who have been opposed to Mr. Mamary's proposed Oyster bar on Hoyt Street sure seem to have soured the restaurant "moguls" on the neighborhood.
Read today's article in the New York Times entitled " Restless Pioneers, Seeding Brooklyn"
That's just fine by me. Now, can we have some useful retail stores back on Smith?
From today's Times article:
The ungrateful “they” are Brooklynites who’ve come to see Harding-Mamary creations as a chain, where you can get it venti in a ramekin with crème fraîche or slushed with guava and salt on the rim. The ones with pitchforks are residents near Union and Hoyt Streets, one block off Smith, trying to stop Mr. Mamary’s Black Mountain Wine House from adding an oyster bar.
Mr. Harding, 46, cooks at Black Mountain, but is not a partner. In a reflection of local ill will, he sometimes wears a white coat reading: “I Am Not the Owner.”.............
But from Brooklyn Heights to Smith Street to Park Slope, where rents have soared and streets are growing more crowded, resentment is keen.
The oyster bar struggle involves decades-old zoning and dueling predictions over whether it will attract a few discreet slurpers of Sancerre and Wellfleets or hordes of smoking and retching yobbos to a quiet street.
Delays and legal fees have cost $20,000. Community board hearings have been nasty. And the partners have been soured by rants on Carroll Gardens blogs, particularly one calling Jim Mamary an “opportunistic idiot” and “slob” who “ruined my neighborhood.”
Even if he gets a liquor license, Mr. Mamary said, “I’d never open another place on Hoyt.”
Mr. Harding, more blunt about the complaints, wants to see if he can seek revenge by keeping chickens in the wine bar’s yard. “We’ll give eggs to orphans,” he said. “We’ll have a petting zoo.”
More conciliatory, Mr. Mamary waves his hand as if to calm down his friend and cautions, “I’m not sure we want to say that.”
to read entire article, click here
Related reading:
Hoyt Street Alliance Says "No" To Oyster Bar At Public Hearing
Community "Business" Board 6 Sticks It To Hoyt & Bond Residents
Interesting Viewpoint On The Subject Of C.B.6 And Liquor Licenses
Zoning Unimportant In Carroll Gardens!Neighbors Need Help Fighting Hoyt Street Bar
For Home Page, click Pardon Me For Asking
.JPG)
4 comments:
I hate those stupid attitude of NYTImes articles about 'pioneers' etc.
Exagerate grossly the state of Smith St and neighborhood before we
were 'blessed' with the accoutrements of their fine cuisine and rescued us rubes.
Although I did like Union cafe and Patios - I'm not going to any of their places again.
although the guy deserves credit for the resurgence of smith st., i am not a fan of alan harding and company. their establishments are so over-conceptualized, contrived and fake.
The article should have been in the Real Estate section. Mamary poses as a restraurant entrepreneur, but anyone who given the choice "would never enter a restaurant again," (his words) is no such thing. He's a real-estate flipper. Shame on the Times reporter for not digging harder, kudos to the Mamary/Harding press agent for once again making these ruthless capitalists look like small-time nice guys.
Obviously the the other commenters did not live in the neighborhood pre-Patois (not Patios!) or if they did they obviously had blinders on. These guys paved the way for good changes on Smith Street that took it from a rather dark and scary street to a thriving and vibrant one. Not all of their restaurants were hits but these were guys who lived in the neighborhood and contributed to it - if you knew them at all and what Smith Street was before you would understand that. To the contrary, the article understated the state of Smith Street - it was not a place you walked down alone after sundown and this is not someone who grew up sheltered somewhere else but has always lived in Brooklyn.
Post a Comment