Is The Reef Kitchen Pod On Union And Smith Street Unfair Competition For Carroll Gardens' Brick And Mortar Eateries?

***See Update Below***

You may have noticed that a rather large "pod" has been moved into the empty fenced off lot at the corner of Smith and Union Street in Carroll Gardens.
We did not know what to make of it until we received an email from local resident Barbara Dahl, who made us aware that Reef Kitchen places these pods in underutilized urban spaces to lease to either start up restaurants, or established eateries looking to open in new neighborhood. Reef Kitchen takes care of the electric and gas hook up, and the food business can break into a neighborhood without the need for capital investment.
Sort of like a food truck, but much bigger and more permanent.

Perhaps this idea would be welcomed in Carroll Gardens at any other time, but we share Barbara Dahl's concern that this is unnecessary competition for our brick and mortar restaurants during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Barbara reached out to several of our politicians to make them aware of this situation. below is her letter:

Dear...

The other day, a company jumped the curb and parked a “virtual restaurant” next to my house. The name of this company is: Reef Kitchen. They operate out of Miami, Florida and advertise that they allow restaurants to expand their footprint.

They plan on bringing in cooking staff and launching a food delivery service out of the site to serve this vicinity.

During the pandemic, our local restaurants have been relying on delivery service and outdoor dining. This company will make their survival even more difficult as this is also their target audience. When our local restaurants can’t stay afloat, it isn’t just that restaurant that suffers, it is also the landlords that rely on rents from these businesses and all their employees.

Having this company, that is not a local company come in, puts all of us at risk financially. This company isn’t invested or investing in our neighborhood and it doesn’t have the overhead of a “bricks and mortar” footprint giving them an unfair financial advantage.

Once they have made their profits, they will move on. Unless we can stop them.

That is why I’m writing to you. Is there anything  you can do to help us protect our local restaurants here in Carroll Gardens?

Thank you for your attention,

Barbara Dahl

If you, too, find that this is unfair competition for local restaurants that are barely hanging on, you may consider writing your own letter to the offices below.

Community Board 6: info@brooklyncb6.org
JoAnne Simon: simonj@nyaccembly.gov
Brad Lander: lander@council.nyc.gov Dept of Buildings: DOBMarshall@buildings.nyc.gov
Better Business Bureau: go to: bbb.org and hit “contact us”
New York Restaurant Association: info@NYRAS.org
Health Department: opmc@health.nyc.gov

Update:

The City of New York issued two violations against the owner of the parking lot last week, one for illegal parking and one for illegal electric work.

October 6th, 2020 Update:

From Barbara via email to PMFA:

Tonight, at roughly 10 p.m., two men came and cut the boot off the portable kitchen: Reef Kitchen. They cut the chains on the gates and began hooking the kitchen up to a pickup truck. The police came to check on things and must have been satisfied with what was going on. They left and the guys finished hitching the kitchen onto the truck. After a bit of maneuvering they removed it from the lot on Smith and Union.

They had received over $3,000 in fines for various violations during their tenure.

I don’t know any more details but I would like to thank you and everyone else that called the various city agencies to report these “interlopers”. The neighborhood really came together to help protect our local businesses. Carroll Gardens has proven, once again, that we are a community that looks out for one another.

Perhaps now the rats will not find our backyards so attractive.