Streetlevel: Another Cafe for Fort Greene

that would make it 4- smooch, urban spring (???) and that other one across the street. someone will have to go.

Posted by: guest at December 4, 2007 2:37 PM

Will be a welcome addition. Tillies gets too crowded and it frankly needs a major clean up / renovation.

Posted by: guest at December 4, 2007 2:44 PM

this will be a more meal oriented establishment- a local contractor- hank is doing the work and opening the resteraunt.

Posted by: guest at December 4, 2007 2:49 PM

Five cafes within a couple blocks of this location (2:37 forgot Bittersweet and Tillie's), and none at Fulton and Lafayette? That's where we really need one.

Posted by: guest at December 4, 2007 2:57 PM

The front looks like crappy crap. Or is it edgy?

Posted by: guest at December 4, 2007 3:02 PM

it looks like baltimore...

so both.

Posted by: guest at December 4, 2007 3:06 PM

i think it used to be a cleaners?

Posted by: guest at December 4, 2007 3:09 PM

On an aside, Kathryn lilly was the owner of Tommy's Blue Corner during the hottest part of the r.e. market then sells it to Rice and goes to work for Douglas Eliman during the slump. Is she some kind of dope...maybe she was smoking her hemp granola from her restaurant days. She obviously has no timing accumen in business. Oh, I forgot, when she was the broker of record at realty on the greene she closed "during" the height of the market to open up Tommys Blue Corner. Again, a very, very intelligent human being here. :)

Posted by: guest at December 4, 2007 3:22 PM

Katherine Lily basically Had to close her brokerage after she managed to alienate just about everyone in the neighborbood (I have lived about 5 houses away from the former Realty on the Greene for 10 years--and she was not well loved, ever, believe me). Before Tommy's opened, she was picketted by Pratt Community Council every weekend for months because she was heartlessly tossing a very old tenent and her disabled son out of an upstairs apt in the building, who had lived there for over 20 years (I heard 30 from someone). She was not willing to work with Pratt to give them more time to find the woman a new place to live (which was the jist of why Pratt became so vocal on the matter)--acording to Katherine, the woman HAD to be out at a date certain, and well, that was it. The heartlessness was astounding. And even though she may have felt justified in her own mind, you would've thought that she would've known better than to alienate a very tight knit neighborhood, especially during a time when some big gun realtors like Corcorran were starting to move into the neighborhood.

In the meantime, all her realtors quit in shame (I knew one who lived in the neighborhood and she was horrified by it all) and so, sheattempst to regroup (by now a neighborhood outcast) by opening Tommy's, which was, indeed, boycotted by half the neighborhood. But she knew nothing about the resturant business, unwtting customers didn't return. And all this in a neighborhood in which it is almost impossible to fail in any business (there just aren't enough). Yeah she failed, Badly. Rice is booming. Even though the food is ho hum.

Posted by: guest at December 4, 2007 3:31 PM

This space was once a real estate office. The neighborhood is getting a bit crazy - almost impossible to find a good parking spot. Off to Bed-Stuy...

Posted by: guest at December 4, 2007 3:40 PM

it looks like baltimore...

so both.

Posted by: guest at December 4, 2007 3:06 PM

Can't wait for January and the new season of the "Wire"; the place does look like B'more.

Posted by: guest at December 4, 2007 3:44 PM

yeah, it's a little slice of hampden in baltimore.

Posted by: guest at December 4, 2007 4:00 PM

i'm hungry.

Posted by: guest at December 4, 2007 4:00 PM

Almost everyone in my building (on DeKalb) has a car. I certainly don't drive to work, but it's a luxury I'm not willing to give up. Anyway, it's a small car and I get over 30 mpg. Take that Al Gore!

Posted by: guest at December 4, 2007 4:19 PM

Is Baltimore a pit? I've never been.

Posted by: guest at December 4, 2007 4:23 PM

Baltimore is the next Brooklyn, hands down!!!! Best place on the east coast for low priced in tact brownstones, a great harbor and wonderful seafood and they have easy access to NFL and MLB stadiums and John Hopkins. Take your 3mm there and buy a block, your kids will love you and your grandkids will mention your names.

Posted by: guest at December 4, 2007 4:36 PM

Baltimore (and Philadelphia) have their charms and are certainly cheaper than Brooklyn but they are a little provincial (you'll find most of the people there grew up there) and lack the economic base and diversity of NYC.

You pays your money, makes your choice.

Posted by: guest at December 4, 2007 6:59 PM

For those not from Baltimore, please note that it is a very complicated place! Don't bet that you could go there, buy a block and strike gold!

There are some brownstones there that surpass those in Brooklyn. It was a rich and "successful" city and set out large lots for large houses in certain places...very grand homes. British visitors in the first half of the 1800's noted they preferred Baltimore to any other US city.

Other than that, I was just saying to the other half last night that we could use a kaffehaus in FG, a real one, and over near us, more Lafayette/Fulton-ish. Marquet just doesn't answer...maybe that insurance agency on Fulton would make a great corner cafe...

Maybe next lifetime, but there are plenty of younger people who visit Brownstoner who might have the energy to do this.

TheGrammarLady

Posted by: guest at December 4, 2007 7:53 PM

So Baltimore is a pit. I though so.
This place should shape up and look more like New York.

Posted by: guest at December 4, 2007 9:26 PM

i can't for the life of me figure out why my post about baltimore was not accepted by brownstoner.

i'm from there and wrote about it in a post today which never showed up.

hmmmm....

this new comment system seems overly censored, if you ask me.

i'm definitely not reading as much as usual.

Posted by: guest at December 4, 2007 11:00 PM

The first time I saw an obviously poor white person was in Baltimore. I grew up in ClinH & was shocked.

Posted by: guest at December 5, 2007 8:50 AM

As long as they have a real kitchen it should be fine otherwise skip it. There are enough "we have coffee and few rolls/croissants, oh and wifi" places in the neighborhood.

And frankly I think part of the reason Tommy's closed was because it didn't have a full kitchen. How many organic sandwiches and/or hardboiled eggs or whatever they served can you eat?

Posted by: guest at December 5, 2007 10:18 AM

10:18 has a good point. More true restaurants would do well in the area, especially if the focus is on anything other than French bistro-type food. We probably have enough small cafes serving coffee/ juice and snacks.

Posted by: guest at December 5, 2007 11:08 AM

Baltimore has some nice neighborhoods: Fell's Point, Federal Hill, Butcher's Hill. Other parts, however, are very violent and crime-ridden. Overall, Baltimore's crime rate is one of the highest in the nation.

Posted by: guest at December 5, 2007 2:39 PM

Burgers and Fries ?

Posted by: guest at March 5, 2008 8:59 PM

hi i live in england UK i was wondering if someone had an old photograph
of 184 Dekalb Avenue
back when it was a house in 1920-30 im requesting this because my aunt lived at this address with her husband michael j matthews
you can contact me on the following e mail
rd2000@ntlworld.com
Thank's tony

Posted by: guest at June 6, 2008 7:05 PM