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April 23, 2009

Streetlevel: Two Closings for Williamsburg

pampa-sleep-closed.jpg
Sadly, Williamsburg is now lacking a South American/Argentinian Steakhouse and a lingerie/bedding store. Zagat Buzz broke the news that Pampa Grill at 372 Graham Avenue now has "paper in the windows and the phone has been disconnected." On the north side of town, Racked reported that Sleep, located at 110 North 6th Street, has closed up shop. They had a going-out-of business sale on April 11th and now there's a "For Rent" sign on the door. No word yet on what (or if anything) will replace these two businesses.
Williamsburg Says Adios to Pampa [Zagat Buzz] GMAP
Discontinued: No Sleep for Brooklyn [Racked NY] GMAP




Posted by TCulver at 2:00 PM | Comments (16)
Categories: Streetlevel, Williamsburg

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Comments

I have a love/hate relationship with Williamsburg. Sometimes I enjoy putting on the tight vintage t-shirt, showing off the muscles and running around among the hipsters, but the place is kinda ugly. Not only that, but the lot of gross IB trash that moved there and paid $750k for 1-bedrooms is absurd. A lot that have the money to afford these stores and restaurants are leaving (not necessarily to Manhattan, but other parts of BK like Smith Street and near 5th Ave. You will see much more of this.

Posted by: LincolnSlope at April 23, 2009 2:31 PM

Sleep was a little ridiculous. I went in there once looking for an interesting shower curtain. Yes, I know it was called "Sleep," not "Shower," but most bedding stores have bath stuff too.

Not them.

Posted by: Heather at April 23, 2009 2:37 PM

What's upstairs in that Pampa building? I walked by there the other day and was thinking how odd the place looked. I didn't even notice there was a restaurant downstairs (but it was nighttime), so I thought it was a condo.

Posted by: broadwayron at April 23, 2009 2:42 PM

You're sad about Pampa closing? It is an overpriced restaurant in an awful, ugly building. Graham avenue needs more afforable, great restaurants like Motorino and Il Passatore!

Posted by: mkr ave at April 23, 2009 2:48 PM

Pampa! That's the restaurant in the horrible building with the prefab windows similar to the new Williamsburg condo building pictured on here last week. Here are two examples of floor to ceiling windows that don't work. Hideous. As I said last week.

Also, does anyone else think Graham is East Williamsburg?

Posted by: mopar at April 23, 2009 3:23 PM

I predict Tracy Feith and the Paul Smith outlet will also close soon. Unfortunately. Their prices are too high for Williamsburg.

So are Bird's but I haven't been in there lately (because they close at 7 -- ridiculous in Williamsburg!) so I don't know if anyone else has either.

But the vintage store next to Bird is awesome. And the woman who runs it has amazing powers to discern what in her stock will work for you.

Posted by: mopar at April 23, 2009 3:26 PM

The Paul Smith outlet is no bargain

Posted by: dirty_hipster at April 23, 2009 3:51 PM

both places would have gone out of biz regardless of the economy. sleep had nothing to sell and Pampa just wasn't a a wburg type of place.

i think that graham is great street in general whether it's east williamsburg or not, and the property between graham and lorimer (northside) is a good value. safe, PS 132, convenient amenities and subway (G&L). Graham now has both Oak and Motorino restaurants- very good.
The old school Italian places - ie: butcher, bakery and fish store all on metropolitan around Lorimer and Leonard are terrific. and, there's an excellent old school barber on Leonard near Jackson. I frequently wonder if i should have bought here.

I also can recommend Il Pasatore on Bushwick off of Metropolitan. Lovely small place (bistro) with home cooking Italian and nice backyard.

for the great stores in the area to stay open will require local shoppers plus the tourists plus the high school kids that come in every weekend from the burbs to shop and hang out.

Posted by: wine lover at April 23, 2009 3:57 PM

Rewrite:

I have a love/hate relationship with Park Slope. Sometimes I enjoy putting on a J. Crew sweater, showing off the baby bulge and blocking the aisles of Barnes and Nobles with my large stroller, but the place is kinda overhyped. Not only that, but the lot of gross Upper West Side trash that moved there and paid $3 million dollars for brownstones is absurd. A lot that have the money to afford these stores and restaurants are leaving (not necessarily to Manhattan, but other parts of BK like Smith Street and near 5th Ave. You will see much more of this.

Seriously though - a crappy overpriced store and a crappy overpriced restaurant closed. Not sure how this supports your hypothesis that everyone is moving from Williamsburg to CG/PS - but thanks for playing.

Posted by: dirty_hipster at April 23, 2009 3:59 PM

"Also, does anyone else think Graham is East Williamsburg?"

The 90 year old italian dude on my block said traditionally anything East of Union Ave was East Williamsburg. Of course now, East Williamsbug goes out until Broadway Junction so who knows.

Posted by: dirty_hipster at April 23, 2009 4:01 PM

d-h, when I moved to Williamsburg, the places that were populated with descendents of Europeans were "Greenpoint" and the places populated by the Hasidim, Latinos, blacks and artists was Williamsburg. So, Greenpoint went at least as far south as North 7th Street, often to North 4th and some times even Metropolitan. An absurdity, of course, since the village and city of Williamsburgh had legal boundaries, but proof that geography is a social construct as much as anything else.

Posted by: altervoce at April 23, 2009 4:14 PM

Thanks AV - yes I remember reading that somewhere (I think on the forgotten ny site) You couldn't be more correct that geography is a social construct. It seems to be happening everywhere - Prospect Heights is slowing growing eastward into Crown Heights - Clinton Hill into Bed Stuy and Williamsburg into Bushwick. Why can't people just live where they live and be happy, and not worry about what it is called?

Posted by: dirty_hipster at April 23, 2009 4:22 PM

DH, your revision is delicious! kudos.

Posted by: bkkkkklyn at April 23, 2009 8:10 PM

We are not lacking for South American/Argentinian Steak - there is Chimu (Preuvian?) on Union, which has been around for ages, there is the relatively new El Alamacen on Driggs near North 7th and there is a brand new place (just applied for a liquor license) called Cafe Argentino at Grand and Union. Not sure if the last has even opened yet.

Unfortunately, when it comes to overpriced bedding, we are screwed.

Altervoce is right about the cultural geography of Williamsburg, though in general anything east of Union has been called East Williamsburg going back to the 1800s - it was only in the past few decades that Greenpoint began to creep beyond its historic boundaries. There was even a push to have area south of Meeker and east of Union moved to the 11222 zip code. (To confuse matters more, there was once a village in Queens in the Maspeth/Ridgewood area that was called East Williamsburg).

Posted by: WBer at April 23, 2009 9:06 PM

Not surprising. I know it has been said but Sleep was silly expensive.

Posted by: serpentor at April 24, 2009 12:59 PM

Sleep had like, what, 20 things in their inventory? Whatever.

And when I think Graham Ave I think Italian, Emily's Pork Store, Daddys. etc. I do not think 'Argentinian steak house'. Nor did anyone else, apparently.

Posted by: MAT at April 24, 2009 1:08 PM

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