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August 17, 2009

StreetLevel: Old Brooklyn Parlor a Thing of the Past

old%20bklyn%20parlor%2008-2009.jpg
Old Brooklyn Parlor, the ye olde-style coffee/ice cream shop on Vanderbilt Ave, closed last week. The business opened only a couple years ago. Word on the street is that the storefront will be converted into a second branch of Clinton Hill Design Build, which has another office further up the avenue. GMAP




Posted by Gabby at 2:00 PM | Comments (18)
Categories: Food and Drink, Prospect Heights, Streetlevel

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Comments

I walked by this place last week and wondered what it served....looked like a nice place.

Posted by: daveinbedstuy at August 17, 2009 2:08 PM

Not surprising. I went in there only once. It seemed disorganized, dirty and like it was a front for something else.

Posted by: kimmc at August 17, 2009 2:12 PM

I went once. The guy didn't know the first thing about making espresso, and it showed. Never went back.

Posted by: zinka at August 17, 2009 2:13 PM

Any one know if this building and the one adjacent(bike store ground level) have the same owner?

Posted by: DowningByLaw at August 17, 2009 2:22 PM

yeah, also not surprised. it was cute on the outside, but the quality of the ice cream and coffee wasn't very good, it was expensive and not appealing to sit inside, and at a certain point they seemed to have given the outside benches over to some neighborhood (?) guys who didn't exactly make the place any more attractive.

Posted by: i disagree at August 17, 2009 2:42 PM

i disagree, i disagree. I think it was the "neighborhood guys" out front who attracted me to the place. A few of them looked like they came from the Speed TV show "Living the Low Life" about Latino low-riders.!!!!!

Posted by: daveinbedstuy at August 17, 2009 2:45 PM

This place was laughable, forced and contrived. A perfect example of folks who long for a nostalgia that never existed. Shocked that Alan Harding who created similar faux retro places in BoCoCa was not behind this dreck.

And not for nothing, Tom's Restaurant—the real deal—is right nearby. Geniuses!

Posted by: Jack at August 17, 2009 2:54 PM

ok then, perhaps the problem was that the dudes are just so attractive that they distracted people from going in the store and buying the (openly) marketed products!

Posted by: i disagree at August 17, 2009 2:57 PM

ice cream and frozen yogurt really angers me. it's not even a treat when it costs so much! i mean it's milk and sugar and yogurt, why does a small lil cup, barely enough to wet one's tongue, cost 5 dollars in this city? RIP-OFF. fyi i have no clue what the prices are here, im just stating in general ice cream and froyo are disgustingly jacked up.

*rob*

Posted by: PitbullNYC at August 17, 2009 3:05 PM


Tom's Restaurant is overrated.

Posted by: East New York at August 17, 2009 3:18 PM

that's the place where suzanne vega goes right?

*rob*

Posted by: PitbullNYC at August 17, 2009 3:22 PM

Probably the worst burger I've had in a very long time.

Posted by: Shoots and Leaves at August 17, 2009 3:57 PM

Probably the worst burger I've had in a very long time.

Posted by: Shoots and Leaves at August 17, 2009 3:57 PM

after i got an iced coffee there in a paper cup with a helping of attitude a year or so ago, i haven't been back.

Posted by: chortik at August 17, 2009 4:09 PM


I don't know anything about Suzanne Vega. I just know it's pretty funny to see folks lining up n Saturday morning to get into Tom's. It's OK, but to me quite undistinguished in a city with hundreds of other similar places.

Posted by: East New York at August 17, 2009 4:30 PM

get in before the line. good deal for a quick in and out.

i disagree that toms is like every other diner. i have yet (20 years) to take someone there where they dont love the place. it is a much more pleasant atmosphere than any slope diner i have been to. and food is much more consistantly cooked than almost any diner in the slope. believe me, i have been to them all. try getting a consistant waffle at any local diner.

jury still out on the new guy though.

Posted by: bkn4life at August 17, 2009 5:58 PM

Tom's in consistently underwhelming. I'll go to my grave laughing the the bozos who line up there every weekend. Talk about the emperor's clothes...

Posted by: Big Jugs at August 17, 2009 7:10 PM

Rob: Dunno if you're being facetious, but the Tom's that Suzanne Vega sang about is @ 110th and Broadway in Manhattan (she went to Barnard). It's the same corner diner that is used as the exterior of the "Seinfeld" diner.

Re the oldey tymey parlor: I'm not sorry to see this place go (nothing like waiting 15min for an ice coffee with french music blaring when you have a throbbing-head hangover), but I'm bummed that it is not going to be another eating/drinking type place. The nabe still has a serious dearth of decent ones.

Posted by: bucketseats at August 18, 2009 3:39 PM

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