Toomey's

The fact that this place got a posting shows the dearth of decent restaurants in PLG.

Toomey's is all about the art on the back wall:

http://www.planetplg.com/toomeys/

Food is okay - nothing special.

this is brownstoner being politically correct on his site...please, 99% of the readers on this site would run the other direction if they happened upon this place...seriously

The first two organizing meetings for PLG Arts were held at Toomey's a few years ago [We paid to use the space]. It was impossible to get a waitress's attention to place an order, even though we were the only people in the place. I'd never go back.

I did eat breakfast a couple of times at Toomey's over 25 years ago--the food was fine then.

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bob marvin, seriously, you are the single biggest plg booster on this site - bar none. to validate the fervor, however, please give us readers something you don't like about plg - it's like these stock market commentator's always being bullish - because all of your comments over the years make me feel like an idiot for not living in this utopia. it appears to me that EVERYTHING in plg has a silver lining.

Once you're a regular here, the waitresses are more than attentive -- we eat breakfast here most Sundays, and are always greeted with our usual coffee and juice within minutes of sitting down.

And those who'd run in the opposite direction if they happened upon this place are losing out, but I'm sure I'd prefer anyone like that not to come here anyway. I find there atmosphere to be unfailingly good-humored, both on the part of the staff and the patrons. They do a huge after church business on Sunday, so maybe that accounts for peoples' generally good mood.

Agin, it's diner food -- not gourmet cuisine, and for diner food it's fine. If you want something more go elsewhere. But especially for those with kids (I have a former neighbor whose son was fixated on Toomey's chicken fingers and macaroni and cheese) it fills a need.

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That's "the atmosphere" above -- not "there" -- sorry!

And it seems like we have found something about PLG that Bob doesn't like!

7182713,

True--I AM at least ONE of the biggest PLG boosters here, but I have to preserve my credibility and this place is pretty awful.

LOL--Toomey's may be the ONLY thing in the neighborhood Babs and I disagree on.

Keep in mind that I can't comment on their food since I couldn't get served. I was HUNGRY at those meetings--hence the rancor (or rancour, as DIBS would write) :-)

Give them another chance, Bob -- I think you'll come around :)

Also, that's a really unflattering photo -- the actual entrance to the restaurant is on the side, on Rogers, and it's completely non-scary! I don't recall there being any graffiti on the front of the place, but again, I never really walk past the front on Empire.

I might well come around Babs, but having been screwed once I'm not inclined to give them another chance

Ok for breakfast, never tried it for anything more complex. The place just doesn't fill my need for a good diner in PLG. We certainly have the space and the demand for one.

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C'mon people, we're talking about an oldtime neighborhood diner in PLG. Which means, we're not talking about a wannabe Time Out hot spot, but rather, a regular, ungentrified eatery for the ungentrified regulars of the area. Like Babs, my experience at Toomey's has always been that they serve their clientele damn well and have been doing for it much longer than most of the folks who will bother to gripe about it on this blogsite (Bob Marvin, as the Methusela of PLG, you are excluded from that last comment!) :) As for the food? Well, it's "ok" -- nothing to write home about but nothing to barf about either. Bottom line, though, given most of the eating choices in PLG (and, in fact, there are many!), I appreciate that there is a still a Toomey's around with its old fashioned, uncomplicated, diner-style, down home vibe and vittles.

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I live across from this place. I've never been inside so I can't comment on the food or service. I would say - like Mike's Restaurant (I heard the food was actually decent) that closed on Flatbush/Lincoln - the impression you get walking by is less than inviting.

Brooklynista - I get your point and I love a hole in the wall as much as anyone and as the voice rightly pointed out in their review of Wiskey Sunday - the impression you get from certain bloggers is that outside of Enduro, all the Jamaican, Spanish restaurants and Roti Shops in PLG do not count as real restaurants. However, whoever owns this diner needs to make an effort. That Graffiti has been there for years, they should try to open the entrance on Empire, as it stands now, unless you're coming up Rogers, you can't tell that it's even open. Even by diner standards, it gives one the impression (maybe wrongly) that the place is not the cleanest in the world and that's a shame.

I hear you, Crown, but that less-than-inviting appearance and style tends to be "the way" with a lot of oldtimer-type places in all kinds of neighborhoods -- not just PLG. Perhaps these joints are oblivious, or nonchalant, or even resistant to the changing world around them. Whatever. Since they've been on and around the block and still standing through all kinds of population recycles, housing bubbles and busts, I guess they tend to hold onto what has gotten them this far rather defiantly. In this case, I suppose that some of what Toomey's is holding onto is that fugly graffiti on the side door! (BTW, in the 20+ years since we've been going there, I don't recall ever entering the place by way of Empire Boulevard.) Of course, if you're willing to persist a bit and pierce through the invisible "velvet rope," you get welcomed in and embraced right along with the regulars. For the record, I'm no "regular" at Toomey's. But, I do understand where I am every time I go there and the respect that is shared is mutual.

Oh, and Bob, my bad for calling you the Methusela of PLG. After I hit the "send" button on that post, I got to thinking that maybe that didn't sound so good! You gotta know, it was only my lame attempt to recognize your oldtimer status in PLG -- not that the handsome guy I ran into on the street on the way to his daily workout in the Park the other day is an OLDtimer! :->!

No problem Brooklynista--I was kind of flattered by the Methusela of PLG label :-)

Wow--I always thought that place was long-closed! Looks kinda scary. And personally, I have lost patience long ago with any restaurant willing to take my money but demanding my "persistence" to be treated decently like one of the "regulars." If you can't treat me right first time out, fuhgettaboutit.

Brenda, I think you're missing my point. That being, that sometimes new customers can bring "attitudes" to an old place (e.g., "where's the latte?) as much as the old place can show "attitudes" ("kiss my fugly graffiti") to new customers. It works both ways. FWIW, no one at Toomey's has ever demanded that I persist in coming there in order to be treated decently. I've been treated decently from the day one. Just maybe that has something to do with the "attitude" I bring with me when I go in there in the first place.

Well, I am always a humble and sickeningly decent sort of restaurant patron, not a latte-demanding noisome twit, so I always expect to be dealt with tenderly or at least cordially...or at least to revel in the knowledge that everyone there gets treated equally roughly!

I love the way we may be the only ones still following this thread, Brenda -- but who cares? :-> Just so you know, I don't work for Toomey's. And, I've got no investment in what people think of this "fine PLG eatery"! But I do think that Babs, the person who recommended the place, was closer to the truth about what it's like to eat and be served there better than anyone else -- including me.

FWIW, I was at one of those same PLG Arts meetings at Toomey's that Bob referenced in his post. Interestingly enough, I had a completely different take on what was happeining in the restaurant when we there and thought several of the meeting guests to be rude. Bob, OTOH, thought that the wait staff was being rude and inattentive. This really goes more to what I meant when I said in my last post that attitude can go both ways. Or. . . this is seeming like classic material for a Rashomon story to me! At any rate, rather than me going on and on about how Toomey's is a perfectly fine place (if you are one who thinks that old-fashioned diners are perfectly fine places), let me share a few comments that have previously appeared on other blogs by some who have dared to walk into the place! :->

http://acrossthepark.typepad.com/atp/2006/04/toomeys_fun.html

http://www.yelp.com/biz/toomeys-diner-brooklyn#hrid:cLwg7h84v6C_zvqmUQQNow