Brooklyn-Themed Restaurant Killing Brooklyn?
The Daily News ran a scathing take on the Brooklyneer, the Brooklyn-themed restaurant that has just opened on West Houston Street, in Manhattan. The charge? That the bar is the death knell for Brooklyn. The writer laments that Brooklyn goods – clothing, beer, and culture – are being exported, making Brooklyn a place “about as…
The Daily News ran a scathing take on the Brooklyneer, the Brooklyn-themed restaurant that has just opened on West Houston Street, in Manhattan. The charge? That the bar is the death knell for Brooklyn. The writer laments that Brooklyn goods – clothing, beer, and culture – are being exported, making Brooklyn a place “about as undiscovered as Times Square.” As the article states, “With the opening of the Brooklyneer, all of the little things you loved about the borough, all those yuppie comforts that borough boosters endlessly trumpet, have been revealed for what they are – things one can buy, and quite easily at that. And now, you don’t even have to go to Brooklyn to buy them.” He’s outraged, although he manages to casually mention he may be part of a movement that pushed out some culture in Brooklyn that came before him. Of course, all the food and drink they’ve assembled from Brooklyn sounds pretty darn good!
Brooklyner Marks the End of Brooklyn Cool [NY Daily News]
Photo via Grub Street
Facetious or not any outrage seems silly. I had no clue this restaurant even existed. Seems hard for it to make all that much of an impact on anything.
Imitation is the best form of flattery. Although I enjoy seeing Manhattan become a parody of itself while the real NYC still exists in the outer boroughs, I think most people realize that a Brooklyn-themed bar is about as real as Harry Potter World. It’s fun and all, but at the end of the day, it’s still not real.
I think his review was over-the-top outrage, in a Stephen Colbert way… read it again with that in mind and it all makes sense. 🙂
“Obviously you don’t work in midtown. ;-)”
or SoHell
> And enough with the bitching and moaning about tourists…
Obviously you don’t work in midtown. 😉
I assumed Brooklyn had already stopped being cool effective the day I moved here.
i have to laugh out loud when i see the mentality of people who dare think they can define or dimiss brooklyn cool…pleeze
brooklyn has been cool from waaay back…waaay before the nosebleed rents in manhattan’s “flavor of the month” neighborhoods chased yuppies and okies from the midwestern states who thought they could just “show up” in new york city and actually afford to live anything like what they envisioned unless they are rolling in trust fund dough – chased them straight to brooklyn! how the hell they think they define what’s cool about brooklyn when they’ve been around for veritably 5 minutes, shows exactly how full of themselves they are…brooklyn defines YOU…you don’t define brooklyn! holla if you know what i’m talking about!
it’s ridiculous to even entertain the thought that one could walk into a retail store (or anyplace!) and buy anything that is truly cool about brooklyn…kinda like buying a souvenir from Times Sq, and even more stale if you haven’t actually had the pleasure of BEing in brooklyn!
in closing i’ll say this…i love brooklyn exactly because it’s spirit, it’s flavor, it’s energy, it’s diversity, it’s ever-evolving artists and entreprenuers, CAN’T be quantified or EVER sold! it is what it is…everlasting cool, home of the p-funk, trendsetter, never a follower…we REMAIN
and don’t forget that the best views of NYC are from brooklyn! (and Queens!) holla!
st8 bklyn
love more, fear less…
Everything about NYC, from fashion to food to taxis and even crime has been a worldwide pop culture “commodity” for decades. Live with it.
And enough with the bitching and moaning about tourists…we get over 40 million of them a year and they do a shitload of spending, which in no small part has paid for the city services (police, fire, sanitation, etc) that have made Bushwick safe for 22 year old white art school grads.
Brilliant take.
***Bid half off peak comps***