Cafe Regular Has New Competition
File this one under sibling rivalry. Last November Grub Street reported that the two brothers behind the two Cafe Regulars in Park Slope left the business last November due to conflict with their sister Anne. Now it looks like they’re going into business for themselves. According to a thread on Brooklynian, one of the brothers,…
File this one under sibling rivalry. Last November Grub Street reported that the two brothers behind the two Cafe Regulars in Park Slope left the business last November due to conflict with their sister Anne. Now it looks like they’re going into business for themselves. According to a thread on Brooklynian, one of the brothers, Martin O’Connell, just put signage up for his own coffee shop. Appropriately named Cafe Martin, it is, at 5th and 5th, only about five blocks away from the original Cafe Regular. Apparently he wanted to open his own place to counter Anne’s attempt to make Cafe Regular “like Starbucks.” It looks like we can add sibling wars to the previous coffee wars we’ve seen recently in Park Slope. GMAP
i live next door to cafe regular. my wife and always enjoyed the place and cafe de colombe coffee, and found it to be wonderful addition to our block of 11th street. my kids have grown up with the place, and i enjoyed martin’s sense of humor and wit. i was saddened to see him go due to some family feud i was not involved in. i’m so glad he’ll be making a go of it down the street and wish him all the best in his new venture!
Goodbye random porn place, hello pricey coffee. This stretch of 5th Ave (btw. 5th and 4th Sts) is coming along (bahm mi, willie’s dawgs, etc…)
Cafe Regular is not like Starbucks at all, and I like Starbucks just fine. Each cafe serves a different purpose.
Not a fan of Mr. Martin O’Smugster.
While some my find his kind of snarky, too-cool sarcastic persona cute & endearing, his shtick really put me off & made me never want to give this dude any of my coffee $$’s.
The whole, “non-comprising artist” thing about not making his cafe like Starbucks is pretty laughable, when considering that were talking about COFFEE here & not modern art or jazz etc.
“He just won’t sell out to the man & take debit cards & make employees wear matching t-shirts” Wow, really something we all care about.
I wonder who he “sold out too” now, to come up with the $$$ to open up this joint?
that sign is awful. i hope they invest in some graphic design in the future — good branding could really make or break their business.
Will only go where Marty be.
this does not draw NEW Coffee customers into the mix (maybe a small incremental increase to overall demand) so their gain in business will be someone’s loss of business (be it cafe regular or another shop).
Great to have Martin back on the scene!
Maybe they’ll start throwing e-barbs at each other, Ã la the Franklin Ave. coffee shops.