Is Rice Abandoning Fort Greene Location?
Earlier this week ,a surprising listing (a screen capture of which we’ve included on the jump) showed up on Craigslist for a restaurant space on DeKalb between Washington Park and South Oxford. This got us thinking because there are only two locations that could remotely qualify as a restaurant on the block. One is Sammy’s…
Earlier this week ,a surprising listing (a screen capture of which we’ve included on the jump) showed up on Craigslist for a restaurant space on DeKalb between Washington Park and South Oxford. This got us thinking because there are only two locations that could remotely qualify as a restaurant on the block. One is Sammy’s Gourmet Deli, shown at right with the yellow awning. The other is the beloved Rice, on the corner at 166 DeKalb. The description in the ad sure doesn’t sound like Sammy’s:
the restaurant is 1400 sqft + 1200 sqft finished basement, 12ft high ceilings, 27 seating, exposed brick on one side of the wall, the kichen is in the middle right side…central air, BEAR AND WINE LICENSE KEY MONEY IS $150,000, the rent is $5300 with a 3% increase and there are 8 years left on the lease.
Say it isn’t so! We love Rice and have eaten there a bunch of times since it opened. It always seems to have a decent amount of people so this news is rather surprising. Feel free to use the comments section as a little petition to persuade them not to leave.
Restaurant Review: Rice is Nice [Brooklyn Record]
i must respectfully, but boisterously, disagree with you, “cill” my landlord, about TING TING JAHE.
I used to like Rice, until I puked on the greasy sauce used for the Spinach Balls. They are not that great. Maybe they could save some money and stay put if they did not put 15 pieces of that nasty candy in every to-go order. Who told them that candy was good enough to put in every order?!
I love Rice! I order from there at least twice a month (I don’t live anywhere near it and am at the very border of their delivery area, so eating there isn’t something I’m going to do).
But as much as I love it, my husband thinks it’s blander than bland. Probably says something about my cooking that I like it so much.
I could live happily on the carrot rice balls and butternut squash soup.
I actually like Smoke Joint, the BBQ place mentioned above. Seems to me that it’s not really meant to be a service restaurant so much as a come in, get some good food, don’t pay a ton, and get out. I’ve been there twice and liked it both times.
come on, red bamboo is fun! and they do more than fake meat.
i feel like Rice’s problem was that they kept opening up franchises but they didn’t bother to get the food right at the satellite locations.
Red Bamboo. Why make vegetarian dishes that “taste” like meat. I don’t dine at restaurants that define themselves by what they do not serve.
I’ll disagree about Ici – there’s always a very attractive (usually) french speaking woman to seat you and the seating is nice. good crowd too.
we had a delicious brunch there – with kids – and they were incredibly friendly and accomodating – food was good for kids too! I hope they don’t go…
Put me on the list of Rice critics. It probably does well in Soho where everything is played out like some bad Showtime fantasy but it was all wrong for Ft Greene. Someone didn’t do their market research.
I have a comment about restaurants in general in the Ft Greene, Clinton Hill area. They all seem to be run without any floor management and I think they suffer as a result. They try hard for concept and I often give them high marks for food. But what’s up there being no one to greet and seat like a real restaurant? This is the case with Maggie Brown, Rice, Ici, and June (and maybe others as well) You pay Manhattan prices but this part of the service is really lacking and amateur and makes a bad impression when you approach a restaurant. These places would do far better if they acted like real restaurants and I think this was part of the problem with Rice as was mentioned in an earlier post.