Old Hands on the Restaurant Scene Face a New Brooklyn

The Times profiles Brooklyn restaurateurs Alan Harding and Jim Mamary, who are credited with trailblazing fine dining on Smith Street but are also the subject of backlash in Carroll Gardens and Boerum Hill. Harding and Mamary opened Patois on Smith in 1997, back when the rent for the space was $900 and the street, according to Mamary, was “a horror show.” After that, the pair went on to open more than a dozen restaurants and bars, many on Smith, like Gowanus Yacht Club and Trout, and some in other neighborhoods, like Williamsburg’s Sweetwater and Prospect-Lefferts Gardens’ Cafe Enduro. The duo’s creations are now scorned by “Brooklynites who’ve come to see Harding-Mamary creations as a chain, where you can get it venti in a ramekin with crème fraîche or slushed with guava and salt on the rim,” and their decision to open an oyster bar on Hoyt Street next to their restaurant Black Mountain Wine Bar stirred significant local opposition. Nowadays the two are looking for new/cheap/not-completely-gentrified neighborhoods to grow their small empire, like Ditmas Park, where they recently opened Pomme de Terre. Mamary says you need to grab every space that becomes available,” in on-the-brink areas, “or somebody else moves in. It’s like Coke and Pepsi.” The two are also eying Crown Heights and Staten Island.
Restless Pioneers, Seeding Brooklyn [NY Times]
Photo by R.S. Guskind.