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…
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.
Oh, I see same poster couldn’t stop. You know, Karma is a crazy thing. Perhaps the reason your life is so sad is because you keep doing things like these posts, designed only to ruin and bother people. Think about it — maybe if you behave a bit better toward others, your life would improve.
Brownstoner, please erase above post. Poster, you are a sad, sad person. I feel sorry for you. The more of these crazy things you post, the more you demonstrate how much is lacking in your life. So keep on doing this, instead of going out and actually having a real life — we are all pitying you, but hopefully, will now all ignore you.
the best thing about this article for me is that it informed me of the breadth of the ownership and now i know where these guys have treaded. i don’t follow their ownership, either flocking to their restaurants nor avoiding them, but now that will change.
i have always given their restaurants a try and often liked them, at least for while. but what seems to happen without fail is that i’ll return to the restaurant to have the worst possible, inedibile meal, one that i wouldn’t feed a dog. i don’t know how simple food can get so screwed up. and the service and management usually seems to deteriorate as well.
now it all makes sense: they start-up a place and then move on to search-out real estate and design a new place, leaving the existing restaurants to falter. no wonder so many have closed–even simple places like schnack. how can you screw up sausages and fries? (i’m sure the CANNED chili with orange soda, spices, and doritos will get screwed-up, too.
i’m not chasing them with pitchforks but it is clear to me that they have the potential to downgrade the quality and the clientele of a particular area. contrast this with saul bolton who is in the kitchen most nights, and has always served a fine meal. i find no integrity in the approach of these two guys.
Is it true that the owner of Piadina in the W. Village is opening a restaurant in Bed-Stuy?
Oh my god – now I understand why there are so many terrible restaurants in my neighborhood. They snap up every space, create a fun-to-mediocre atmosphere and serve awful food. Just went to Patios the other evening (out of duress – no seats availabe at any of the half-way decent restaurants on smith) and every dish we got was practically inedible. Nightmare. Why can’t Mark Firth (marlow & sons) or Colin Devlin (dressler) come to bococa? PLEASE! save us from this unstoppable plague of mediocrity running rampant in what is otherwise a lovely area!
Man people like to bitch about everything – I wish all ‘chains’ were small start ups like these guys… Sweetwater is just fine… plus most places are part of a small empire: diner/marlow/bonita, dumont/dressler/dumont burger, pt/D.O.C Spuyten Duyvil/fette sau
I agree with 10:34, the mythologizing of Smith Street as the Wild West is disingenuous and racist. It was always just around the corner from Court Street folks. Sorry if some people found the latinos and bodegas threatening. Also, as far as I recall, Hope & Anchor opened in Red Hook in 2001, and has been successful ever since. But then, unlike Patois, or the Good Fork, it actually appeals to and serves those people of color that the New York Times only seems interested in when they’re toothless or in handcuffs. Guess Donald G. McNeil Jr. was still away at some state university in the midwest when all this was happening….
I like many of their restaurants, but I don’t think that article was 100%
They had nothing to do with Pioneer Bar-B-Q, they were the owners of The Old Pioneer. Similar place in the same location, but BBQ was not introduced on the menu until after they left.
Regardless, they did trailblaze Red Hook before most did, which seems to be their most effective strategy and neighborhoods are better off for it. It’s a good sign if they are hopping up in your neighborhood, and I would recommend supporting all your local businesses, especially theirs. It’s hard work and it will make your hood a better place.
Harding lives in Bed Stuy. Probably won’t happen there. Don’t shit where you eat I believe is the phrase.