Restaurant Sorrell Closing?
There’s plenty of hand-wringing on a Brooklynian thread about the rumored demise of Prospect Heights’ Restaurant Sorrell, the corner spot on Carlton started by ex-360 chef Alexandre Tchistov. (Sample comment: So sad. We suck as a neighborhood.) So is the buzz true? Maybe. Tchistov told us he recently put the place on the market and…
There’s plenty of hand-wringing on a Brooklynian thread about the rumored demise of Prospect Heights’ Restaurant Sorrell, the corner spot on Carlton started by ex-360 chef Alexandre Tchistov. (Sample comment: So sad. We suck as a neighborhood.) So is the buzz true? Maybe. Tchistov told us he recently put the place on the market and is considering opening a new business in Chinatown. Nothing’s been finalized, however, and Tchistov says Sorrell is going to stay open for the foreseeable future. Seems to us like the closure would indeed be a blow to the area’s culinary scene, which hasn’t had seen much fresh meat lately aside from the opening of Flatbush Farm last year.
Sorrell is Closing? [Brooklynian] GMAP
Does anyone know how to get in touch with Alexandre Tchistov? I know someone interested in buying him out of the space. Thanks!
I am sorry to hear that. If Sorrell really has closed, that is a huge loss for Prospect Heights – and Park Slope!
Boy, now I feel really guilty for not eating at Sorrell for a while. We liked the food and the place, and we thought the decor was refreshingly different. Alexander Thistov is a very skilled chef.
The problem for us was that for a while we liked it so much that we ate there all the time – and then got bored. (we just needed a change / a break for a while)…
Comparing Flatbush Farm and Sorrell, I think that the food at Sorrell (at least when we ate there) was better, consistently good, unlike at FF, where the quality of the food has been very uneven. We abandoned FF after about 6 visits, when, in comparison, we dined regularly at Sorrel for about 1,5 years. We also thought that serving wine from tiny milk glasses at FF was/is cheap, clearly showing that they do not aim very high. Which was reflected in their pitiful wine list.
Sorrel, on the other hand, served interesting organic wines, and chef Thistov was clearly passionate about trying to find good wine matches to his food.
It is totally silly to compare Sorrel to some sandwich place, and even more silly to then exclaim that compared to said sandwich place Sorrel is (was) too expensive. Sigh… poor Alex, trying to serve pearls to s—-s… (sorry, but really guys!). I agree with a poster above, who stated that the people in Brooklyn really are not that food savvy. It is totally unreasonable to call food that is made out of prime ingredients and with such a skill, too expensive, when it actually was one of the best food deals ever.
It often seems to me that these neighborhoods are filled with penny pinching cheapos, who think they are entitled to get high quality food for next to nothing! You try to run a business like that -let’s see how long it takes before you start buying sub-par ingredients instead of high quality, locally grown produce.
I believe Sorrell has finally closed. I live on St. Marks just off Carlton and it’s been shuttered for over a week. This corner would be better as a wine bar with charcuterie plates and such or a great coffee house with fresh baked goods etc. You could easily address the fishbowl effect by adding frosted or designed windows — add some inviting exterior lights and a nice awning and it would be a charming place to go.
I agree with the poster above who said it’s not inviting. We live on St. Marks and I could not tell you when this place is open. The hours seem sporadic. The tables don’t have candles on them – it just does not look like a place anyone would want to go. Maybe they can convert it to a daytime/evening coffee shop with some food. It looks much more like that kind of a place to me. Or put a sign up, or an awning or something. But as someone who lives on the block, I would be thrilled to have a nice, bright place in the mornings to grab a great cup of coffee and sit and read my paper. Any other suggestions for what to do? It’s a good space.
I like sorrell. I also think the menu got a bit better in the last couple months. For instance, it started including the steak that used to be available solely a la carte.
clearly, as much as I love my fellow brooklynites, there are not enough actually food knowledgeable people in this area. the chef is great, he is responsible for putting redhook on the map culinarily, and $25 dollars IS very cheap for good farm ingredients made by a real talented chef. he isnt trying to compete with a sandwich shop – and you would pay $25 for a single main course at comparable manhattan restaurants – if you were lucky. He is giving his all, the restaurant business is hell, and we are lucky that he is trying to bring things up a notch in the nabe. good luck to him.
The chef stinks.
the chef can really cook. we have never found the service a problem. well, and, er um, the guy can really cook!!!! it would be a shame if the restaurant closed.
Sorrell is a great restaurant you swiney junior assholes