Spicy Pickle Loses Its Crunch
That didn’t take long. Six months after opening in the former Armando’s space (of neon lobster sign fame) at 143 Montague Street in Brooklyn Heights, the Spicy Pickle has decided to close its doors, according to the Brooklyn Heights Blog. Evidently the franchise thinks that Long Island will be a better location in this economy…
That didn’t take long. Six months after opening in the former Armando’s space (of neon lobster sign fame) at 143 Montague Street in Brooklyn Heights, the Spicy Pickle has decided to close its doors, according to the Brooklyn Heights Blog. Evidently the franchise thinks that Long Island will be a better location in this economy and is trying to get out of his lease. Was this place any good? GMAP
Lassen and Hennings is great. They own the building they are in, which helps longevity immensely. No need to worry about astronomical rents when you are your own landlord.
Just like the little hardware store across from the Grand Canyon. He owns the building so the odds of him closing are slim.
A lot of mom and pop shops own their buildings, and many Montague landlords are long time Heights people that get market rents, whatever that is at the time, but are more concerned with having a tenant than a vacant store front.
Lassen and Hennigs own the building. Just as Armando’s was able to stay on Montague St. indefinitely, Lassen will be able to. As buildings get sold or leases renewed, rents get raised. Over the past 15 years, more franchises have moved in than independent shops.
That’s why the record store is now Five Guys, the Korean market a Starbucks, Old Mexico a Subway, the newsstand and pizza joint a Corcoran outpost. Etc.
Franchisees may be individually owned and operated but the parent generally still must approve new locations, rents, and leases. The Franchise would prefer that people not open and close locations all over – its bad business and PR.
As for Montague St – it is not “all national chains” or franchises it is actually a decent mix of local and chain – one that hasnt overly changed in the last 15years or so.
In fact I’d be willing to bet that the store with the highest volume is a local “mom & pop” – Lassen and Hennings.
As I understand the scenario, the owner of Armando’s (who still owns the building) wanted to retire and sell the restaurant name/equipment/rent the space. No one wanted to buy the Armando’s restaurant “as is” but the Spicy Pickle people approached him about renovating and setting up their own shop.
He said $22,000 rent. They said ok.
I’m sure the building owner will put the space up for rent and take what he can get. He took $22k because that’s what he could get.
I never ordered anything at Spicy Pickle, I walked in and it looked so tacky and ugly, I walked right back out.
Pretty sure this was a franchise, so it may have 50 locations but they’re all individually owned and operated. if I remember correctly, this was started by two guys who were sick of their wall street jobs so while I’m sorry they lost their money, they are conceivably no worse off than if they would have stayed at their jobs and kept their money in company stock!
The food was terrible. TERRIBLE. The egg sandwich used a fake egg, heated in a microwave.
The food here was underwhelming, and the service too slow. The owners were ex-finance guys who didn’t know how to run a restaurant.
The high-rent problem on Montague St. doesn’t allow for any Mom-and-Pop’s. National chains have moved into every vacant space over the past two decades, because independently-owned boutiques, restaurants, shops can’t afford the rents. It’s a shame. Everyone complains about the lack of a vibrant restaurant and shopping scene in the Heights… part of the reality is that the shops cater to a daytime crowd, and the businesses that make a go of it are generally franchises.
The building that housed Heights Book at 109 Montague just sold for 3.7m. That’s why the bookstore has moved to Smith St. Rumor has it that some food franchise will move in.
If I remember, Armandos was pretty big. I liked the food there too. It was always crowded. How does that 22,000 compare to other rents on Montague? I always had the feeling that Montague never did that great as a commercial venue, despite its location and its rather charming feel. I saw stores come and go all the time, even in boom times.
Someone once said they thought the problem with Montague was that it depended on the workers in the area who were a heavy lunch crowd but that residents who worked mostly in Manhattan didn’t come home to eat dinner on Montague and often spent weekends outside the nabe. He thought it was more of a convenience street than a destination street.
Last year I did the math on here as to how many cups of froyo that place on Smith or Court would have to sell to pay their $14,000 rent + everything else and turn a profit.
Anybody know if it closed yet???