Diners!!
Hi Everyone, wanted to gauge your thoughts on the need of a good diner! My husband and I really want to open a food establishment but with more of a soul/southern style experience. We were thinking Red Hook as the only diner I know is Hope & Anchor and that gets mixed reviews. We live…
Hi Everyone,
wanted to gauge your thoughts on the need of a good diner! My husband and I really want to open a food establishment but with more of a soul/southern style experience. We were thinking Red Hook as the only diner I know is Hope & Anchor and that gets mixed reviews. We live in Park Slope and the now that “The Usual” is gone and Grand Canyon is just “ok” – do you think a diner is a good fit
Didn’t The Usual open back up? I could have sworn I saw it open again a couple of weeks ago.
Diner-wise in the Slope we also have Daisy’s and Fifth Avenue restaurant, as well as a few others as you venture further south.
Third Avenue might be a good choice for the type of place you are envisioning. Downtown, as mentioned above, would also be an excellent choice. Probably better than Gowanus because of the number of possible customers and the relative dearth of decent lunch options.
haha – thanks so much for all your support!
We would worship you if you opened in Crown Heights. We have nothing. You would be packed with happy and eager diners.
If you want to serve a breakfast and lunch crowd, try downtown Brooklyn. There are a limited amount of places for breakfast and lunch, and not many good ones. Luther’s fried chicken on the corner of Jay and Willougby closed years ago, and the store was never rented again. That place was always packed, and the food was good and reasonably priced. The Mariott is on the next block, and is usually at full capacity with tourists. Metrotech is across the street, the DA’s Office, Courts and NYC Transit are down the block. That’s lots of hungry office workers.
This is a bit of a stretch I realize, but maybe you could approach an existing restaurant that only serves dinner and see if they’re interested in partnering with you for the morning hours. Not to deprive all the other posters urging you to set up shop in their neighborhood, but maybe a place like Barrio in PS would be interested in sharing space, reducing overhead and serving your version of a desayuno con grits platter. (When it comes to food, I find PS very 57 channels. However, I’m just plucking Barrio from the sky…no reason to think they would or would not be open to such an offer. Aside from the punishing hours of running a multi-shift operation, many chefs just hate the repetitiveness of cooking breakfast food.) When SOB’s was first establishing itself 25 years ago, they set up shop in what used to be a very ordinary diner, preparing their wonderful Brazilian lunches for those of us who worked in the neighborhood, and converting to dance club only in the evening.
South Midwood, South Midwood, South Midwood.. specifically Foster Ave anywhere on the strip of retail between E 15th and E18th. You would make a killing, simliar to the specificity of the local places in Bed Stuy, we have some small excellent take out/joint type places but no diner, nor even a really good cup of coffee.
I really like Hope and Anchor, but its too hipster for what you are talking about (I think).
GL.
If I were going to open a restaurant, I would think Bed Stuy, and not just because I live here. It is the perfect intersection of need, density and low overhead.
There is nothing out here but a small handful of restaurants, each of which cater to a too-specific thing. Le Toukelour is specifically about that Afro-Carribean French food thing. Shakoor’s Sweet Tooth is fucking incredible soul food, but it’s take-out only and has irregular hours that occasionally disappoint. Peaches is great, but it’s special-occasiony–a little expensive for everyday eats. Tiny Cup is fantastic, but it’s a cafe, it closes early, no drinking, is always totally packed.
I would rather cut of my own arm and eat it for supper than work in a restaurant ever again (especially my own) but if I had the urge to open the kind of daily-eats-with-soul emphasis joint you are considering, I would study the Tiny Cup carefully and move its model to the nighttime sit-down restaurant like Hope and Anchor, but with much, much better food.
The Tiny Cup gals have a real grasp on what works in a gentrifying neighborhood. The food is consistently high-quality, they are dependable and the prices are excellent. You could eat there every day without getting disappointed, left hungry, fat, sick or broke.
The reason I would not consider Red Hook or Gowanus is density and existing market. Red Hook has plenty of places to eat, granted, mostly not very good, but they exist, and have a captive audience of relatively few actual diners. I know nothing of the Gowanus area, but have been out there and don’t live there, so I know that there are destinations in Gowanus for eating and drinking already.
There is no such destination in Bed Stuy except Peaches and (hopefully soon) Saraghina, which are both offering something you say you don’t want to offer.
Take advantage of the rent slump and find something near the Utica stop on the A.
There is a Maria’s restaurant that serves DELICIOUS diner food on 5th and Bergen.
Sounds like a great idea, and I would love if you did it on 5th Ave! I find the 2 diners closest to me on 5th mediocre at best. (Don’t remember the names – one is around 7th St and one around 10th.)