Subject: New restaurant on Vandy/Cataldo's
This is the new restaurant in between Le Gamin and Nick's on Vanderbilt. ANOTHER pizza place. Hopefully they'll have a full menu of other offerings?Idlewild » If oil keeps going up the way it is, and I believe it will, I don't think this place is going to last a year whether or not the food is good. The only places which might survive are Vanderbilt is The Usual and Mitchell's.I dunno... Amorina seems to do quite the business.
Idlewild » If oil keeps going up the way it is, and I believe it will, I don't think this place is going to last a year whether or not the food is good. The only places which might survive are Vanderbilt is The Usual and Mitchell's.maybe i missed your point, but as far as i can tell, mitchell's and the usual consume (and dispense) quite a bit of oil.
Smokin' Joe » [quote="Idlewild"]If oil keeps going up the way it is, and I believe it will, I don't think this place is going to last a year whether or not the food is good. The only places which might survive are Vanderbilt is The Usual and Mitchell's.maybe i missed your point, but as far as i can tell, mitchell's and the usual consume (and dispense) quite a bit of oil.[/quote] I meant petroleum. Although thinking about with the price of corn exploding on alternative fuel speculation I will add that to America’s woes. As far as I know Mitchell's Soul Food and The Usual own the properties their stores are located in. And not having to pay a mortgage much less a high rent helps your economic situation drastically. I'll put it to you this way. We are being attacked economically in a few ways. There’s a two-war front that's sucking up cash like a giant sponge. Natural disasters since Katrina have risen G-d knows how many fold and are also being funded (the recoveries) without any incoming revenue. NYC itself is seeing a new construction slowdown and some hefty job loss. And petroleum is driving everything in its path up price wise. All of this hits the consumer, and consumers are holding back on spending money. Take a look at Flatbush Avenue during rush hour and you'll notice there's some extra space between the bumpers, walk by popular restaurants on Friday and Saturday nights and you’ll see more than per usual of empty seats. In fact look on Vanderbilt Ave and you'll see a lot of "For Rent" signs in storefronts. Last night as I was walking down Vanderbilt around 10pm I saw places like Beast, Soda and Le Gamin at 50% capacity. The new pizza place along with Vanderbilt Avenue itself was almost deserted. Businesses in the City as a whole have to pay extraordinary rents. Rents, which I doubt, will come down. Business expenses such as heating bills (heating oil is over $3 a gallon), natural gas for cooking, insurance and salaries are draining enough but are more so with incoming cash slowed down to trickles. My belief is places like the Usual and Mitchell's who own their property, mortgage free and are cheap enough for people to splurge on will make it if not barely. My guess is even the popular and customer loyal places like Amorina and the Garden will be facing tough times for lack of consumer spending. And I forgot to add the rice crisis as well as petroleum creating economic disaster world wide. Look at the riots in Europe. America is in the middle of a multi-pronged attack.
threecee » maybe the apparent slow down could just be that folks are out of town, fleeing the heat?Did you notice the lack of parking spaces over the past few weekends? And to back up my natural disaster part, corn has sky rocketed because of the floods in the mid-west. And yes, in response to Smokin' Joe a lot of money has entered the neighborhood but this was before the $138 a barrel. This slow down has been happening for the last few weeks. And not just to restaurants. And I want to emphasize again how petroleum has a nasty domino effect. When it goes up everyone cuts down including businesses who at the least cut assets which in turn cuts jobs. It's just a very weird time for any business except a Gray's Papaya with a sweetheart lease to open right now. I pray that these new businesses opening all over PH isn't relying on Ratner. He's pretty much just chopping brick and not laying any foundations for a long, long time. Do any shopkeepers/business/landlords people want to chime in? You don't have to be on Vanderbilt or in PH for that matter.
Bklyn.X » Vinny’s is more of a family/working person’s type of deal as was Nino’s. The times I’ve been there it’s been UPS, ConEd, Police, FDNY, plumbers, etc for lunch, families for dinner. I doubt they’ll change the formula but you never know.huh, okay. I guess we'll just have to see how it works out!
Idlewild » Where is Michael's?6th and Bergen.
Smokin' Joe » (except, if i'm not mistaken, the building that houses the usual has or recently had a for sale sign, so either they don't own their building or are planning to leave it.)i didn't notice any such sign on the usual, but i did see a for sale sign next door on jeune's this morning. sure you don't mean that building?
ginsbera113 » Nothing has been said about the food. Anything to add on that?If the food is similar to Vinny’s it will be unbelievably good basic Italian food. I was there yesterday and enjoyed generous portion of Chicken Rollatini with some rice and Broccoli Rabe ($13 before tip). I’ve had many dishes there including pasta, sausage, fresh fish (including fried Calamari), pork, veal, etc. and have never been disappointed. Vinny’s does not have pizza but in general, for pizza, wood-fired ovens are better than gas or electric ovens because it can cook a pizza very quickly at a very high temperature. There is a new place called Enzo’s on PPW one door off 16th street (next to Farrell’s) that has this type of pizza and it is excellent. When I spoke to Sal he said he was hoping to open in mid-July. Sorry if I sound like I’m advertising for this place please be assured that my interest is purely one of gluttony. I used to eat at Nino’s before it changed hands and now eat at Vinny’s almost twice a week. I’ve been getting food from someone in that family for over 30 years. I can hardly wait for this place to open!
alafairnadia » I'm guessing this place is counting on more folks coming over from ft. greene and that end of the PH nabe. further south we have amorina and franny's which both have that type of pizza, and amorina also has nice, solid, basic pastas pretty inexpensively. it will be nice, though, to have a place in the nabe that does the solid italian veal & chicken dishes and, hopefully, yummy garlicy veg.See, I don't think Amorina is inexpensive for what you get. I think the pies are small (we got delivery once and the pie was TINY, and I remembered thinking that we paid too much....even though it was good- we joked that we wanted to get McDonalds we were still so hungry!) I hope this place is a good, solid, red sauce joint. Big pies, big parm heroes and big entrees! Like real Italians. Well, NY Italians.
Whatchuwant » [quote="alafairnadia"]I'm guessing this place is counting on more folks coming over from ft. greene and that end of the PH nabe. further south we have amorina and franny's which both have that type of pizza, and amorina also has nice, solid, basic pastas pretty inexpensively. it will be nice, though, to have a place in the nabe that does the solid italian veal & chicken dishes and, hopefully, yummy garlicy veg.See, I don't think Amorina is inexpensive for what you get. I think the pies are small (we got delivery once and the pie was TINY, and I remembered thinking that we paid too much....even though it was good- we joked that we wanted to get McDonalds we were still so hungry!) I hope this place is a good, solid, red sauce joint. Big pies, big parm heroes and big entrees! Like real Italians. Well, NY Italians.[/quote] I agree. Amorina is good, but pricey for what you get.
Axel Foley » [quote="Whatchuwant"][quote="alafairnadia"]I'm guessing this place is counting on more folks coming over from ft. greene and that end of the PH nabe. further south we have amorina and franny's which both have that type of pizza, and amorina also has nice, solid, basic pastas pretty inexpensively. it will be nice, though, to have a place in the nabe that does the solid italian veal & chicken dishes and, hopefully, yummy garlicy veg.See, I don't think Amorina is inexpensive for what you get. I think the pies are small (we got delivery once and the pie was TINY, and I remembered thinking that we paid too much....even though it was good- we joked that we wanted to get McDonalds we were still so hungry!) I hope this place is a good, solid, red sauce joint. Big pies, big parm heroes and big entrees! Like real Italians. Well, NY Italians.[/quote] I agree. Amorina is good, but pricey for what you get.[/quote] well, in comparison to Franny's, it's relatively inexpensive. I'd put Amorina and Franny's in the same category of restaurant - individual pizzas, pasta, antipasto - and Amorina is clearly the cheaper one of the two. if this new place is cheaper, good for it!
Whatchuwant » I hope this place is a good, solid, red sauce joint. Big pies, big parm heroes and big entrees! Like real Italians. Well, NY Italians.
Whatchuwant » I want Bay Ridge Italian to come to Prospect Heights! I just can't get into fancy ass pizza. I lika good sauce and I lika good cheeeeeese.Exactly! This place will be for you. These are old school Brooklyn Italians from back when everything south of Prospect Park was considered “South Brooklyn” and Carroll Gardens was mostly Italian-American.
alafairnadia » [quote="Axel Foley"][quote="Whatchuwant"][quote="alafairnadia"]I'm guessing this place is counting on more folks coming over from ft. greene and that end of the PH nabe. further south we have amorina and franny's which both have that type of pizza, and amorina also has nice, solid, basic pastas pretty inexpensively. it will be nice, though, to have a place in the nabe that does the solid italian veal & chicken dishes and, hopefully, yummy garlicy veg.See, I don't think Amorina is inexpensive for what you get. I think the pies are small (we got delivery once and the pie was TINY, and I remembered thinking that we paid too much....even though it was good- we joked that we wanted to get McDonalds we were still so hungry!) I hope this place is a good, solid, red sauce joint. Big pies, big parm heroes and big entrees! Like real Italians. Well, NY Italians.[/quote] I agree. Amorina is good, but pricey for what you get.[/quote] well, in comparison to Franny's, it's relatively inexpensive. I'd put Amorina and Franny's in the same category of restaurant - individual pizzas, pasta, antipasto - and Amorina is clearly the cheaper one of the two. if this new place is cheaper, good for it![/quote] Ok, but Franny's is really expensive for what you get (I still like it, but it is), and Amorina's is just moderately expensive. So far we don't have a good option that's just "cheap."
Axel Foley » [quote="alafairnadia"]well, in comparison to Franny's, it's relatively inexpensive. I'd put Amorina and Franny's in the same category of restaurant - individual pizzas, pasta, antipasto - and Amorina is clearly the cheaper one of the two. if this new place is cheaper, good for it!Ok, but Franny's is really expensive for what you get (I still like it, but it is), and Amorina's is just moderately expensive. So far we don't have a good option that's just "cheap."[/quote] hence my "if the new place is cheaper, good for it!" above ...
alafairnadia » [quote="Axel Foley"][quote="alafairnadia"]well, in comparison to Franny's, it's relatively inexpensive. I'd put Amorina and Franny's in the same category of restaurant - individual pizzas, pasta, antipasto - and Amorina is clearly the cheaper one of the two. if this new place is cheaper, good for it!Ok, but Franny's is really expensive for what you get (I still like it, but it is), and Amorina's is just moderately expensive. So far we don't have a good option that's just "cheap."[/quote] hence my "if the new place is cheaper, good for it!" above ...[/quote] Yeah, I was just trying to say, in reponse to your previous post, that in comparison to Franny's, almost anything is inexpensive. And that's all I have to say about that.
Bklyn.X » [quote="Whatchuwant"]I hope this place is a good, solid, red sauce joint. Big pies, big parm heroes and big entrees! Like real Italians. Well, NY Italians.
Whatchuwant » I want Bay Ridge Italian to come to Prospect Heights! I just can't get into fancy ass pizza. I lika good sauce and I lika good cheeeeeese.Exactly! This place will be for you. These are old school Brooklyn Italians from back when everything south of Prospect Park was considered “South Brooklyn” and Carroll Gardens was mostly Italian-American.[/quote] Fuckin A! Now I'm excited.
Bklyn.X » These are old school Brooklyn Italians from back when everything south of Prospect Park was considered “South Brooklyn” and Carroll Gardens was mostly Italian-American.I guess I am showing my age because I still refer to it as South Brooklyn (I REFUSE to call it Bocaca). Is this the place that was across from Monteleone's on the police precinct side? If so, I hope they have rice balls
Idlewild » If oil keeps going up the way it is, and I believe it will, I don't think this place is going to last a year whether or not the food is good. The only places which might survive are Vanderbilt is The Usual and Mitchell's.Although businesses will see prices for everything increase as the cost of transporting to them rises, won't people also be looking for more local options for food and entertainment as the cost of traveling goes up?
sneakyonstmarks » nope, native brooklynian. you?Native Brooklynites should know that someone from Brooklyn is a Brooklynite. Brooklynian (used as a noun, not an adjective) was a term invented for this site. Just sayin'.
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