store closings/openings

joehill

walked past spVino today and looked through the paper - looked like someone was building a brick oven in the back of the space.

brooke lynn knight

Last week I saw folks clearing furniture out of Aji on 9th St betw 4th & 5th Av. Looks like they may be another victim of the "cursed" spot. Oddly, Harry Boland's Pub seems to thrive just a few doors away.

veets

No question that AJI is over.

new2hood

Aji got such great support on this board, it seemed. What happened?

veets

new2hood wrote: Aji got such great support on this board, it seemed. What happened?

They just couldn't decide what they wanted to be.. A Jazz club, a restaurant, a Latin Dance night place every night of the week. When they opened it was summer and the lite menu worked for a while but in 3 visits u had tried everything worth eating on it. Peiro said they would add rotation of main dishes.. never happened. They w ere gonna do Peruvian breakfast treats.. never happened. They wasted money to start on another renovation of space that didn't need it.
The list goes on and on... Easy to criticize from the sidelines. Hard to get a business on its feet and they just couldn't make it happen.

brooke lynn knight

I agree with you, Veets, that it's easy to snipe from the sidelines and hard to be an entrepreneur. Still, I was so puzzled by their choices. For example, closing on Monday. When you're starting a business and you have to pay exorbitant rent (as I'm sure they did), it's a tremendous luxury to be closed one day a week. And also to be closed for lunch and breakfast. Jeez, imagine if they had done some kind of great brunch special to attract business. Peruvian food -- breakfast tamales with unlimited Pisco Sours for 14.99, or whatever. It could have put them on the map, and made them the kind of place people would consider going for dinner.

Yeah, I know. Probably they don't do brunch in Peru. But Park Slope ain't Peru.

And you're right, Veets, it was never really clear whether they were a restaurant, bar, or supper club.

Oh, well. I'm always sorry when a local business fails.* Better luck to the next tenants.

*Exception: The lying cheats that ran "Living on Seventh." Enjoy the $144 you stole from me. You probably have a hundred unpaid debts; hope you're sued six ways to Sunday.

peanuts

"Aji got such great support on this board, it seemed. What happened?"

While I think that this Board can be valuable I don't believe it represents Park Slope - by that I mean that I would guess that the vast majority of people who live in the Slope don't come to this site. Example, everyone on this board seems to hate Sotto Vocce/Aunt Susie's and a few other places but they're always packed.

danny hellman

Peanuts wrote:
While I think that this Board can be valuable I don't believe it represents Park Slope .

I think that this board represents approximately 15-20 persons who utilize it primarily to coordinate pub crawls and complain about their cable service.

peanuts

I didn't mean to criticize the board - I have gotten information through here -I found a plumber through here, I found out about Blackboard Eats, people on the board convinced me to go back and find that Martin is a really nice guy

I'm just sayin that it's not representative of PS

veets

Just to gossip..after the fact. The 3 partners at Aji had other jobs and I am sure that is why they did not keep long hours. As it turns out keeping their "day jobs" was a good idea.

whynot_31

Danny Hellman wrote: [quote=Peanuts]
While I think that this Board can be valuable I don't believe it represents Park Slope .

I think that this board represents approximately 15-20 persons who utilize it primarily to coordinate pub crawls and complain about their cable service.

Don't forget the guy who hates dog poop.
....or the guy who tells everyone animals have the same rights as people.

classics.

We represent boredom, and defiance of rules regarding surfing the internet while at work. ....anyone who believes we should be more is an over achiever.


MOD NOTE: discussion of animal sufferage split off here:
http://www.brooklynian.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=59520

brooke lynn knight

But back to Aji -- it did really have the feel of a "hobby" restaurant, like Spirito before it. By that I mean it felt like some guys with money and the idea that owning a restaurant would be totally awesome, like an incredible neverending house party that people pay a lot of money to attend.

Nothing against people indulging expensive hobbies, like owning a yacht and opening a restaurant, but I hope they're being realistic that they can't make money at it unless they knuckle down and treat it like the not-cool, not-fun 60+ hour a week job it really is -- or hire a staff that can run the show.

pitu

Long Tan is the next to go.
http://blog.zagat.com/brooklyn-news-comida-opening-oaxaca-expands-long-tan-closing

veets

Brooke Lynne.

. Totally agree with all you said and even the opening of the Boccacio Grill, the first restaurant after Sonny' diner in this location had that same feeling. The owner of the building ( still owns now) was the original restauranteer and he was a baker by profession who had great recipes, the ability to cook main courses as well and make people comfortable.. or so he thought.

For a brief moment it all worked and then no smoking allowed and he LOVED to smoke with buddies in the place and play cards and then he lost interest in doing the cooking and hired a "chef" (think bad idea and start to cut down on quality ingredients) and then down hill from there!

The story is long one...but this idea of playing at owning a place does not work.

This is one of the hardest businesses in the world!

brooke lynn knight

Honestly, it amazes me that no one has taken advantage of the rush-hour foot traffic on that block to set up a place that could offer a good, quick cup o'joe and some breakfast treats, and, in the evening, for the weary worker, a nice inexpensive set of takeout dinner options. I know there's a Dunkin' nearby and such, but really, not everyone likes their offerings.

But delis and coffee shops aren't glamorous; just profitable if you put in the work. I suspect we'll see another fun, ambitious project in that space in due time. If that happens, I'll see you in 2012 for the postmortem on what went wrong....

brooke lynn knight

Guess Total Wine Bar bit the dust too.

http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/2010/10/done_total_wine.php

old time brooklyn

That sucks. I really liked Total Wine Bar. Seemed like a divisive spot though.

belzjm

and another one bites the dust...

http://heresparkslope.blogspot.com/2010/10/artesana-to-close-after-11-years.html

brooke lynn knight

Okay, I just have to ask: Clearly there's an incentive for landlords to have storefronts vacant. Otherwise we wouldn't see so many landlords asking ridiculous rents that no one can afford to pay, so the properties stay vacant. The landlords still have to pay taxes and upkeep, yet they would rather have no income than a modest income.

Obviously there's some kind of loophole in the commercial rent law or the tax code that allows these landlords to profit from empty storefronts. Does anyone know what it is?

old time brooklyn

It's been posted in these forums before. Basically they get tax write-offs for the empty spaces decreasing their incentive to rent.

brooke lynn knight

Ah, our marvelous lawmakers at work again. Tax incentives for reducing employment and turning avenues into ghost towns? Great idea! :evil:

It still seems like you'd be taking a loss, though, if you rented a storefront for, say, $10,000 a month and then increased the rent to $20,000 so no one can afford it. Is the tax break really worth $10,000 a month?

eggcream

belzjm wrote: and another one bites the dust...

http://heresparkslope.blogspot.com/2010/10/artesana-to-close-after-11-years.html

Good riddance to that place.

bluecat

eggcream wrote: [quote=belzjm]and another one bites the dust...

http://heresparkslope.blogspot.com/2010/10/artesana-to-close-after-11-years.html

Good riddance to that place.

^ why?

dw438

Where art thou the Grecian Corner? It's over15 months since it closed ...

doldrums

Old Time Brooklyn wrote: It's been posted in these forums before. Basically they get tax write-offs for the empty spaces decreasing their incentive to rent.

the landlords do not come out ahead by keeping the properties idle. They get to deduct all their expenses whether it is rented out or not. So every dollar of rent nets them 60 cents after taxes. so , of course they want to rent it out. The reason
the storefronts are lying dormant is that most commercial leases are long term say 7-10 years, so the landlords do not want to be locked in at what they see as a temporary dip in the market. Of couse, after some time empty, their thinking becomes costly to them.

brooke lynn knight

Whoops!

brooke lynn knight

dw438, I miss "Greazy Corner" too. Call me crazy -- I just have a real soft spot for old-school greasy spoons.

reader

It looks like Studio 97 Salon on the corner of 9th Street and 7th Avenue closed.

There is a for rent sign in the window and a sign that Alex has moved to Michaels.

shekb

I think this counts...Park Slope Restaurant on 5th Ave. @12th is moving down a couple of spots into the Green Kitchen space...same owners. Possibly they're consolidating the menus, too? I didn't know Green Kitchen was doing poorly.

danielj

@shekb: Yep, the menus are consolidating.

http://heresparkslope.blogspot.com/2010/12/park-slope-restaurant-shutters-merges.html