Harlem soul food restaurant finds 2nd home in Brooklyn

bknest

BY JOYCE SHELBY
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Monday, October 15th 2007, 4:00 AM


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Amy Ruth's, the Harlem soul food restaurant, will be cooking it up on the Fulton Mall by the end of the year, the Daily News has learned.

The restaurant, famous for a chicken and waffles dish named after the Rev. Al Sharpton, will take over the spot occupied by Gage and Tollner for 122 years, and briefly afterward by T.G.I. Friday's.

The Fulton Mall location will be the second in the city for 8-year-old Amy Ruth's, which scored 22 on food in the latest Zagat Survey of New York City Restaurants.

However, founder and chef Carl Redding is no longer at the restaurant he named for his grandmother, according to Zagat. On Friday, those involved with bringing Amy Ruth's to Brooklyn declined any comments on their plans.

Acting as spokesman for the restaurant, Harlem-based literary agent Lawrence Jordan would only say: "We'll be having a press conference soon."

At the W. 116th St. location, just about every dish on the menu is named after a Harlem politician, artist, businessman or preacher.

Will the Brooklyn restaurant have chicken wings named for rapper and actor Ludacris or will Def Jam president and CEO Jay-Z take the honor? Will Harlem-born author Jill Nelson manage to keep her name on the barbecued chicken or will the dish be renamed for Brooklyn's Iyanla Vanzant?

What's not likely to change are the landmarked interior and exterior of the restaurant, modeled after a Pullman railroad dining car. It opened in 1882, with gaslights, mirrored walls and cherry wood trims, all of which will have to be preserved.

Southern cuisine at Gage and Tollner was popular while the late Edna Lewis was in charge of the kitchen during the 1980s.

Owner Joseph Chirico took over in 1995, restored the interior and reopened the following year. In February 2004, the restaurant popular for steaks, pan-roasted oysters and she-crab soup closed. Chirico cited lack of business.

The T.G.I. Friday's that opened at the site shortly afterward lasted about two years.

But Joe Chan, president of the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership, which promotes investment in the area, was optimistic about Amy Ruth's.

"It's a real destination for dining, drawing from the Harlem community and the city as a whole," said Chan. "Amy Ruth's has a high rating in terms of food quality and it's very affordable and accessible."

The potential customer base in Brooklyn is large. The Fulton Mall attracts an estimated 100,000 shoppers a day, said Chan. He added there are 14,000 new apartments being created in downtown Brooklyn. The area also is home to numerous businesses, schools and houses of worship.

Said Chan, "We expect them to draw a very diverse crowd."

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anonymous

They could have made a real statement or impact in Brooklyn, but they went for the quick buck; the real money comes when you are first not last and owning the place usually helps.

sweet tea

i'm confused by your comment guru -- what did you mean?

i do think it's great that the gage & tollner space will be open again. edna lewis is a big hero of mine, and i've always wanted to see a place where she cooked.

anonymous

sweet tea wrote: i'm confused by your comment guru -- what did you mean?

i do think it's great that the gage & tollner space will be open again. edna lewis is a big hero of mine, and i've always wanted to see a place where she cooked.

Wouldn't it be nice if that place was in an actual neighborhood? Wouldn't it be nice for it to be on a stretch in an area that is open after 8pm on a Friday or Saturday? Wouldn't it be nice if they put it near some of their customers? Wouldn't it be nice if they helped the growth or continued growth of an area? How about a space with better parking options? The gage & tollner space will not be open again it will be Amy Ruths and they could and should do better.

stacey

gourmand wrote: [quote=sweet tea]i'm confused by your comment guru -- what did you mean?

i do think it's great that the gage & tollner space will be open again. edna lewis is a big hero of mine, and i've always wanted to see a place where she cooked.

Wouldn't it be nice if that place was in an actual neighborhood? Wouldn't it be nice for it to be on a stretch in an area that is open after 8pm on a Friday or Saturday? Wouldn't it be nice if they put it near some of their customers? Wouldn't it be nice if they helped the growth or continued growth of an area? How about a space with better parking options? The gage & tollner space will not be open again it will be Amy Ruths and they could and should do better.

You make a good point Gourmand - I would love to see it in a more residential stretch but they probably figured that it is near the courthouses where they can get the lunch crowd, plus there is the hotel near there. Hopefully they can do well and open a second branch in a more residential area.

Lucky for me I have Mitchells near me

sweet tea

wait, i'm still confused. i know it won't BE gage & tollner, but am i misunderstanding that it is their old location? sorry if i'm being dense.

stacey

sweet tea wrote: wait, i'm still confused. i know it won't BE gage & tollner, but am i misunderstanding that it is their old location? sorry if i'm being dense.

No it is supposed to open up in the old Gage & Tollner on Fulton right off Jay Street. Within a 5 block radius you have the courthouses, the hotel, Bklyn Law School, etc. so it gets pretty deserted after work and when the stores close. I guess my motives are more selfish - I would love to have it closer because its comfort food to me and I would be more inclined to walk there and grab a bite and not have to hop a train or bus home

anonymous

well, it is good to see something going into the old Gage & Tollner space that isn't a franchise or a chain, and Amy Ruth's might just be the place to make the location viable again. More power to them.

She's a culinary hero of mine, too, but Edna Lewis really was never in the kitchen there, though. She wrote the menus for a while and served as a consulting chef, leant her name to the place kind-of-thing, but she was never that active in the everyday operation of Gage & Tollner.