New bar opening?

I haven't heard of any liquor license applications coming to the Community Board for that location, so I'm hopeful a restaurant is in the works. God knows we could use a nice sit-down restaurant.

I have it on good authority that a bar/restaurant is planned for this location. As I mentioned before, the owners have not been to the Planning Board for a beer and wine license, so we can figure it will be a while before anything happens with beer and wine. A lot of restaurants open first and then get the beer and wine license months later. That could be the plan here as well.

homeowner wrote:

BTW, Sunday mornings between 4am and 7am are like a free-for-all on that block of Nostrand and nary a cop in sight. 77th, if you are looking to fill some ticket quotas, come down. You'll have your choice of double parking, public intoxication, noise violations, maybe even a DUI before its all over.

HA!

To be specific - there is the former West Indian kitchen that just went out of business on Sterling and Nostrand. Fully built out with ansul cooking hoods, walk in refrigerator boxes and even your bullet-proof glass partition (makes for such charimg decor). All of the inquiries have been for corner bodegas - but no Connecticut Muffins - sorry folks they just aren't knocking down the doors for our n'hood just yet. When it gets taken by a new business, don't lament the missed opportunity...

Capt. Planet wrote: Seems I recall that East 6th Street in the Village is packed with Indian restaurants. I don't seem to recall people ccmplaining they wanted greater variety, but rather that folks from all over Manhattan went there for Indian food. Why can't Nostrand do the same with West Indian food?

No reason, except that it has to wrest the title away from Church Ave, which I think for most people would be the destination to go for West Indian food if you were coming from outside the neighborhood.

Perhaps we can point them in the direction of this link from NostrandPark.com - while unscientific, it does give some insight into what residents want...http://nostrandpark.com/category/business/

apologize if i don't get the link right - see their apr 27t ebtry...

Wasn't there a bagel/coffee shop across the street from tavern on nostrand run by the same owner? Didn't it close up after 6 months or a year? Anyone know why it failed?

Seeing this type of business open and fail makes it difficult for others to try it. If one new type of business is successful others will follow but right now there is still a big question mark as to whether it will be successful or not. Sure there are some people who will support it but are there enough to make it worthwhile?

As a former market researcher, I have to say that surveys about what people want are pretty useless. We've done a few at the North Crown Heights Nostrand Avenue Merchant Assn. and the Community Board back in the day, and all people do is regurgitate whatever they see on every other upscale business strip in Brooklyn.

Groups of people don't think, they just reacte. It usually in my experience requires an innovator to connect the dots and comes up with a solution. Once people hear the right answer to the problem, you got the "aha" response, why didn't I think of that. Alternatively the visionary plods along against overwhelming odds and succeeds through sheer doggedness.

In either case, committees, groups and polls do not come up with the solution, an individual does. Did Edison come up with the light bulb because people asked for it in a survey? Colonel Sanders didn't get the chicken thing right until he was in his 60's.

Enough lectioning. But we need a vision for Nostrand, not a laundry list of what every other n'hood has or a litany of complaints. Crown Heigths is a unique n'hood. It needs a unique business strip that reflects that uniqueness. Otherwise it becomes an odd collection of chain stores and whatever else can hang in their midst.

Can't some of the more visionary merchants come up with a fund to promote Nostrand Avenue as a destination for BETTER West Indian restaurants? Can't we cultivate a few of these in addition to the take-out places. Esquisite just adding seating. Perhaps the new place on Nostrand and Park Place could provide dining worth traveling for from say, Park Slope or Clinton Hill. Am I dreaming????? Bed-Stuy has Peaches and Solomon's Porch and Bread Stuy Bakery. If they can do it, why can't we?

I think more than focusing on one establishment, the strip has to be marketed as a whole. It is more powerful. Got to get some good PR going for Nostrand. There is a new PR company on Franklin that might be able to get involved.

I mentioned this in another post, but it might be a good idea to organize a Caribbean food cook off hosted by the various restaurants on the strip. Folks could come out and taste and vote. Then the winner could be announced. It could be an annual thing that takes place in the weeks leading up to the parade. Prizes can be awarded to the best restaurant based on a host of categories, including taste of food, presentation, authenticity and ambiance of the establishment.

Funding could maybe come from the merchants themselves, maybe one of the local politicians, and the LDC Crown Heights (although, they seem to be focused primarily on senior citizen related issues). I'm not sure what their funding is like but there is also Lezama's Caribbean Cultural Center. Even if they couldn't give money, I'm sure they could lend some type of support. At the very least, they must have connections that could help promote it to the right outlets. Medgar Evers might be a resource as well - their business school has a community development program that does a lot of outreach. They are a bit exclusive and focused on their thing, but perhaps even the Heart of Brooklyn could serve as a partner.

In terms of structure, it could kind of run like a flea market, where the restaurants would have to pay to participate and get the benefit of the marketing. The proceeds could be reinvested in the businesses and in improving Nostrand Avenue, more generally.

Is the merchants association still active?

While the presentation, and just about everything else, leave much to be desired, I actually think the food itself at a fair number of the establishments is pretty good. But I grew up on Caribbean food, so my palette is used to it. It's simple. But it's authentic.

On the other hand, it would be great to have a Sugar Cane or Negril type of establishment on Nostrand. They are fine dining Caribbean establishments. (I hadn't heard of them before your post, but I'm guessing that Islands is of the same ilk). Their menus are creative and the food and presentation are of a much higher quality. It would be a nice compliment to the authentic cuisine establishments. I think that is a great idea. But how to get them here is the question?

In terms of focusing on one establishment, however, I still back the idea of promoting Nostrand as a collective. And I'd think that direct competition in the form of a "cook off" would really incentivize the restaurants to step up their game. Yes, the shops are currently in "competition" with one another and aren't doing much. But I'd imagine that a direct competition coupled with a cash prize, a title, and publicity might incentivize owners to really step it up.

Another idea that I've been thinking of is to have a Nostrand Avenue business plan competition, along the lines of what the Business Library of the Brooklyn Public Library holds. A substantial cash prize could go to the winning business plan (BPL is $15,000), based on viability, serving the community need, etc. The community could help set the judging criteria (e.g. no takeout, no nail salons). This way, entrepreneurs are inspired to look at the commercial strip in new and creative ways.

Judges could include not only seasoned entrepreneurs, but also residents of the neighborhood. The winner would have a guaranteed market, at least initially. Perhaps - and this might be a pipe dream - the landlords might even be amenable to giving a rent reduction for the winner. At the same time, since efforts like these tend to benefit the landlords in the form of increased rent rates, the landlords should be asked, at the outset, to set aside a limited number of "affordable commercial spaces" so that, in the long run, mom and pops can stay competitive on the strip. Since there are only a couple of landlords, it should be relatively easy to get the to the table for negotiation.

The question is getting funding. I haven't researched the idea thoroughly yet, I'm sure there is some free money out there for this type of project. The BPL competition is funded by Citi Foundation. There may be similar private sources, or even government funds from a community development block grant, or the like.

I've had these ideas for a while, and have done some preliminary research because I wanted to be able to pitch it to one of the local organizations. I personally think that CHNA and CHRM would be great organizations to spearhead the effort, since their missions include community economic development. If anyone else is interested in really brainstorming on this and moving it from a message board to reality, let's do it. PM me.

Anyways, that's my $0.02 x 100.