January 28, 2008
Park Slope’s Growing Ghost Town
This weekend Gowanus Lounge was first to note the unexpected closure of the 2nd Street Cafe at Seventh Avenue in Park Slope. The decade old restaurant, which on weekends had all the charm of a daycare center on adderall, had undergone a major renovation last summer. OTBKB hears word from a former employee that he/she was given just two days notice. Part of the ever-widening quicksand consuming New York restaurants? No word yet on the reason for the closure; calls to the restaurant are going unanswered.
Gowanus Lounge sees a tumbleweed trend here due to the obscene rents on Park Slope’s Seventh Avenue, which is growing increasingly untenable for any businesses besides real estate brokers and national chains: “The closure makes the third empty storefront in a single block and what will be a fourth when another bookstore closes as scheduled. Add two other vacant storefronts and it makes six within three blocks.”
There’s a slight splash of good news further south in the Slope; the long-awaited opening of Beer Table seems finally within reach. The husband and wife team behind the specialty beer tavern have been waiting almost six months for their liquor license, despite earning the coveted approval from the community board. A spokesman for the Liquor Authority tells the Times that “there is a two-year backlog in the area that includes New York City and that a six-month wait is not unusual.” On Thursday the couple learned that they’ve been “conditionally approved” for a license and have the audacity to hope for a Saturday opening.
A question for Park Slope diners: How broken up are you about the 2nd Street Cafe closure? In the past, our few attempts to get brunch there were distinguished by interminable waits for lackluster food. Is anyone really going to miss it?
Photo of 2nd Street Cafe via The Gowanus Lounge.
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Coming soon Cheesecake Factory/Applebees/Chilis/Olive Garden? The transplants will finally feel at home.
Ugggh I haven't eaten there in a number of years, but last time I did I was served moldy tomatoes.
went there once for dinner.....thought it was mediocre. not too broken up about it.
i'm going 2 miss it but i'm not some pretentious "foodie" (god, i hate that term).
It hasn't been good for about three years now. The renovation and menu overhaul just made it less good.
I do, however, continue to miss 2nd Street Cafe as it was in the old days, when they had awesome pancakes and there was the chance that your tablecloth artwork would get posted on the wall. But that place has been gone for a really long time.
I won't miss 2nd Street Cafe in particular, but the overall trend of closings in the neighborhood is worrying. Everything seems to be turning into banks and real estate offices.
It's so hard to keep a small business open in Park Slope. It's hard to truly comprehend how difficult it is until you've done it. I grew up in Park Slope and my mother owned a store on Seventh Avenue for ten years. She was forced to close it due to the ridiculous overhead. I loved 2nd Street Cafe and I will miss it. Mostly I miss any small business that closes in NYC. Opening a small retail business is one of the hardest things you can undertake today and it makes me sad to see any of them go.
I liked that place. It was cheap. It was decently good. There was outside seating and never a wait.
This is how markets correct themselves. Unless they just put another AA there.
Beer Table is further south in the Slope. It's on 14th Street and 7th Avenue, hence South Slope.
There are plenty of other places to eat on 7th. This is not a big deal. If the 2nd St. Cafe stepped their game up, maybe they would still be around. The service was lackluster and the wait time just to be seated was unreal for such mediocre diner food.
I'll miss it though I no longer live in the slope. Sometimes reliable mediocre food trumps the best foodie place in the city. Because sometimes you want to laugh with cool punk waitresses like Heidi who had to serve all those stroller pushers. And there was also good peanut butter pie. And it's presence meant there wasn't another Chase Bank. goodbye 2nd Street.
I'm praying that the location isn't taken over by a bank or cellular service carrier, but it looks like those are the only ones who have the scratch for the rent. 7th Avenue is looking more and more like 14th street in Manhattan.
There's plenty of other options of 5th, although it will be weird not to see it there.