Basically since it opened in 1948 D'Amico's in Carroll Gardens has been roasting coffee inside its charming storefront. And for all those years nobody seemed to mind the smell that wafted down the street. Until now. As Pardon Me For Asking notes, an unhappy neighbor went and complained to the city, and now, Frank D'Amico tells us, "we may have to stop roasting all together. Ah well, what are you going to do?"
Right after saying that, D'Amico backtracked a little, though. See when neighbors complained to 311 the DEP stopped by for a visit and discovered that the store never installed an afterburner (which helps reduce the smoke and smell from the roasting process). Which isn't shocking, since the store was roasting beans before such a thing existed and so "we thought we were grandfathered in," D'Amico explained. Now he's waiting for the DEP to send him the details of what he needs to fix, though he says "we will buy an afterburner no matter what."
Just to be on the safe side though, D'Amico put an awesome sign in his store's window, right, asking neighbors to please just come and talk to them if they have problems.
"It used to be people would come in and talk to the owners of stores if they had a problem," D'Amico mused. "Now people are too busy, they just call up 311 complain. They don't realize the dynamic of what they set off when the call. If the person with the problem had just come in we would have worked with them to try not to roast as much, or to figure out what time the roasting was a problem. We could have dealt with it."
As for who he thought called in the complaint, D'Amico wouldn't say. But he did agree that the changing dynamic of the neighborhood probably had something to do with it. As one resident, who moved nearby back in 2006, expressed, "Saturday afternoon on Court St. now looks like a J Crew runway. With Strollers."
