Eagle Trading Company: New Greenpoint Cafe – Review

This article made possible by a donation to our Writer’s Fund by Greenpoint Veterinary Hospital.I had taken a nasty spill on the way to Eagle Trading Company (258 Eagle St). The quarter inch of snow on the streets got the best of my nearly bald bike tires, and I broke most of the fall with my shoulder.

Eagle Trading Company offered a perfect place to lick my wounds and warm up after the embarrassing tumble. ETC (Eagle Trading Company) promised me Manhattan clam chowder and coffee to succor newly forming bruises.

Essentially a TARDIS (look it up if you’re not versed in Dr. Who), the space is deceptively small from the outside, but massive once inside. Cavernous in just the right way, ETC inhabits what was formerly an abandoned storfront and what was an abandoned bodega before that. The TARDIS comparison is an apt one. Once inside ETC I was immediately struck by how welcomingly anachronistic it was.

Sure, there are countless bars, restaurants, and coffee spots that are bedazzled in vintage knick knacks, but most times it can come off as forced or too curated. ETC is equal parts filling station and your dad’s awesome garage. Massive rolling shutter doors let in a stunning amount of winter sun and I got to listen some rare 60s psych rock while I finished my lunch.

Lunch was a perfectly composed B.L.T., simple and welcome after a 20 minute bike ride in the cold. ETC offers breakfast and lunch throughout the week and brunch on the weekends. Smoked salmon, goat cheese, red onion, and capers; or a smoked ham, brie, and horseradish mustard on freshly baked Balthazaar baguettes are just a few of the comfortingly minimal sandwiches found at ETC.

Owner Sam Bates has succeeded in recreating a bygone slice of rural Americana in Northwest Greenpoint. A general store/way-station updated for the iPhone set, ETC could have been plucked from the side of any country road from the first half of the American century. Exposed brick walls, wooden milk crates, and other vintage flourishes ornament the wall, but are done so with a tasteful spartan reserve. A welcome change from reclaimed wood and nautically themed what have you.

Serving Stone Street Coffee, brewed in Carroll Gardens, ETC has been open for a little over a month, but you’d be hard pressed to tell that from the warm vibes being given off by this little establishment. Perched on the corner of Eagle and Franklin, ETC offers a menu that begs to be explored, particularly from their vintage lunch counter salvaged directly from a Norman Rockwell piece .