A laundromat at 132 Franklin St. that’s sat empty for over a year is in the process of a delicious upgrade. This spring, Paris-based Fulgurances, is opening a Greenpoint location of its incubator for rising chefs.
Parisian and recent Brooklynite Hugo Hivernat (along with partners Sophie Cornibert, Rebecca Asthalter and Pierre Bufett) launched his original chef residency program in Paris, Fulgurances, L’Adresse, in 2015. In 2021, Fulgurances will bring a similar visiting chef model to the Brooklyn rendition.
“We compare what we do to an artist residency: Fulgurances invites young chefs for a three- to six-month residency program where they can learn how to manage a team, define and refine their culinary identity, and express themselves as they want, without having to worry about the administrative and financial aspects of running a restaurant,” said Hivernat.
In Paris, chefs and sous chefs, who were “hidden gems in the kitchen,” Hivernat said, have come to Fulgurances from restaurants all over the world, including highly acclaimed global restaurants like Noma, Osteria Francescana, and Cosme.
“With this new residency location, we hope to keep bringing both local and international chefs, because a huge part of cooking is about being open to others and to the world,” said Hivernat. “The goal is also to create bridges between Paris and New York, and perhaps even have chefs rotate from one city to another in order for them to be confronted with a new terroir, and a new audience.”
A roster of visiting chefs for 2021 and beyond has yet to be confirmed, but the residency is definitely an enviable position while New York’s restaurant industry experiences an unprecedented upheaval. “The core of our business is promoting up and coming chefs,” says Hivernat. “In this environment, we feel these chefs need that support now more than ever, as it will probably be especially hard to open a restaurant in the next few years.”
Another important tenet of Fulgurances is supporting sustainable, responsible, organic producers. “With what this [pandemic] crisis has revealed about the precarity of our supply chains, we are more committed than ever to supporting a local, sustainable food supply,” said Hivernat. But not everything about COVID-19 has been negative for Fulgurances. “We’ve also seen the support and encouragement for other local businesses in Greenpoint, and really feel that we are surrounded by a strong community,” he added.
Construction on Fulgurances, which started in February 2020, paused in March due to the pandemic and picked up this past summer. The site in Greenpoint’s Historic District had already been involved in a conflict with the Milton Street Block Association, which was resolved in December 2019 when CB1 prohibited Fulgurances from using the backyard for guests, in order to keep noise levels low in Greenpoint. With the new normal of outdoor dining proving as the safest option for the community, we’ll see if that ruling sticks…
Before opening as a restaurant, Fulgurances serves as a Sunday pickup location for Blue Hill’s resourcED boxes. Gift Cards are also available to support Fulgurances and before opening.
You can make this stuff up! The headline looks like a fake headline from a satire pub like the Onion!
Bring a microscope to see the dishes and a bank loan if you want to go here!
Paul, dear Paul: Don’t you want to want at least until they open their doors before you judge them into oblivion?
Opening during a pandemic gives them an “A” ratings for bravery a nd effort alone. And if you need a bank loan to dine anywhere, I suggest you eat in. Or there’s always McDonalds I suppose.
I’d MUCH rather see something like this instead a noisy bar with rowdy customers in the middle of a row residential tenements.
Greenpoint has far too many of those already.
I’m sure Le Laundromat will serve you a heaping helping of sauteed Satire Onions, french style of course, if you ask them nicely….
If you publish the comment I just submitted , please allow me to correct a typo and revise it: Paul, dear Paul: Don’t you want to at least wait until they open their doors, before you judge & condemn them into oblivion? Opening during a pandemic gives them an “A” rating alone, both for bravery and effort. I know we’re in tough times, but if you need a bank loan to dine anywhere, then I suggest that you eat in for now. Or there’s always McDonalds Dollar menu I suppose. Altough I advise that you could find healthier even for that amount. The bottom line is that I’d MUCH rather see something like this restaurant ,instead a noisy bar with rowdy customers in the middle of a row residential tenements. Greenpoint has far far too many of those already. Thank you Community Board, for noyjing, Paul, I’m sure Le Laundromat will serve you a heaping helping of sautéed Satire Onions, French style of course, if you ask them nicely. And if you just happen to like the place, I’m sure that they’ll serve you a big plate of “crow”, on the house. 🙂
p.s. In this case both the Milton Street Block Association (mainly a few wealthy homeowners) and the often out-of-touch Community Board over-reacted, by denying Fulgurances the use of their small backyard — perhaps because the now shuttered bar next door was truly a bad neighbor in my opinion – even resulting in a huge backyard fire that could have easily set the area up in flames. We need more dining establishments where people can socialize in our post-pandemic world in harmony with the neighborhood, and far less of those kinds of bars that ruin the area’s quality of life. In addition, being a life-long, long-lived , and born & bred Greenpointer, I appreciate the immigrant aspect of this endeavor, being that Greenpoint has had a long and rich history of nurturing many waves of hard-working immigrants over the years, immigrants that built this city and will rebild it once again Yes, and that includes even the latest waves of newcomers , this time coming from the farthest nooks and corners of America –all arriving here to seek a better life. And like their immogrant predecessors, seeking opportunity, under the watchful & welcoming gaze of our (French) Lady of the Harbor, as she stands proudly with her tourch to light the way to a new New York recovery and revival, a revival fueled by the confidence, investments and foresight of businesses like Fulgurances.