Last week, it was revealed that Sunview Luncheonette is facing the threat of closure as their building at 221 Nassau Avenue will soon be put on sale.
Since 2013, Sunview has been operating as a co-op social club, art collective, and not-for-profit community center hosting dinners, talks, workshops, screenings, plays, readings, musical performances, chef pop-ups, food preparation for unhoused individuals, and more. Prior to that, it was an actual restaurant owned by Demetra and Lou Koutros since 1963, which became a hub for local artists due to their inexpensive menu and space to congregate and connect. Even after its closure, said artists continued to work with the Koutroses, particularly Demetra (also known as Bea) to keep that spirit of the luncheonette alive, and thus Sunview as it’s known today was born.
Unlike most real-estate based trials and tribulations in the neighborhood, this one is much less of a hostile takeover. Simply, the Koutros family — who continued working with the Sunview collective after Demetra’s passing in 2018
— no longer want to own the building or operate as landlords.
But a sale is a sale, so Sunview is calling on the community for support. Currently, the Koutros family has expressed their eagerness to sell to them so they can keep it as the community center that it is, but Sunview lacks the capital to do so.
“[The Koutroses] kind of wanted to keep things very much status quo and they have been wonderful and supportive,” founder Dylan Gauthier explained. “They would really like to sell the building and we’re trying to find a way to either purchase it ourselves with some kind of commercial loan or find somebody who wants to buy the building and work with us and continue to have us be a community space there. The story is definitely not one of ‘oh, they want us to go.'”
The team is primarily putting a call out for potential investors, citing the opportunity to possibly rent out part of the building as condos and also receive tax incentives for helping Sunview become a formal nonprofit. Or, alternatively, they are looking to crowd fundraising to put down a deposit and afford other necessary repairs on the building.
“We’re really open to what the community wants us to be. We feel like every neighborhood should have a space like the Sunview, we kind of think of ourselves as an indoor community garden, you know?” Gauthier said. “It’s really great to have a space like that in a neighborhood like Greenpoint, you know? So I really hope that we find a way to stay and hold on to that.”
If you’re interested in supporting, you can contact [email protected].
this space could become an actual business that serves the community instead of having 1 event every other full moon to an audience of 12 people. the storefront is a dilapidated eyesore in the nieghborhood – I hope the next owners take better care of it.
Responding to the comment from Ella, I agree that the space should open to the public and not just once in a while to a small group of people but I would love for it to stay the same. I was a frequent customer of the diner in the early 2000’s and now walking by seeing as it was, is magical. Not everything in this neighborhood needs to be a 20 story glass, bird killing condo or a vape shop.
I would love to see it actually be a luncheonette again! We need more affordable lunch options near McGolrick/Winthrop Park.
The irony is that this “collective” has done a very poor job of being a true welcoming community space. Events are poorly publicized and almost always feel exclusive…despite being relatively haphazardly planned and executed. I live on the block and have wandered in many times, sometimes just checking out the music being performed, and other times trying to genuinely understand the structure of the organization and asking representatives of Sunview how to get more involved, etc. I was typically met with a “well, we are a membership-based collective” and various other cryptic references to the ways in which I could not access whatever happens there. Do better. Me and my friends, many of which are artists and creative types, have tried to engage with this place and frankly it seems as though they feel they are comfortable with their current state of disorganization. If this organization felt more true to its mission, maybe the community would come to its aid…but it feels a little too late. Also, what happened to the christmas trees?
Donnie – The Christmas Tree sales was a kind of Method Acting film backdrop for a film that came out. I think they haven’t been back since making the film – https://www.wsj.com/articles/in-christmas-again-a-brooklyn-tree-vendors-heavy-hearted-holiday-1449177109
Hi All, Thank you for your comments and concerns. Just want to highlight a few things that you might not know about the Sunview. The first is that we were invited in to use the space by Bea Koutros when she was still alive and using the downstairs as her living room, after the city closed the diner down in or around 2008. So we were always balancing our concern for Bea, who was in her 80s, with the use of the space. This is what led to our collective and co-operative model. We couldn’t have a restaurant in the space while Bea was alive, and when she passed in 2018, we aimed to continue in the spirit of our original agreement with her. Then, the pandemic happened, and a lot of cultural venues suffered, and through the grace and good will of Bea’s kids we were allowed to hang in. The building itself is in need of repair, as our (non-)business model was always to subsidize the space, Bea (while she was alive), and our rents helped to stabilize the neighbors in the building who were paying very low rents, but we were waiting to hear what the family wanted to do with the building before making any investments. Secondly, we are an all-volunteer effort, and have never turned away anyone who wanted to be involved in the space. We generally ask that people come to three events and then write to us if they’d like to join. And we do have a cap on Co-Op memberships because the space is very small and we try to be respectful of our neighbors by not having events more than a couple of nights per week. It is a residential block and we have elderly neighbors upstairs and next door. Thirdly, because we are basically right next door to a church, there is no way to get a liquor license, which is great as it means the space is better as a daytime spot or a cultural venue than, say, another restaurant or bar (which arguably the neighborhood does not need). While we have paid for or helped organize a number of upgrades in the building over the years (water, gas, electric), major capital improvements have been on hold until a time in which we could make a plan for the longterm for the space. It would seem that this time has come, as we understand that the family would very much like to sell the building. The community would very much like Sunview to remain, in whatever form that means. It could definitely be a more occasional place to have lunch. It could continue being an art space. And the residential units upstairs should be put back on the market to provide more needed housing in the neighborhood. This will all take investment and repair, but we have a willing crew of members, former members, and supporters in the community who have been touched by the strange out-of-time-ness of this space over the years. We invite you all to get involved, and to help, rather than airing grievances in a comments section of a local blog! Please reach out [email protected] if you’d like to take part in the transition plan, and to ensure Sunview’s continuation as a neighborhood resource. Thank you for reading. – Dylan (just one member among members, and this is just my personal take!)