Soft Opening (570 Manhattan Ave) is moving today to Nassau Avenue.
On its second anniversary, the plant shop Soft Opening (570 Manhattan Ave.) will move to Nassau Avenue to focus on building an online store.
On Friday, Soft Opening’s owner Kristin McLaughlin posted a message on Instagram stating that she started the business in a smaller storefront on Nassau Avenue near McGolrick Park and that she is moving Soft Opening back to its original location on the businesses’ second anniversary. Continue reading →
No closing date for the restaurant has been announced (Greenpointers is in the process of reaching out to the owners), but the writing is certainly on the wall for Three Decker fans to relive their memories while the diner still graces the corner of Manhattan and Norman Avenues in its current incarnation. Continue reading →
BZ Grill, a Greek gyro shop from Astoria, is opening soon on Manhattan Avenue
In recent changes to the local dining landscape, Greenpoint will soon gain its only Greek gyro shop, and the neighborhood lost a ramen restaurant last month, amongst other closings.
While nearby restaurants like Dar (168 Driggs Ave.) serve hummus, grilled meat kabobs, and other dishes that are typically found in Greek restaurants, Greenpoint has been without a dedicated Greek restaurant since Mr. Souvlaki (208 Franklin St) closed two years ago.
The Greek food drought will end with BZ Grill’s opening at 544 Manhattan Ave., the former home of the farm-to-table restaurant Annicka. BZ Grill is under construction and the opening date has yet to be announced, but the awning has already been installed and construction workers have been spotted preparing the restaurant this week. Continue reading →
Starting at the north end of Manhattan Ave., the restaurant formerly known as Barley (1025 Manhattan Ave), and recently before that Whiskey Burger, closed briefly in July and relaunched as the The Royal. For fans of the fomer incarnations of the restaurant, there are few changes to the new menu, and yes, the burger is still available.
Lockwood (98 Greenpoint Ave)
At 98 Greenpoint Avenue, the awning was installed on Thursday for the forthcoming expansion of the Queens-based lifestyle store Lockwood, which is scheduled for a Septermber opening, according to owner Mackenzi Farquer who spoke with Greenpointers about the expansion. Continue reading →
Bagel Point (699 Manhattan Ave.) will celebrate its soft opening on Thursday, July 4th, following months of renovations that combined three storefronts at the corner of Norman and Manhattan Avenues next to a G train subway entrance.
A sneak peek inside Bagel Point
The menu features hand-rolled bagels, a variety of traditional and vegan cream cheeses, housemade lox, hand-carved roast beef, and non-processed meat options. The cafe will eventually be open 24 hours and offer online ordering and delivery, but for the soft opening there will be reduced hours (opening at 6 a.m.) and orders can only be placed in-store.
A sample of the menu at Bagel Point
The owners of Bagel Point, Sam Kaplan and Adam Alsorra, also operate Smith Street Bagels (202 Smith St.) in Brooklyn. The new space in Greenpoint has a spacious interior with plenty of window seats and tables in the center; there’s even outside seating on the newly installed benches on the Nassau Avenue side of the building. Continue reading →
A new Asian-inspired cocktail bar featuring sharable street food dishes named Sama Street (988 Manhattan Ave.) opened last Monday and is the project of childhood friends and Brooklyn residents Avi Singh and Rishi Rajpal, who met at the age of four while growing up in New Delhi, India.
“We spent the majority of our childhood living in Asia and traveling around Asia, so we really wanted to bring that experience to this cocktail bar in Brooklyn,” Singh said.
“We both happened to be in New York, we wanted to get into this industry for a while and finally took a leap and decided to work together,” he said.
When looking for a restaurant space, Singh and Rajpal considered many Brooklyn neighborhoods.
“Initially we were looking all over Brooklyn; Greenpoint, Williamsburg, and a couple of places in East Williamsburg too, but the Greenpoint neighborhood just kept drawing us back,” Singh said. “The neighborhood is awesome, the people here are really nice; we’ve gone to meet with other business owners on Manhattan Avenue and everyone is very welcoming and very friendly, so this is a great place to be.”
the spicy beef salad: Nam Tom Neua, marinated beef, raw cacao, toasted rice, and herbs.
Enid’s (560 Manhattan Ave.) held its final brunch ever last Sunday and is now officially closed (yes, we’re still sad), but today you have a chance to own a piece of the restaurant in a sale to clear out the building. Enid’s is letting go of the rest of their belongings, and you can drop by from approx. 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. today; Enid’s sent us a quick description of what to expect:
“We have folding metal chairs Folding wooden chairs A metal locker setup w 8 lockers, basically lots of odds and ends relating to kitchen life, pans, plastic containers, lots of bar glasses, some tables, the booths, It’s all first come first serve and it’ll be making a reasonable offer.”
Greenpoints’ Petland Discounts (846 Manhattan Ave.) is shutting down on Tuesday, March 19th, along with the closure of Petland retail stores across New York state, Connecticut, and New Jersey.
The announcement of the closures came just a few days after the passing of Petland founder, Neil Padron, Newsday reports.
The Brentwood, Long Island-based company has 78 stores in the tri-state region (18 in Brooklyn) with over 360 employees and was founded approximately 54 years ago in 1965.
The Manhattan Avenue store had many items remaining as of Friday afternoon and the store is offering discounts on select items. Continue reading →
Sakura Market is a new dining experience featuring “supreme sushi grade seafood with deep Unami flavors using healthy principles” that is launching at Pony Boy (632 Manhattan Ave.) in March.
His first day in Brooklyn, Joon Yoon was baptized in true New York City fashion—with bird poop. While others would consider this an ill omen, Joon saw his unexpected baptism as a harbinger of success. “Some people say it is good luck if you get pooped on,” he explained matter-of-factly over email.
His optimism was warranted. More than two decades since his 1997 arrival in New York from South Korea, Yoon—along with his brother, Jun Yoon—now manages a small green-grocery empire. The brothers own 11 stores (including two in Greenpoint), all of which are a gentlemanly variation on the original store’s name, Mr. Kiwi at 957 Broadway in Brooklyn. They have even expanded into Queens, opening Mr. Avo this year in Long Island City.
Although now bonafide American entrepreneurs, the Yoons originally lived in a provincial capital of middling size in South Korea. Rootless and with financial difficulties, they moved to the U.S. in the late 1990s, knowing no one in the New York area. When Joon first arrived at age 23, he began working in grocery stores from the Bronx to Queens at an exhausting pace—seven days a week at 14 to 18 hours a day.
Mr. Plum (photo: Ben Weiss)
In 2006, he was faced with a choice. The Woodside grocery he worked at was closing, soon leaving him without work. Joon and his family decided to take a leap and open Mr. Kiwi, the idiosyncratic name chosen spontaneously during a road trip. In the beginning, it was hard to gain traction. “They didn’t come with a lot of money or anything… When you don’t have money, there is no one who will give you money. So, they had to start with very little product in the store. Literally, maybe a one-item-per-shelf situation,” explained Jae Lim, their office manager, over the phone.
Mr. Plum (photo: Ben Weiss)
The brother-and-father team operated the store 24 hours a day, working in shifts. Junseok Yoon, their cousin, came soon after and became an integral part of the operation. Customers appreciated the cheap produce—sourced from Hunts Point Market—and generous portions from their juice bar, detailed Lim.
13 years later, one store became 11. And Mr. Kiwi was joined by Mr. Coco, Mr. Piña, Mr. Melon, Mr. Lime, Mr. Berry, Mr. Mango, Mr. Lemon, Mr. Plum, and Mr. Avo. The Yoon family has even recently opened a salad bar in Bushwick.Continue reading →
