Brooklyn Bread House
There are big plans in store for the Brooklyn Bread House, which opened its doors at 1718 Jerome Avenue last Friday.
The business sells breads, cookies, cakes and other pastries baked daily on premises. That’s in addition to a wall of nuts and dried fruits, Eastern European candies, a pickle bar and specialty goods.
But the product that anchors Brooklyn Bread House is its Armenian lavash, a thin unleavened bread traditionally made by slapping flattened dough against the hot walls of a wood oven.
The bakery’s Armenian owner, a Sheepshead Bay resident and former home attendant, saw an opportunity to begin baking lavash in the neighborhood. According to her daughter-in-law and store supervisor, Mariam Margaryan, Armenian and Eastern European families around Sheepshead Bay enjoy eating fresh lavash, but there are no bakeries in the area that make it. Almost all lavash is imported from Los Angeles or Boston, Margaryan said.
Keep reading about Brooklyn Bread House’s offerings, and how they hope to expand.
Photo by BrooklynQ
The Health Department shuttered DVIN Cafe (2219 Avenue X) yesterday, after the establishment racked up 88 violation points.
DVIN Cafe received six “critical” violations, including cold food being stored at unsafe temperatures; a lack of a food protection certificate; evidence of live mice; a lack of a facility to wash, rinse, and sanitize utensils; and inadequate “personal cleanliness.”
There were other minor violations as well.
The Health Department’s website doesn’t have any previous inspection records available for DVIN.
With 1629 Sheepshead Bay Road nearing completion, the owner said he is in talks to bring a lounge to Sheepshead Bay Road.
A nail salon previously occupied 1629 Sheepshead Bay Rd (Courtesy of Google Maps)
Owner Rovshan Sharifov said he hopes to bring an upscale bar and lounge to the first floor of the three-floor building when construction is complete, which he thinks will be the end of this year. If not a lounge, he said the space will be for retail use.
On the third floor he’ll move the Brooklyn location of his law practice Sharifov & Russell, LLP (his other office is in Hempstead, Long Island). His current practice is down the block at 1661 Sheepshead Bay Road. The second floor will have office space.
According to Department of Buildings records, Sharifov bought the property in 2008 from the Kallas family, which owns several properties on and around Sheepshead Bay Road. The Kallas family bought the land in 2005 for $930,000 and sold it three years later for $940,000. Sharifov said he plans to hold onto the property long-term.
The property was previously occupied by a nail salon.
Site of the new Masal Cafe
Masal Cafe is one of two establishments in Lundy’s to survive the building’s rebirth, and business appears to be good. It first expanded from a tiny cafe to a spacious restaurant several years ago (after the Lundy’s “mini-mall” idea flopped), and now they’re snatching up a second Emmons Avenue location.
Signs unfurled on the old Dunkin’ Donuts lot just a few short weeks ago, with Masal’s name all over it. The new “Masal Cafe Seaside” is not a move; a manager at Masal’s Lundy’s branch told me that they were staying put and this would be a secondary waterfront location. She said the plan was to open in two months, which is possible but not probable, given the amount of work that needs to be done on the site.
What do you think? Is a new Masal location going to be a watery haven, or dead-on-the-water?
Photo by Ray Johnson
Meet Layne Mosler, a “food pilgrim” and blogger over at Taxi Gourmet. Mosler is on a never-ending journey to seek out the city’s top cuisine, as dictated by those who know New York the best: taxi drivers.
In an article for the food culture newsletter Tasting Table, Mosler rounded up what she and taxi drivers consider the yummiest bowls of soup. On the list? Sheepshead Bay’s Cherry Hill Restaurant and Gourmet Market at the old Lundy’s building (1901 Emmons Avenue).
She writes:
The borscht and the fish soup–with big chunks of salmon, leeks, carrots and scallions–are worth a sit-down at this Russian super-deli in Brighton Beach. If you want to skip the upstairs café, takeout highlights include potato-battered chicken stuffed with mushrooms, stewed cabbage and ‘Caucasian’ salad with roasted eggplant, tomato and cilantro.
That’s right, Sheepshead Bay is apparently now an extension of Brighton Beach. We’ll give her a pass… this time.
Construction inside the planned Starbucks location has been stalled for months
Bad news for those salivating in anticipation of the new drive-through Starbucks on Nostrand Avenue: their planned opening date has been pushed back by several months.
We reported back in July that the 3454 Nostrand Avenue (corner of Gravesend Neck Road) location would open this month. Unfortunately, Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials have slammed the brakes on the project over concerns of the location of the drive-through curb cut, according to Howard Weiss, an attorney for the property owner.
Weiss said that after the Board of Standards and Appeals granted a variance giving permission to construct a drive-through in May, construction kicked off and all seemed good. But he said the MTA renovated the B36 and B44 bus shelter there, moving it closer to the corner several feet.
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Sure, it’s no Phu King Restaurant, but the new Ka Ka Bakery at 1505 Avenue U gets high marks for unintentional humor. We’re not sure exactly why the establishment, formerly Kingsley Bakery, decided to denigrate itself, but it provided a few good laughs on a recent stroll. That being said, they serve a decent pork bun and were friendly enough on a recent visit.
So… how many puns can we make from this photo?
Last week we set you off on a guessing game of which Sheepshead Bay restaurant was selling its business on Craigslist. Was it sushi? El Greco? A strip club?!
Nope.
Reader “Local Broker” had to go off and spoil the fun with his early – and accurate – answer: “East 14th and Z near the library.” He was, of course, talking about Cafe L’Azur at 2612 East 14th Street. So when we have our eventual meetup, Local Broker will get his reward: a hug… or something.
While the number attached to the Craiglist post did indeed go to L’Azur, an owner named Dimitry denied the whole thing. It’s possible that’s because, minutes before, we were in the restaurant asking him face to face. He denied it then, too, and had no knowledge of any Craigslist post. But when we talked over the phone, he admitted he did know about the post, but didn’t know who put it up or why, and that the business was not for sale.
“We’ve only been open for a year. We’re not selling it,” were his words.
But one reader who is interested in buying the business told us that he called and spoke to an owner as well. Not only did they tell him the business was for sale, but they’ve asked him to come in and take a look around. Curiouser and curiouser…
Whatever the situation, it’s definitely weird. Cafe L’Azur did open about a year ago, replacing a florist who had been there for at least a decade. They renovated the spot inside and out. But – perhaps because of poor media relations – they’re now closing. Maybe. Who knows.
Confused yet? Me too.
We always tried being optimistic about Cappuccino on the Bay. We hyped its reopening. We reviewed its new digs. We stopped by as often as we could stand to drink espresso. But in the end, Cappuccino on the Bay’s five-month existence at Avenue Z and East 17th Street passed like a numbing epilogue at the tail of a story many decades in the telling.
Cappuccino on the Bay shut down abruptly over the weekend. On Monday, the windows were covered in paper and a new tenant was already doing minor work inside. We can’t say whether or not the owner is looking for a third storefront in a little over a year – maybe some place with better foot traffic – but it’s unlikely. Our visits over the past few months saw the owner increasingly forlorn (or so it seemed), and our guess is he finally threw in the towel. A financial investment firm is moving into the location.
Cappuccino on the Bay moved to Avenue Z in July, after being forced out of it’s Emmons Avenue location when the property was sold a few months before. It sat on Emmons for generations, serving many bay residents their first espresso drinks. Fare thee well, Cap on the Bay. You’ll be missed.
Related articles:
Cappuccino On The Bay: A Slice of American Apple Pie and Italian Tiramisu, Too!
Coming Soon: Cappuccino On Avenue Z
Cappuccino Not on the Bay
Best Western Buys the Block
Best Western Real Estate Klusterfuck
We’ve all been wondering if we would see a return of the Emmons Avenue Dunkin’ Donuts after it closed more than a year ago. Initial reports said it was being renovated. Well – it isn’t and we won’t. Signs have been stripped from the building, signaling that the waterside Dunkin’ Donuts has closed for good. Fret not, though: they launched two new locations just a few blocks away on Knapp Street.
But hot-damn, that’s not all! We’re hearing whispers that the landlord yanked D-n-D’s 99-year lease and is close to signing a contract with neighboring Liman. It would make sense; the Turkish seafood restaurant has been getting rave reviews in the city’s press and may be looking to grow its business. But that doesn’t mean Liman’s expanding – management declined to comment, but hinted that the new property wouldn’t be part of the existing restaurant. Hmm… maybe they read our list of businesses that Sheepshead Bay needs?
Anyway, we’re more curious what the neighborhood’s new-car-owning Russian high school kids are going to do without that parking lot to bum around in. Poor kids. Poor, poor kids. Daddy’s Maxima will never to come rest again…
