SHEEPSHEAD BAY'S ONLY INDEPENDENT NEWS BLOG

Log Cabin Bar, long the haunt of Budweiser and karaoke enthusiasts at 2123 Avenue Z, is up for sale, according to a recent listing on Craigslist.

Established in 1987, the 25-year-old bar carries a price tag of $295,000 - very near to that of another legendary Avenue Z bar up for sale: the Towne Cafe.

According to the listing, the business comes sporting a liquor license, 2,560 square feet on the first floor (including kitchen), a basement for storage, and a lease with a monthly rent of $7,000.

Any takers?

UPDATE (4:04 p.m.): Robert Fernandez just pointed out to me that it’s the same real estate broker for both bars. Make of that what you will.

Photo by Randy Contello

Kung Fu Tea – sporting some very cool signage – is now open at 1422 Avenue U.

The business is apparently a part of a local chain, and a quick Google search turns up locations around the city, including the East Village, Chinatown and Flushing – not to mention one of the dumbest Youtube videos of all time (we ain’t linking it).

The business opened last Thursday, December 15, replacing Best Stop Wireless.

Source: lostnewyorkcity.blogspot.com

Sheepshead Bay’s oldest bar, Towne Cafe, is on the chopping block.

The bar, located at 1418 Avenue Z, on the corner of East 15th Street, is one of Sheepshead Bay’s more depressingly bizarre venues.

During the day, a handful of older folks sit quietly at the bar, sipping musky wine or Bud Lights and muttering about better days. Then, at night, in one of the weirder nocturnal metamorphoses of our neighborhood, it turns into a Russian-American karaoke hall, attracting wafer-thin men donning leather jackets and dodgy glances paired with fur-clad, makeup-slathered women.

In the years I’ve passed this joint, no one has ever looked happy. It smelled like stale cigarette smoke and desperation.

These are not nice things to say, but I mean it in perhaps the most positive way I can. I don’t want to see Towne Cafe go. Dark, grim and old, it is a concrete reminder of Sheepshead Bay’s seedier underbelly – even if nothing particularly seedy was going on there. It sparked the imagination, and, sitting on that corner for as long as it has, lent character to an otherwise boring intersection.

Keep reading, and find out about Towne Cafe’s possible history as a speakeasy.

This photograph of a Panera Bread's interior is here to remind you that your living room sucks.

When most people think of Panera Bread – the “upscale” chain coffee-house and bakery – they think of strip malls in wealthy suburbs, or nice, flashy downtown locations. Or maybe a quiet corner spot in some quaint town somewhere.

I really doubt, though, that they think Kings Plaza. I mean, isn’t that where class goes to die? And then have its corpse rolled around in feces? And then disposed of with an unceremonious kick into the questionable waters of Mill Basin?

Maybe that’s a little harsh; a memory of the Kings Plaza of yesteryear, before all the renovations and the increase in coveted retailers like H&M, Armani Exchange and, um, Quizno’s. Now the place is all ritzed up. It’s ready for some spotlight. It’s ready for some class.

It’s ready, at long last, for a Panera Bread.

Brooklyn’s first Panera Bread is slated to open on Monday, October 31, in Kings Plaza at the mall’s Flatbush Avenue entrance near Best Buy. The bakery-cafe will be open for breakfast, lunch and dinner from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Sunday. The location will offer free wi-fi, and boasts about its “healthy” eating options, including no trans fats, antibiotic-free chicken and organic kids choices. With no Panera options in Brooklyn, fans of the chain’s paninis, pastries and breads would have to travel to Queens (blegh!), Long Island (blarghh!) or, ugh, Staten Island (blarlegghh!), so this is certainly good news for them.

But wait, there’s more! To celebrate its Halloween Day grand opening, Panera Bread is baking hundreds of pumpkin-shaped shortbread cookies and from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. children age 12 and under can stop by to decorate and eat their own special treat while supplies last.

And though I may have written this all full of snark – and a dose of contempt for Kings Plaza – I will say there is one great thing about this news. Panera Bread is looking to hire 120 employees for the Kings Plaza location, in an area where jobs continue to be in short supply. So, sarcasm aside, kudos to Panera for putting people back to work in a hard economy.

Coming soon to 2612 East 14th Street: Sagdiana Restaurant. A culinary feast of Uzbek, Caucasian, Russian and French cousins. I, personally, don’t have any French cousins that I know of, but I sure do hope that, if I do, Sagdiana hunts them down, kills them, and serves them to me with a fancy-shmancy cream sauce.

The above sign appeared this week at 2612 East 14th Street, the former home of Cafe L’Azur, confirming our suspicions that the 2.5 year old restaurant is closed. It’s cut off in the photo, but the sign notes Sagdiana will have all new management. No word yet on when they’ll be open, but we took a peak inside and it seems just about fully furnished. We’re looking forward to our new neighbors.

Remember way, way back in the halcyon days of November 2009, when we first (and last) wrote about Cafe L’Azur (2612 East 14th Street)? The little Eastern European restaurant was just a year old around that time, and we found they had been prodding around Craigslist trying to find a buyer for the business. Of course, they denied the whole thing…

And so they stayed open for another year and a half or so. Then, earlier this week, the signs were pulled down, the exterior redone, and it looks like the place is empty.

Still, we can’t say for sure if they’re closed for good or not. The only thing that remains is a neon “Open” sign that is unlit, but it could simply be for renovations. We’ll keep an eye on it to see if it ever lights up again.

Puff Caffe (1307 Avenue Z) – a favored hangout of local 16-year-old brats illustrating their maturity by smoking hookah packed with sophisticated shisha flavors like “Sex On The Beach” and “Fuzzy Navel” – is now offering fondue. It’s right there on the sign. Hookah. Fondue. You get the point.

While they’re not the first to offer fondue in the area, it might be an attempt to diversify their post-adolescent offerings as the sale of shisha to minors is likely to become illegal in the next few months.

The lounge – er, “caffe” – is offering Swiss fondue, to be specific. They’ll have various kinds of chocolate (white, dark, milk), cheese and “special beer cheese” to dip appropriate fondue dipping stuff into.

Good for them, expanding to a new international cuisine. It’s like a regular ol’ United Nations at Puff. They use the Italian variant for “caffe” without any semblance of an Italian cafe, offer Turkish hookah and foods like hummus and, um, quesadillas, and now pair it up with Swiss cheese and chocolates.

Only in the Bay, baby.

Welcome back to The Bite, Sheepshead Bites’ weekly column where we explore the foodstuffs of Sheepshead Bay. Each week we check out a different offering from one of the many restaurants, delis, food carts, bakeries, butchers, fish mongers, or grocers in our neighborhood. If it’s edible, we’ll take a bite.

I really love the food scene in Sheepshead Bay. I don’t know of any other neighborhood that is as diverse as ours when it comes to food. Looking over the previous Bites, we’ve tasted food from almost every continent, from more than 20 different nations, and yet we’ve only traveled within two zip codes.

With so many delicious eats at our disposal, tell me, why is our food scene so overlooked by the “foodies” and the media? Ah, we’ll be doing something about that in the very near future.

This week, we head on over to The Brooklyn Bread House (1718 Jerome Avenue) for some khachapuri, or Georgian cheese bread. What’s khachapuri? Well, Charles Perry over at The LA Times calls it “the world’s most elaborate melted cheese sandwich.” I don’t know if I’d go that far, but it is a mighty fine cheese sandwich.

Continue Reading »

You read it hear first, folks! The Donut Connection on Avenue U has moved… two doors down!

They’re now at 1607 Avenue U, as opposed to 1603 Avenue U. And, um, apparently they’re selling Mexican food, because when I think donuts, I think tacos. I guess. Or something.

We stopped in yesterday to ask what the deal was. They moved about five days ago for the bigger space. The new location is clean and newly renovated, and in addition to the usual Donut Connection fare, they’ve added Mexican food and what looks like a couple varieties of locally-baked breads as well.

We didn’t have the time to try it out, but we’re looking forward to seeing if their Mexican food makes the cut. Porque no puedo comer más de esta mierda aguada gringo.

Welcome back to The Bite, Sheepshead Bites’ weekly column where we explore the foodstuffs of Sheepshead Bay. Each week we check out a different offering from one of the many restaurants, delis, food carts, bakeries, butchers, fish mongers, or grocers in our neighborhood. If it’s edible, we’ll take a bite.

It was one of those weeks, followed by one of those weekends, topped off with the beginning of one of those weeks. As I trudged along the Sheepshead Bay waterfront, as the sun baked my bald head, a song played in my addled brain. It teased me…

Help me, help me, help me, sail away,
Well, give me two good reasons why I ougtha stay,

This wasn’t looking good. Two reasons? I needed two? One wasn’t enough?

So, feeling beaten, I sat down for lunch and much to my surprise, I found “two good reasons, why I ougtha stay.” Ladies and germs, for the first time ever on The Bite, we take on two dishes. Masal Cafe & Lounge’s (1901 Emmons Avenue) Kumpir and Masal Special Toast.

Yes, history is being made, keep reading.