The restaurant formerly known as W – located at 2812 Ocean Avenue and Avenue X – has changed its name to Le Bouchon. It’s got new owners to boot.
We’re not quite sure why the old owners decided to bail, and calls to the restaurant went unanswered. But from what we can gather with a little online research, the new guys bought into the place at the end of 2009. They kept up with the W brand until just a few weeks ago, when the new sign went up.
Just as W did, they’re pushing French and steakhouse food at upscale prices. Though we haven’t tried the food there, our favorite thing on the new menu is the “Galamâ” – a gussied up spelling of the Brooklynese pronunciation of calamari. Cute.
Thanks to Arthur Borko and BrooklynQ for the tip.
Just a month after we corrected naysayers and pointed out this spot is doing just fine, the final commercial tenants of the residential-retail development on Ocean Avenue and Avenue Z are either open or gearing up to open.
The latest to welcome customers is Voyage Unisex Hair Salon, another in a long line of spiffed-up Sheepshead Bay hair salons offering the works (including manicures, pedicures, waxes and all kinds of stuff I don’t know anything about). To celebrate their grand opening, they’re doing all haircuts for the supremely mediocre price of $15. They’re also hiring, so if you have good hands and a penchant for taking aerosol fumes to the head, give a call.
The other new business, which is not yet open and is only heralded by a cardboard sign in the door, is Chipp Neapolitan Pizza (and thank you, BrooklynQ, for catching this and sending the photo). With two buses stopping in front of the store and no other pizzeria for several blocks, the business should do very well.
Good luck to all the new businesses of the now totally booked development.
Residents living along the border of Sheepshead Bay and Marine Park now have a new store to pick up their Coca-Cola, canned beans and candy bars. GRA Convenient opened last week on the corner of Avenue U and Haring Street.
Stocked with the usual bodega merchandise, the owners are waiting for their permits to sell booze. There’s a sandwich counter for people to sit and eat the store’s Boar’s Head sandwiches, but don’t look for ham – it looks like they’re keeping halal. (An employee said it will be a “mixed” store, but the display was conspicuous in its absence of pork products.)
The space was previously occupied by Car Toys U.S.A., which sold automotive accessories.
No, it’s not the same photo from yesterday. It’s a brand new photo taken around 4:00 p.m. today. Look close. Really, really close.
KamaSutra, the scandalous ‘sex shop’ we told you about this morning, did indeed make good on its promise to Assemblyman Steven Cymbrowitz. The did change their 1717 Sheepshead Bay Road window display. But only a careful eye would notice.
Keep reading after the jump, to see more photos (sorry, too provocative for our front page) and find out what changed.
EDITOR’S NOTE: The photos after the jump show closeups of some of the items in the window display. Some may consider the images graphic. The images may not be safe for viewing in a work environment.
Find out what’s still in KamaSutra’s display, and what’s not.
A “sex shop” opened on Sheepshead Bay Road this Tuesday, and its risqué window display is getting residents hot under the collar, spurring one local politician to take action.
KamaSutra at 1717 Sheepshead Bay Road sells skimpy lingerie, sex toys, novelties and massage oils, in addition to a handful of unrelated merchandise like glass pipes and water pipes.
The owner, who declined to give a name other than “John,” said he’s been running shops like KamaSutra for thirty years. He thought Sheepshead Bay is as good a location as any to pimp his provocative products.
“A place like this is going to work anywhere,” he said. “We’re all the same. We all use lingerie, we use toys. This can work anywhere.”
But some residents and store owners along Sheepshead Bay Road want KamaSutra out, saying it doesn’t belong in the neighborhood.
Read neighbors’ objections to Sheepshead Bay’s
Photo by Arthur Borko
Everyone knows that you can lose weight by eating Subway sandwiches. But did you know if you get the right combination of bread, meat, cheese and condiments you can actually travel back in time? It’s true!
Here’s the recipe: 9-grain honey oat bread, Monterey cheddar cheese, Black Forest ham, lettuce, LSD, red onions, jalapeños, meth and chipotle sauce. Don’t forget to pick up a bag of Sun Chips… you’re going to need them where you’re going.
And now there’s a new location for you to have this sandwich carelessly slopped together with subpar ingredients (well, almost all the ingredients listed above). A Subway Restaurant is now open at 1806 1817 Avenue U, just off East 19th Street. They’ve replaced a beauty supply store that offered absolutely nothing to the time traveling community.
Dynasty Sports opened last Friday, filling the storefront at 1612 Sheepshead Bay Road that has sat empty since the neighborhood greasy spoon New Clements Restaurant closed last August.
The store sells sneakers, sportswear and accessories from brand names including Adidas, Reebok, Nike, The North Face and more. To celebrate their grand opening, they’re offering 40 percent off merchandise all week long.
“The people around here are classy people,” said store manager Mike Abd. “They’re looking for something fashionable and we want to give them something they’ll like.”
The store is the most recent expansion of a 15-year-old business, with five other locations around the borough. Two of the other locations use the name MetroSport.
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.
Last July, when we reported that the development on the corner of Ocean Avenue and Avenue Z was nearly complete, a couple of commenters began laying into this project and many others along Ocean Avenue. One called these developments “nondos,” and they all pointed out that the area’s new units appear to have problems selling.
Well, scratch that for the Avenue Z spot.
The mixed-use building that once housed John J. Healey Funeral Home looks like it’s just about booked up, and in less than a year after its completion. All of the residential units up top look occupied, and a handful of businesses have moved into the ground floor.
Most notably, perhaps, is the new 99¢ and Up store. The business is taking up two of the five storefronts, including one on the side of the building (pictured), which wraps around the interior to a front entrance. Next to that, an oral surgeon has put up signage. The remaining storefronts don’t have “For Lease” signs up, and it looks like some work is going on inside, so it’s possible they’re already booked as well.
Not bad for a corner everyone said would be doomed to emptiness.
Photo by Arthur Borko
Restaurant Sabor Latino may not be open yet, but it’s already causing us to drool in anticipation of its Latin rotisserie chicken. Obviously signage is up at 3715 Nostrand Avenue, and they recently requested permission to serve booze. No one answered the phone, so we’re not yet sure when they’ll be opening doors.
The location was previously occupied by Metro Electronics, a computer and television repair shop.
