Slopers Rally Against Atlantic Yards-Area Restaurant
At a Community Board 6 meeting last night, Slope residents voiced concerns over a new restaurant and lounge headed for Flatbush and Sixth avenues
A controversial restaurant near Atlantic Yards was granted a liquor license weeks ago without any protest from the community, but the throngs of angry Slope residents who crowded a community board meeting Monday night in hopes of blocking the license had no idea.
Prime 6, a multi-story bar, restaurant and lounge under construction in the former Royal Video storefront on Flatbush and Sixth avenues, was granted three liquor licenses on Feb. 16 by the State Liquor Authority. George Karp, the attorney for the eatery, said that he notified Community Board 6 of the restaurant’s intentions back in November, but heard no objections from the community.
On Jan. 18 Karp filed an application for the licenses, and was granted all three in record time – including one for an outdoor bar area that will seat up to 27 people.
But while the primary sentiment in the room was anger – over lack of notice, trashy sidewalks and many more anticipated grievances – at times the meeting seemed to approach comedy.
“Our goal is to make a community place, to bring the community in to eat. I didn’t know that opening a bar on Flatbush would cause such a stir,” said owner Akiva Ofshtein, eliciting a wave of laughter from the crowd.
The restaurant, which is less than two blocks from the under-construction Barclays Center basketball arena, plans to open in May in anticipation of the soon-to-come arena crowds.
“When you tell us, the community, that this is a community restaurant you are really and truly insulting our intelligence,” said Pauline Blake, a committee member and resident of St. Marks Avenue, which abuts the restaurant.
"To have a restaurant for the Atlantic Yards crowd is different than to have a restaurant for this community," said Hope Reichbach, a representative for Councilmeber Stephen Levin.
Neighbors to Prime 6 particularly decried the restaurant’s plan to serve food until 4 a.m., seven days a week and called for any backyard space to be scrapped entirely.
“He really just needs to abandon the outdoor space. He may not be aware of the acoustics, but there is no way that it will not be loud,” said Paul Zumoff, a Bergen Street resident and area real estate broker. “I sympathize with how difficult it is to open a restaurant, but he doesn’t appear to be receptive to our concerns.”
Zumoff added that anther noisy restaurant on the block, which already is home to Sugarcane, will surely diminish local property values and make it harder for brokers like himself to rent area apartments.
Ofshtein encouraged residents to “take a chance,” on his space, questioning why so many people had already formed such strong opinions of his still unopened eatery.
But residents said that Ofshtein has already demonstrated his worth as a neighbor by failing to respond to frequent complaints about trash and dangerous conditions on the construction site.
One resident, whose car is parked in a garage next to Prime 6, recounted his car being blocked by a dumpster from the site one day when he needed to get his wife to the hospital. Construction workers in the restaurant were unhelpful, and he ended up having to call the police to help him get his car out of the garage.
Residents were also suspicious of the nature of the space.
Ofshtein, a Midwood lawyer who spent a decade in the food service industry during college and law school, assured residents that the space would indeed be a “high-end, Manhattan-style” restaurant and nothing more.
But MySpace and Facebook pages for the eatery boasted live music and bottle service. On the MySpace page, many of Prime 6’s 300 friends are sultry women in suggestive poses. The Facebook page for the space appears to have been removed.
Ofshtein, however, denied any involvement in either of the sites, saying that they were designed by an independent business. Though the exact details of the space are not yet worked out, he said it would either be a steakhouse or a “California kitchen.”
Community Board 6 will reconsider the matter in a month, after it first gives Ofshtein a chance to reconcile some of the community’s concerns.
It is unclear, however, what impact the community board can even have now that the liquor licenses for the space have already been granted. Prime 6 will still need the Department of Buildings to sign off on the plans, which an increase in occupancy for a total occupancy of 230 people.
After the meeting, Ofshtein said he is willing to at least consider some of the suggestions from the community.
“The majority of the issues that around tonight are new to me, so I’d like some time to think about them,” said Ofshtein.
“We came to this meeting with no idea there were these sentiments,” added Karp.
Luke Alberts
10:28 am on Tuesday, March 1, 2011
And it makes more sense to leave the space abandoned & borded up? Because it's a corner property & at a sweet address, not too many other entrepreneurs can afford such a high rent for the space which has, otherwise, been vacant for two years! Contrary to the dissenters, most likely the presence of this restaurant will only heighten the nearby property values, as most legitimate businesses usually do. How else did the rest of Park Slope become so expensive, afterall?
Sloper
10:43 am on Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Give me a break Luke, are you a partner or something? Bottle service and serving food until 4am clearly caters to the craft beer and stroller crowd, c'mon please?! This joint is 100% made for Atlantic Yards and it (and especially its outdoor seating) will be a total disaster in a neighborhood like this. Not to mention an ongoing feud for its owners.
Luke Alberts
10:51 am on Tuesday, March 1, 2011
As if so many actually want to "live" on Flatbush Avenue? I know. I'm an apartment broker, too.
AR
11:24 am on Tuesday, March 1, 2011
The meat and booze crowd that the arena will draw should be kept within the confines of the overall project or immediately adjacent. We do not need Madison Square Garden and environs, Brooklyn style. Hey, Mayor Bloomberg, it's a quality of life issue.
Parksloper
3:24 pm on Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Who are the meat and booze crowd?
Sloper
11:28 am on Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Despite popular belief, humans do live on Flatbush these days. In any case, this place is predominantly on 6th Avenue, between Flatbush and St. Marks and within a block and a half of Prospect Place and Bergen Street. A neighborhood known for the other kind of bottle service. I can't imagine they'll be thrilled about sidewalk boozers at 4am.
Luke Alberts
12:21 pm on Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Despite popular belief, humans do live on Flatbush these days. In any case, this place is predominantly on 6th Avenue, between Flatbush and St. Marks and within a block and a half of Prospect Place and Bergen Street. A neighborhood known for the other kind of bottle service. I can't imagine they'll be thrilled about sidewalk boozers at 4am.
Luke Alberts
12:20 pm on Tuesday, March 1, 2011
I didn't deny that "humans" (?) live on Flatbush Avenue. All I wrote is that as a nearly decade long apartment broker, most of the "humans" (?) I've worked with don't want to.
Jorge
10:54 pm on Tuesday, March 1, 2011
This is both a travesty and much to do about nothing at the same time. The initial website for the restaurant, as well those ads adorning the space, were/are incredibly garish and not indicative of anything that is going to blend in with its surrounding neighborhood. I have very little hope for a place like this. However, if it's an "arena crowd" it seeks, it is going to fail and go away quickly.
Janet
9:29 am on Friday, March 4, 2011
Flatbush Avenue is a major thoroughfare, and those who choose to live on or near one can expect traffic and people. There are bars up and down Fifth Avenue, some of which also serve meat, generating noise and crowding until the 4 AM closing time, but the same concerns don't seem to exist, and one can't help thinking this one wouldn't, either, if it were on the other side of Flatbush Avenue.
Mike
1:49 pm on Saturday, March 5, 2011
I've lived on this block and for more than 7 years, and my bedroom windows open into the area where the planned outdoor space is to be located. The fact is that from our bedrooms we can't really hear traffic or pedestrians on Flatbush, but when the weather is warm and there are people in the outdoor spaces it can get very loud. I've been woken up a few times by 5 or 6 people being loud on a back patio, which is annoying but isn't common enough to be the end of the world. I think I'm justified in being worried about an open patio for 30 people serving drinks until 4:00am 7 days a week a few hundred feet from my bedroom window.
john brien
12:59 pm on Tuesday, April 26, 2011
John.
I have lived in this area for almost 25yrs now and have seen the rise of the tide being called progress here and not all of it is welcomed and not all should be, but there is a half way point all should surely meet on and work out these issues, saying his Myspace or Face book page is full of sultry women is just childish. Prohibition is long over folks and we are more tightly packed in together than ever due to the lure of the area that restaurants and bars alike brought to us. Who would want to live somewhere where you could not get something to eat or drink? To say it is for just stroller and craft beer people is also very narrow minded, what made this great borough what is is is the diversity of the people the food and yes bars. If the owners can see to a time line they close the back yard and keep people from hanging around outside late at night which I am sure they will, all could co exist peacefully and who knows it just may be good food which we can all enjoy. Give the man a chance.