Gastrobar with Brooklyn Flair Opens on Fifth Avenue

If there was one word to describe the experience of making Fifth avenue's J'eatjet? a reality, it would have to be "serendipitous."  

Owners Justyna Kociubinski, Michael Morgovsky, Bret Macris and Becky Brooks had discussed going in together to open a bar, but the group were by no means in a rush to immediately break ground. 

"It kind of happened weird," Kociubinski said. "We worked together, and most recently we spent some time during Sandy cooking food in the Rockaways and Coney Island … and we realized we like doing this, we work really well together, and we started thinking maybe we should do our own thing one day."

That "one day" came sooner than expected when the perfect spot on Fifth Avenue, the former home of Habana Tapas between 20th and 21st streets, became available to rent. 

"I was out with a friend and they mentioned this space was up for rent," Kociubinski said. "We came in, wanted to check it out and we were told it was in contract."

It wasn't a big deal, though, she said, because the group wasn't aggressively looking for property, she said. "But then, a couple of months later, I get a phone call at the end of January that the deal fell through and the space is available," she said. "We came, we saw the space and we loved it. All of a sudden we're in negations."

J'eatjet's owners moved into the space on June 15 and immediately went to work.
 "We did almost everything ourselves," Kociubinski said. "We built the tables in the back yard, put up the chalk board, ripped down some walls, and did it through the whole heat wave without any air. Oh God, it was intense. And now we're done and we're making food and making cocktails and we're so excited."

Though the bar will officially open its doors Thursday evening at 5 p.m., the place's recent soft opening helped its owners get their footing and gage the community's response. 

"The response has been really really nice," Kociubinski said. "Everyone likes it." 
People have especially taken to the bar's commitment to all things local, including its name. 

"I'm from Brooklyn— I grew up here—  and we've all been here from several years,"  Kociubinski said, explaining the group wanted to name the place something "Brooklyn-y." 

"We wanted something catchy, something that kind of related to the neighborhood or Brooklyn in general," she said. "We were looking up Brooklyn slang and this is one of the things that came up and we thought, 'This is perfect!'" 

J'eatjet? (or, "did you eat yet?") has more than just a Brooklyn tag line. The bar prides itself on using ingredients local to the area to concoct its food and drink. 
"We're trying to stay true to the whole local, sustainable concept," Kociubinski said. 

And while it can be hard to deal with so many different people for different things— Kociubinski said the bar will depend on farms and suppliers based in Staten Island, Long Island, upstate New York and in the immediate Brooklyn area— the set up goes a long way to help build relationships.  

Since all ingredients will be sourced locally, don't expect a stagnant menu. "[The menu] is definitely going to change with the seasons," Kociubinski said. "Whatever the farms are harvesting, that's what we're getting. We don't even have printed out menus, we're just going to have chalk boards. It's going to be changing that often." 

Highlights of the inaugural menu include the "Becky Brooks" burger, named after its creator and one of the bar's owners. The burger, which comes on a pretzel bun with dill cream cheese, raw onion, olives and pickled jalapeño, has been a big hit with customers so far and is a personal favorite of Kociubinski. Specials include fried green tomatoes, tuna tartare and a lamb belly native to New York. 

Food will be served every night until the bar's 4 a.m. closing, something Kociubinski and her partners wanted to emphasize. "We're all from restaurant world and know how hard it can be to find something good to eat late at night," she said. 

And what would a bar be without its drinks? Like its meals, J'eatjet's alcoholic fare includes eight tap beers local to New York and seasonal cocktails crafted by the bar's founders. Current cocktails include the "spiked iced tea," which includes peaches, a dried lilac simple syrup and bourbon, and a "watermelon cooler," which includes watermelon, jalapeño basil and tequila. "It's refreshing and it will put you in a happy place," Kociubinski said with a laugh. 

J'eatjet Gastrobar is located at 685 Fifth Ave. Though the bar will open its doors Thursday at 5 p.m., it will resume its regularly scheduled hours of 4 p.m.-4 a.m., seven days a week. For more information, visit the bar's website, call 347-227-7410 or email info@jeatjetbar.com.