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Tuesday
Dec202011
New Bar in the Works for Fifth Avenue Near 15th Street
Tuesday, December 20, 2024 at 10:58AM 
A bar is coming to 545 Fifth Avenue, between 14th and 15th Streets, in a storefront last occupied by a bodega (and before that, Gerry's Meat Market).
I met the owner, an Irishman named Colin, yesterday, and he told me that even though construction started early this year, it's progressed very slowly due to being shut down by the DOB for five months. They haven't settled on a final "theme" yet, and construction still has a ways to go, but he assured me that it would be "a great bar." It's a big space, too. Stay tuned for more details as they emerge.
tagged Coming Soon, Under Construction in Bars, Storefronts
Coming Soon, Under Construction in Bars, Storefronts
Reader Comments (27)
Oh goodie, another bar.
Bars have become the new nail salons, cell phone stores, realty offices.
Welcome to the further homogenization of Park Slope.
What were you hoping for there, anonymous552?
When the plywood first went up several months ago, there was a newspaper article stating that an experienced Manhattan restauranteur had signed a 30 year lease. To find out that it will be a bar is certainly disappointing. Granted not as bad as when I found out a new car service was opening on 4th between 15th and Prospect.
There are approximately 300 other restaurants in the neighborhood. Will you all complain about anything? No matter what it is, someone complains. I welcome a bar. Frankly, I welcome anyone willing to put up their hard earned money, take over one of the many vacant spaces in the neighborhood and offer up some jobs to those who need them.
Yes, Park Slopers will complain about anything....a bar, a nail salon, a real estate office, a restaurant, cell phone store, bank, you name it. They hate anything and everything that isn't a local vegan organic store selling overpriced baby onesies made of hempseed.
Not everyone, but a few here, 552 leading the charge, will bicker and complain about just about every new business in the neighborhood, yes.
Don't those of you who have lived in the neighborhood for 30 years have anything better to do than complain on nice little blogs? Sad.
Personally, I like to drink...and eat out, so I welcome each of these new businesses. Perhaps it will be great, perhaps not. We shall see.
The biggest problem with the South Slope is the lack of creativity that comes with new places. How many nail salons are needed on one block? Or 99c stores? Does that make sense? I have no problem with new businesses, in fact I look forward to them. However, when the new business is just more of the same it makes it less exciting. As far as a bar goes, I'm excited about it and I'm sure it will be great. That being said, a high caliber restaurant would have been even nicer.
There is a new high end restaurant opening on 5th avenue between 11th and 12th street. It's under plywood now. There is Talde (probably the highest end restaurant to come to PS is year) opening on 7th Avenue and 11th street. There is Fonda on 7th Avenue and 14th Street and Thistle Hill Tavern on 15th Street and 7th Avenue. There is beer table in South Slope and I could go on and on and on.
I don't think some of you open your eyes when you're out. The South Slope is where ALL the good restaurants and bars are opening and I see almost ZERO new nail salons or the like opening lately.
Vivi nails opened not too long ago right next to the old OTB. There is a nail salon two doors down from there. Two doors down from there is that tatoo parlor/nail salon.
Take the new convenience store that just opened next to Der Kommissar. I used to be an empty lot, so I'll take any business there over nothing. When you go in there though, it provides nothing new over the place on the northeast corner of 15th and 5th or the one on 5th between 16th and Prospect.
Talde should fit the "high caliber" description.
Key Food is opening where OTB was. Sounds like a great addition to me. People DO get their nails done and personally I love convenience stores. I just don't understand what you want instead of the businesses that are there. What is Park Slope lacking that you want? The neighborhood is filled to the brim with restaurants, bars, stores and necessities like banks, real estate offices and the post office. What else do you feel you need that isn't in the neighborhood already?
We just need better stores. A third dirty looking beauty salon on the block isn't what we needed. A new car service doesn't fill any gaps since there are already a ton of them. A new key food is a welcome addition because it is well spaced between c-town and eagle. How many pawn shops/ghetto jewelry shops are there south of 9th st? Would you be happy if we got another one? If Mandee's were to close and a Gap took over, would you be upset? I certainly wouldn't. South Slope is in need of more creative new businesses, not just someone trying to copy what's already there. We need more entrepreneurs like Steve Jobs and less like Bill Gates.
We will have to agree to disagree because I completely 100% disagree with you. I do not want a GAP, and I love the new car service because the other 3 I routinely call have been busy NONSTOP for the past few months. As for the jewelry stores which have been there for decades, I like them. I use them to have things repaired and I appreciate that they've been here for a long time and provide character.
You want the South Slope to turn into a mall in Indianapolis and I strongly disagree. You want more high end stuff, walk 10 block north and you'll see enough yuppie stuff than you can soak in in a week on 5th and 7th north of 9th Street.
The fact that in the same sentence you say you want more creative things and you want a GAP is very problematic to me. If you think the GAP is creative and interesting, you REALLY need to get out more.
He means he wants less trash (cheap nail salons, convenience stores and 99 cent stores) and more tony boutiques. In case the word tony trips you up, it means stylish and distinctive.
Oh, and a Gap is a higher priced store, probably able to pay higher rent. Higher rents on 5th avenue would be a good thing for this neighborhood. Though perhaps I'd rather see an American Apparel if we did see a new chain go in there.
I used the Gap as an example; it is something different than what is currently there. I don't necessarily want a Gap, it was just a store that came to mind. In this case, it is creative because there isn't something similar.
Do you like all of the jewelry stores? Do you frequent all of them when you need something fixed, or is there just one or two you go to? I don't have a problem with any one type of establishment per se, it is the fact that we can't have just one or two, we need to have five or six. This is really no different than what's going on on 7th ave. where there seems to be a new burger joint opening up every time one blinks. People love burgers, but perhaps a little variety would be good.
Would you prefer to have three pizza places in a row, or have one pizza place, one Chinese place and one Mexican place? I'll take variety over more of the same any day.
Park Slope already has an American Apparel. It's been here for years. On Flatbush and 7th.
The neighborhood can not sustain 2 locations of a business already in jeapardy. American Apparel is nearly bankrupt.
We have many burger places, many pizza places, many chinese places and many Mexican places. I like variety, but we already have it. You just need to look around and take a walk beyond a 3 block radius of your house. Park Slope has just about everything you want.
If you want something else, use your money and open it instead of complaining incessantly about everything and anything. You don't get to curate the new Park Slope mall you desire. Small business owners using their money do. Until you're one of them, you just seem like a snotty Park Sloper looking to oust the long time businesses that MANY folks use. Not everything is wealthy in this neighborhood and many people shop at the 99 cent stores and bodegas and Mandee.
And don't plan on a GAP anytime soon. They are closing hundreds of stores in the U.S.. They plan to close 21% of their U.S. stores by the end of 2013:
http://news.yahoo.com/gap-closing-stores-us-220816100.html
While many retailers like GAP and American Apparel struggle and close stores, we should be thankful that Jewelry store which has been there 30 years and Mandee continue to pay rent and invest in Park Slope. Someone people above are highly ungrateful and clueless as to the economic conditions out there. People are STRUGGLING and you want to push out all the affordable things for bland, dying chains.
bk4life, imagine that a 99c store opened where Blockbuster used to be. Would this make you happy, or would it be better if something new and exciting that doesn't already exist in the neighborhood took over the empty space?
I am happy whenever empty storefronts are rented. I don't judge what they are because I am not the one putting up the money to open it, so I don't feel I should judge or criticize. If a 99 cent store opened, it would provide jobs, it would provide tax revenue and it would add people to the street where currently there is an empty shell sitting unused. Like I said, let's agree to disagree because unlike you, I take no offense when someone tries to sell me something for 99 cents that Duane Reade up the street charges $5.00 for.
I never once stated that I have a problem with 99c stores. I go to Sky Discount and the one across the street all the time. But you are right, I want new stores to provide something new where as you are happy to have anything. That being said, I do disagree with you saying residents don't have a say in what businesses are in the neighborhood. If people don't spend money there, the store wont last. I may not have the ability to predict the future, but logic dictates that if many stores in one neighborhood all offering the same goods will just cause the stores to collectively do worse. However, if the stores in the neighborhood offered varying services, there is a greater chance for more to be successful.
red mango coming soon......
Asidrane,
There is a problem with your logic. The stores you seem to dislike are the ones which have been open for years and years (so people must shop there) and the ones you want (GAP and American Apparel) are doing very poorly and are closing stores. If people don't want Mandee anymore, it will close. If they don't like all those jewelry stores you dislike, they will close.
There are MORE than enough empty spaces around for new things. I don't advocate pushing out long time businesses in favor of trendy chains, that's all. They can take the empty spaces if they wish, and we'll see if they succeed. If you want a GAP so bad, wouldn't you rather see it go in an empty space than to have Mandee have to go out of business?