Around Brooklyn: Gage & Tollner prepares to reopen

March 2, 2020 Editorial Staff

The intersection of Bergen Street and Howard Avenue in Brownsville. Photo: Lore Croghan/Brooklyn Eagle

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Gage & Tollner prepares to reopen

The famed 125-year-old Brooklyn institution Gage & Tollner at 372 Fulton St. now has an official reopening date: Sunday, March 15, according to New York magazine’s “Grub Street.” Red Hook restaurateur St. John Frizell, along with husband-and-wife team Ben Schneider and Sohui Kim, will be stewarding this historic steakhouse into 2020 with classic favorites such as steak and scalloped potatoes, clams casino, pork pot pie and she-crab soup. Among the investors were Elizabeth Warren’s chief strategist and his wife. The rebirth of Gage & Tollner has been extensively covered in the Eagle.

ABC-TV spotlights Sunset Park restaurant

ABC-TV’s “Neighborhood Eats” last week spotlighted Yafa Café, a Yemeni establishment at 4415 Fourth Ave. in Sunset Park. Co-owners Ali Suliman and Hakim Sulaimani were both born in Yemen but grew up in Sunset Park. The café proudly serves Yemeni coffee, with club soda as a chaser. “Yemen is one of the original ancestors of coffee, so it’s great to bring that back into the light,” Sulaimani told ABC-TV. The menu includes a rice bowl with basmati rice, stewed vegetables and chicken; fried chicken with Yemeni hawaij spice; sliced leg of lamb with rosemary, garlic and Yemeni seasoning; and a Ramadan oat stew.

Bay Ridge street to be named after Orthodox pastor

This coming June, a street in Bay Ridge will be named after the late Very Rev. William Sutfin Schneirla, who served as pastor of St. Mary’s Antiochan Orthodox Church at 81st Street and Ridge Boulevard from 1951 until 2002. Schneirla, who was known to his congregation simply as Father Paul, was ordained to the priesthood in 1942, according to the Brooklyn Reporter website. Schneirla was born in Alaska in 1916 and served as a priest of the Antiochan Archdiocese for 71 years. Because he was an Orthodox, not a Roman Catholic, priest, he married in 1942 and had several children, the Brooklyn Reporter said. He died in September 2014 at the age of 98.

Brooklyn family has two leap year babies

While the odds are one in two million, one Brooklyn family now has two “leap year babies” after the birth of their second child. The Demchak family welcomed their new daughter Scout on Feb. 29, also known as Leap Day, according to NBC4. Scout’s older brother, Omri, was also born on Feb. 29. In addition to the two children’s birthdays on Feb. 29, mom Lindsay was born on Feb. 26 and grandmother Irene was born on Feb. 28. The Demchak parents plan to split the birthdays, celebrating Omri on Feb. 29 and Scout on March 1, NBC4 said.

Drivers owing fines have cars impounded

At least 160 scofflaw drivers had their vehicles towed in Brooklyn during a crackdown on Friday, according to the New York Post. The vehicles, including many Taxi and Limousine-licensed cars and dollar vans, were brought to Grand Army Plaza before being taken to a pound. Together, the drivers owed millions of dollars, according to the city Sheriff’s Office. Owners of individual vehicles owed at least $2,500 in parking and moving violations, the Post said. More than 100 deputies and workers with scanning devices swept the borough’s streets on Friday morning.

N.C. indie rock band coming to Williamsburg

The North Carolina-based indie rock band Archers of Loaf, which broke up on 1998 but produced its first CD since then this year, plans to visit Brooklyn to promote the CD, “Raleigh Days.” On June 4, the band will perform at the Music Hall of Williamsburg, according to the Brooklyn Vegan website. The group also plans to perform at the Bowery Ballroom two days later.

From dusk ’til dawn, thieves target ATMs

The NYPD is looking for two ATM thieves who were able to steal an ATM one morning in early February, after unsuccessfully trying to make off with another, according to Fox 5 local news. The men first tried stealing an ATM from a grocery store at 127 Grand St. in Williamsburg around 5 a.m. on Feb. 3 but were unable to do so and fled. About an hour later, they went to the Dusk ’til Dawn Bar at 193 Marcus Garvey Blvd. in Bedford-Stuyvesant, stole an ATM, put it into a vehicle and drove off, according to police. The NYPD recently released video footage from Dusk ’til Dawn showing the crime taking place.

Unusual brownstone was built as apartment building

An unusual brownstone in Park Slope was apparently built as an apartment building, not a townhouse, according to Brownstoner. Even so, these apartments appear to be in near-perfect condition. The building at 569 10th St. is a three-story structure with three floor-through apartments inside. When the building was constructed in 1884-85, its owner marketed the “elegant flats” to rent at $20 to $25 per month, Brownstoner said. Among the most unusual features are the two air shafts built into the structure, wrapped around by tall windows. The building was originally a brownstone, but it was re-surfaced with Permastone sometime in the ‘50s or ’60s.

Bookseller opens at City Point

Bookseller McNally Jackson’s second Brooklyn store opened on Friday at the City Point development, and the store was crowded on Saturday morning, according to Brownstoner. Strategically placed shelves situate books everywhere in the store, and more books can be found in the stacks upstairs. The ground floor also contains a large section dedicated to stationery items. The store’s popular Williamsburg location opened in 2018, Brownstoner said. The number of bookstores in the greater Downtown area is growing — the Center for Fiction opened in Fort Greene in 2019, Greenlight Books opened a new location in Prospect-Lefferts Gardens and Books are Magic opened in Cobble Hill in 2017, among others.

Cops seek man who tried to rob livery cab

Police are seeking the public’s help in finding a thief who tried to rob a livery cab driver at an intersection in Flatlands last month, according to amNewYork. On Sunday, the NYPD released video footage of a suspect in the Feb. 11 incident, which took place at 4 p.m. on the corner of Kings Highway and East 41st Street. Police say the cab driver drove the suspect from the intersection of Flatbush and Church avenues to the location in question. When the driver pulled up, the suspect allegedly got out of the vehicle, took out a firearm and demanded his property. Authorities said the driver ignored the request and drove away. Police described the would-be robber as a Black man between 20 and 30 years of age who wore dark clothes.

Affordable housing lottery held in Williamsburg

An affordable housing lottery has opened for seven units in a new building at 885 Grand St. at the corner of Olive Street in Williamsburg. The building is called “The Milo,” apparently after the developer, Alphonse Milo, according to Brownstoner. There are three affordable one-bedroom units and four affordable two-bedroom units. Rents start at $1,060 and top out at $1,193. The lottery is set at an area median income range of 60 percent for all seven units, Brownstoner said. A one-story building housing an auto repair shop previously stood on the property.

Rose hails Afghanistan peace treaty

U.S. Rep. Max Rose (D-Southwest Brooklyn-Staten Island), an Army combat veteran who served in the war in Afghanistan, hailed the peace deal reached in that country on Saturday. “After a generation of warfare and bloodshed, the time to end the war in Afghanistan is now. I applaud the president for his commitment to reaching this historic agreement and bringing our troops home,” he said.

Frontus celebrates Coney’s African American history

Assemblymember Mathylde Frontus (D-Coney Island-Bay Ridge-Brighton Beach-Gravesend) recently joined Coney Island residents at a Black History Month celebration at the Carey Gardens Community Center. The gathering celebrated community leaders as part of a proud tradition of African American activism. Those honored were Sophia Williams, Marion Kennedy, Ronald Stewart and Georgeanna Deas who received proclamations from the state Assembly honoring their public service. “Coney Island is fortunate to have these principled leaders, who have dedicated their lives to helping others out of love for this community,” Frontus said.

Compiled by Raanan Geberer.