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Brewing up for a coffee war

By Dana Rubinstein
The Brooklyn Paper

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Coffee bars are flooding the neighborhood as quickly as a cup of joe down a working grunt’s throat.

Two entrepreneurs are racing to open coffee shops by mid-June, just in time for the iced mochaccino season. In so doing, they are joining a packed field of caffeine purveyors that includes that DeKalb Avenue anchor, Tillie’s, DeKalb newcomer Urban Spring, Myrtle Avenue’s Pillow Cafe, and Smooch on Carlton Avenue. In total, there are already at least 10 places to buy brew — from bodega swill to fair-trade organic — within a four-block radius.

But the neighborhood’s craving for the god of wakefulness is so insatiable that a new cafe called Bittersweet will join the fray, opening on DeKalb Avenue, between Cumberland Street and Carlton Avenue, in the digs of a former real-estate office. Lucien Redwood is the proprietor, and his plans are fancy: there’ll be Balthazar pastries and homemade bittersweet-chocolate ice cream.

Sounds scandalously delicious. But will the coffee shop be able to withstand the competition? Just saunter down Carlton, hang a right on Willoughby Street, and you’ll run smack into another cafe also to open shop in mid-June. It’s called Bidonville (pronounced bee-dôn-VEEL), a French term for shantytown. But the coffee shop will be more postmodern, than modern ghetto.

“It’s based on the shantytown, the organic landscape where things kind of come together and happen in a space,” said Eddy Steinhauer. “It’s unregulated, it’s natural.”

A natural phenomenon that will serve “pastries, simple sandwiches, and simple finger foods.” But can both places survive?

Steinhauer and Redwood claim to savor the fight, as one might savor a full-bodied mug of light-roasted Arabica.

“It actually draws people to the area,” said Redwood. “Especially in the food industry. Look at Smith Street, where there’s restaurant after restaurant after restaurant. I don’t fear it at all. I actually welcome it.”

Then again, who travels to another neighborhood for coffee? Starbucks sets up shop on every other corner because people don’t go out of their way for a cup of brew.

The more-established competition isn’t exactly shivering in fear either. Smooch co-owner Kalalea (she goes by only one name, like Madonna, Cher or Rambo) said there are enough coffee lovers to go around — thanks, in part, to (evil music sound cue) gentrification.

“When I moved here almost nine years ago it was an entirely different neighborhood,” she said. “Now, there’s more people looking for not only new homes but also for new business opportunities. I think it just comes with the concept of gentrification.”

Can I get you a $2 cup of joe with that brownstone?

The Kitchen Sink

We hear Canarsie Councilman Charles Barron threatened to work against the re-election of own Councilwoman Tish James because she abstained from the vote to rename a portion of Gates Avenue after Sonny Carson (racial arsonist or community leader? You decide). Barron couldn’t be reached. …

Pratt Institute alum Nick Battis has been promoted to director of exhibitions at his own alma mater. Congrats!

©2007 The Brooklyn Paper

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