Go for the organic kale, stay for the craft beers.
Wannabe Whole Foods shoppers chomping at the bit to get inside the chain’s soon-to-open Brooklyn outpost in Gowanus have another reason to lick their chops: they’ll be able to gulp down cold brews at a rooftop bar overlooking the surrounding neighborhood. Oh, and the fetid Gowanus Canal.
The megastore going up on Third Avenue and Third Street is slated to open later this year with a rooftop beer hall that will offer 16 brews on tap and a menu of local fare, according to a spokesman for the grocery giant.
“It’s going to be a really cool space,” said Michael Sinatra. “It will give exceptional views of the neighborhood.”
The canal-side venue atop the single-story grocery store to be called “The Roof,” which will have indoor and outdoor seating, will serve up a range of ales from local and American craft breweries including Evil Twin, Sixpoint, Captain Lawrence, Stillwater, and Westbrook Brewing, according to Whole Foods officials.
The food menu will feature “gastro-pub” fare such as burgers, ribs, cheeses, and even vegetarian dishes made with products from local vendors including pickle-maker Brooklyn Brine in Gowanus and meat supplier Brooklyn Cured, said Sinatra.
A bar isn’t the only thing that will sit above the upscale organic supermarket. There will also be a 20,000-square-foot rooftop greenhouse that local produce company Gotham Greens will operate. Kale and other greens from the rooftop garden will be sold at the grocery store, which, Sinatra said, will also carry a line of products like cheesecakes, pies, and other baked goods from Frankie’s 457 on Court Street.
The outpost, complete with a 250-car parking lot, is scheduled to open in December after eight years of delays and complaints from neighbors about its mammoth scale and traffic impacts.
The chain started hiring about a month ago to fill close to 300 jobs at the store that is midway between Carroll Gardens and Park Slope.
The borough’s second Whole Foods outlet is expected to open inside a massive retail complex in Williamsburg in 2014.
