The topic for a local group’s recent annual history night was ripped from today’s headlines.
The Bay Improvement Group devoted its 24th annual History Night to a lecture on Sheepshead Bay’s Lundy’s restaurant building, where an illegal grocery is now asking the Council for permission to operate legally.
The goal of the May 11 lecture was to educate the community and correct the record about the recent history of the Lundy’s building, according to the organizer.
“This group has done our best to educate, enlighten, inform, and try to preserve and protect the area in a positive way,” said Steve Barrison, the president of the Bay Improvement Group. “There is a whole discussion about the Lundy’s building— how long it was empty, what went on there, how long the restaurant was there, when it closed, when it opened, when it reopened, why it closed, what happened.”
Barrison said that misconceptions about the landmarked building were used to bolster the case for Cherry Hill Gourmet Market’s attempt the get city approval to remain in the location where it opened illegally in 2009.
Old photos of the long-vacant property were used by supporters of the grocery store to suggest that Cherry Hill stepped into an unsudes space that would have otherwise remained fallow.
A text amendment allowing Cherry Hill to operate for 10 years is expected to pass the Council at its next meeting in June.
Barrison, who opposes legalizing the store, said he wanted to set the record straight that it was an estate battle — not a lack of interest in the site— that left Lundy’s vacant for years.
“People talk about, ‘Wow nothing happened there, nobody wanted to do anything, nobody was interested,’ but they don’t explain that it was tied up in some legal battle,” he said. “The whole idea and argument that one of the most beautiful waterfronts — not only in New York but in all of the United States — in a big city would not want to be developed doesn’t hold water.”
The Lundy’s restaurant in Sheepshead Bay opened in 1934, though there was a Lundy’s in a different location before the famous eatery opened. Brooklyn Borough Historian Ron Schweiger filled in some of the ancient history of the restaurant — especially regarding its founder, Frederick William Irving Lundy, a meticulous owner with a clear vision for the massive restaurant that could seat 2,800 people.
Lundy went to great lengths to make sure his customers were comfortable, according to Schweiger. Lundy inspected dishes before they were brought out to his customers and Schweiger said Lundy made sure his restaurant had a “No Smoking” section decades before it was required by the state.
“Mr. Lundy was well ahead of his time,” Schweiger said, adding that the owner’s obsessive oversight sometimes came at the expense of his employees. “If a waiter actually took a sample of food, he’d be fired right on the spot.”
Lundy died in 1977 and the iconic restaurant shuttered in 1979 — and the landmarked building remained empty for nearly two decades afterwards.
The restaurant didn’t reopen until 1995, but the delay was due to a convoluted estate battle, according to Barrison, not because developers didn’t want to move in.
“The truth is it was tied up — nobody could get it,” he said. “It had nothing to do with lack of interest. Look now — the developers are falling over themselves: they’re buying and selling, and wheeling and dealing.”
Lundy’s was sold to new owners in the early 2000s but the restaurant closed several years later. The building was vacant for a few years before Cherry Hill opened illegally in 2009, in violation of the Special Sheepshead Bay District waterfront zoning, which allows only tourism-related shops and restaurants along the waterfront.
Barrison, a real estate lawyer, said he has nothing personal against Cherry Hill, but worries that legalizing the rogue grocer would clear the way for others to flout the special zoning rules that he believes protects the character of his neighborhood.
“The only thing I can say is there was a lot of things that happened and went on and we were very clear — just follow the law and apply it equally to everybody and that’s not exactly what happened,” said Barrison. “What we said is it’s all about precedence.”
Recently, it was reported a Macy’s outlet store will open in the former Loehmann’s department store, which is also part of the district’s special zoning. Barrison believes it was a calculated move that was announced after it was clear Cherry Hill would be legalized.
Barrison said the opening will be illegal because Loehmann’s never renewed a zoning variance that allowed it to operate in the special district. He said he expects another lonely battle — which his group intends to fight, if wearily.
“A lot of people love Macy’s, but that too is not legal — which we can have a discussion on down the road, but we’re kind of tired and worn out,” he said.
