The obvious move when your clam shack finds success along the banks of the Gowanus Canal — open an outpost a hop, skip, and a jump from Newtown Creek.
Littleneck, the New-England-style seafood eatery that needed an internet fund-raiser to open in Gowanus in 2011, is doing so well slinging $18 lobster rolls that it is planning a sandwich shop in Greenpoint. The owners say they are going to orient the new place to a daytime crowd while maintaining the dinner atmosphere they have developed at their first location.
“We are hoping that people will pop in early in the morning for a cup of coffee and a croissant and pop in on the way home for a plate of oysters or a lobster roll,” said co-owner Aaron Lefkove. “There are very few lunch options in the area, and we want to change that.”
The shop, named simply “Littleneck Outpost,” will offer coffee from Manhattan distributor La Colombe and will also include a small retail section hawking products such as Littleneck’s tartar sauce and pickles, as well as speciality items such as bottarga and other kinds of cured fish.
The storefront at the corner of Franklin and Milton streets was the perfect shell for the proprietors’ vision, Lefkove said.
“We had an idea and once we saw an open space, we jumped on it,” he said. “We hope other people will think it is a great idea too.”
The shop at 128 Franklin St. will open sometime this spring, he said.