An iconic Brooklyn fast-food fortress has fallen.
Williamsburg’s White Castle shuttered suddenly on Sunday morning, leaving residents craving sliders, chicken rings, and fish nibblers in mourning. One regular bemoaned the loss of a reliable place to soak up a long night’s beverages.
“That was the best late-night drunk food,” said Ariel Denham. “It is so much better than pizza.”
The closing was in the cards for more than a year. The family-run White Castle chain, which has been a Brooklyn institution since the 1930s and served as the muse for many early Beastie Boys songs, opened the little white eatery on Metropolitan Avenue near Humboldt Street in 1992, but did not own the land underneath it. In 2013 a developer called 781 Metro Investors bought the property, including an expansive parking lot, out from under it for $6.72 million.
Last year, White Castle executives lamented the fact that the company failed to buy the property years ago.
Now, ominously, the company’s New York office has closed. The New Jersey office, which is apparently handling New York operations, referred calls to headquarters, where they went unanswered
Zoning rules allow for a seven- or eight-story apartment building to rise on the site.
