Here’s the tastiest restaurant gossip this week:
Borough hopping: Thomas Ferlesch, chef-owner of the much-adored Fort Greene Austrian eatery Thomas Beisl, is apparently making a run for the border. The Lafayette Avenue eatery is up for sale on a local real-estate Web site, and the chef is rumored to be Manhattan bound. A call to the restaurant was returned, but Ferlesch had nothing to say.
Signs of Life: Prospect Heights’ favored French bistro Le Gamin is inching closer to its Greenpoint expansion. This week, signage finally went up at the impending Franklin Street location, though still no word on when the place might actually open.
Trouble in South Slope: Michaelangelo DeSerio, former manager of recently shuttered Ellis Bar, told me that the bar’s ending was sudden and ugly. According to DeSerio, not only did owner Seth Ellis sneak out of town with unpaid beer bills and months of back rent, employees only found out that the bar was closing when DeSerio happened by the bar to find Ellis gutting the Fifth Avenue venue — and only a few weeks after glowing coverage in The Brooklyn Paper. The Ellis family did not return an interview request.
Closed for Renovations: Moutarde, the Park Slope French eatery made famous for its scene in recent Oscar nominee “Julie and Julia,” reopens on Monday after renovations. The Internet rumor mill suggests the eatery may now be purple, which isn’t really mustard.
The Pizzification of Brooklyn: Yet again, we report the borough of Kings has yet another pizzeria. Well, sort of. Brooklyn Heights’ La Pizzetta plans to reopen any day now under new management as a new brick-oven spot called Casa Tua.
Bagel Wars: According to a work order in the window, Park Slope Farm, the nondescript bodega on Seventh Avenue near Union Street, is becoming yet another bagel shop. The store will join the ranks of La Bagel Delight and the far-superior Bagel Hole just down the street. We’re sensing some serious competition for the heart of those Slope bagel lovers.
