The venerable Montauk Club (25 Eighth Ave. at Lincoln Place in Park Slope) has hired Joel Thompkins (formerly of Coach Peaches, the supposedly secret Fort Greene dining club) to be its new executive chef. According to the Montauk Club’s David Carter, members and their guests are invited to dine on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays from 5:30 pm, and on Sundays for brunch — which, starting March 1, will be served at 10 am — or an early supper. We’re intrigued, but not sure we’re ready to shell out the $550 annual fee to become a member.
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For an equally fancy — if not members-only — vibe, party types in Williamsburg can head over to Hotel Delmano (82 Berry St. at North Ninth Street in Williamsburg), the new bar from the owners of Union Pool that brings high-end drinking to the ’burg’s notoriously lowbrow scene. GO Brooklyn, for one, will raise a glass to that!
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Prospect Heights has been filled with its own gimlet gossip, after it was discovered that an unmarked door at 589 Vanderbilt Ave. was the gateway to Weather Up, a fancy, soon-to-open cocktail bar run by Kathryn Weatherup, one of the gin giants behind Manhattan’s East Side Company Bar.
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But when one unmarked door opens, another always closes. Over the past weeks we’ve said goodbye to a few other friends; Laila, The Prospect Cafe and 2nd Street Cafe in Park Slope and Smith Street’s Sapodilla closed for good. It’s always sad to lose a friend, but the thought of restaurants to come — like Amy Ruth’s soul food restaurant, opening in the old Gage and Tollner location on Fulton Mall in Downtown Brooklyn on Valentine’s Day — will help keep our hearts beating strong.
