Anyone have the 411 on some Bklyn restaurateurs?

[HankyT]

Does anyone know the whereabouts of a husband and wife team who ran a place from a brownstone in Ft Greene/Clinton Hill (can't remember the street or the name of the place) in the 90s and also had a place in what's now Thomas Beisl across from BAM? Rebecca was the chef and Raoul the front of house guy. We fell out of touch with them and would like to catch up. Thanks.

[David W]

It was called New City Cafe--Rebecca Scanlon and Raoul Richardson (I keep cards from old, closed restaurants.)

[HankyT]

New City, right. Thanks! I had a really great meal there once. Back in the dawn of the current Brooklyn culinary boom. Those two were real pioneers.

[David W]

I would go to the original place on Dekalb before BAM events-they had a cab on standby in case any BAM patrons were afraid to walk from the restaurant (at Vanderbilt.) Terrific restaurant.
ICI now occupies that space.

[bobjbkln]

The food was great, but every time we ate at the original place, there was a lot of unpleasant yelling going on in the kitchen, didn't bode well for the future. And then they bit off more than they could chew creating that space across from BAM. Maybe they were just a bit ahead of their time.

David_W as an expert on old Brooklyn restaurants, do you remember the name of the one that existed about 20 years ago in the space that is now Applewood?

[David W]

I'm no expert, but that one's easy: Adele-French place...but I don't have a card from them, alas.
My favorite memory is of a place that was listed in a guide BAM published-it was Vietnamese...turned out it was someone's house, and the grandmother cooked. When you went to the bathroom, there were toothbrushes and such in it...probably the most authentic Vietnamese I ever had.

[bobjbkln]

Thank you. This is one of the first upscale restaurants we ate at after moving to Brooklyn in 1986. The other was Lisette on Atlantic Ave. that turned into a catering kitchen with, recently, Betsy's bakery in the front.

[jakeyd]

Lissanne ws the name, a comination of the chef's wife and daughter's names

[Steve R]

Well, since we're going down that road, there was Verandah (where Cafe on Clinton now is) and a cool little place at the foot of Joralemon, where no commercial property now stands. And, of course, the place at 1 Front, who's name I cant remember. These, the ones you described, River Cafe, Gage and Tolner and Henry's End were it for the entire area for a long time.

[Marion Morgenthal]

One more I loved in the same era was Boerum Hill Cafe (Hoyt & Bergen), where the Brooklyn Inn is now.

[bklyngrl]

Anyone know what's going on with the Brooklyn Inn? Hear it might be closing, or changing ownership, or something.