Has Pomme de Terre Closed?

[Paul SL]

Went by tonight (Friday) at 7 pm and the place was dark. Anyone know anything? Losing this little gem would be a shame; it's been one of my absolute faves.

[OMGPonies]

It's hard to say. I live a block away. I just know what I've seen on the ground. and the awning sign is still up but the outside beer signs are gone.

Supposedly, they're expanding into the Latino Pentecostal church but i haven't seen any evidence of that. also, they had a beer license before. But they still had ups and downs. They canceled Sunday brunch and closed on Mondays. And being closed through may doesn't seem to help, not to mention that all the weekly specials didn't generate a ton of business. It's a bad location for a restaurant. There's no other real restaurant of that caliber on Newkirk.

It's a rough nabe for anything calling itself a gastropub. Voxpop is still closed due to back taxes. there's a Japanese restaurant that has been threatening to open for a long time on Cortelyou. Also, consider the fact that the Pentecostal church is LOUD when they are having services. They don't have much in the way of A/C so in the summer they keep their doors open. Allowing the sound to go over to Pomme de Terre. Who hopes to have outside dining.

I'll check out Pomme de Terre when it reopens but if it's going to be the same heavy fare with $17 per entree prices, I'll rarely go. It's a lot of sauteed fare and meats. And getting a liquor license isn't really going to make it more palatable. It's a tiny space on an out-of-the-way street with a torn-up subway station nearby.

I'm not holding out a lot of hope.

[jinx]

Yep, I read about it in the Times this week and was pretty surprised as well. Apparently the same owners are going to reopen it as more of a gastropub.

http://ditmasparkblog.com/news/pomme-...

[Paul SL]

I got an email from David, the chef, who confirms they're reopening in June as a gastropub with a full liquor license. Fingers crossed.

[chowhundius]

This is confusing to me. Is the neighborhood really crying out for a gastropub? That genre can do very well, but I'm not sure D. Park has the demographic for it. But perhaps the owner has identified an unmet need - I simply don't know.

[Paul SL]

I think it's a tough location. Despite its nearness to the subway, there's not anything like the critical mass of restaurants on the street that draws people to the Cortelyou strip. Still, I really enjoy David's cooking, and hope they've bet right this time.

[chowhundius]

I agree it's a tough location. And yet, wasn't PdT doing well? That's the mystery aspect of this.

[Westminstress]

My understanding is that PdT was not doing well owing to poor traffic on weeknights. Also, I think the profit margin on the food was too slim. As anyone knows who went there regularly, PdT had very good food at extremely reasonable prices. Given the price to value ration of the food, they needed more volume than they were getting to survive. Hopefully when they have a full liquor license they will be able to make more money on drinks, and maybe gastropub food is cheaper to prepare. The chef at PdT was wonderful, just about everything he made was delicious, especially desserts! So I am hopeful that the next incarnation will also be good. I think it would be impossible for him to cook badly.

[chowhundius]

That makes sense. People probably just didn't want to hang on Newkirk on the weekdays.