across the park

What's in a name?

It's been a few days since ATP has discussed K-Dog & Dunebuggy, so we thought we'd comment on some of the comments we've received about the place.  Specifically, we're a little confused why people are so down on the name "K-Dog & Dunebuggy."

Truth be told, ATP was sort of down on the name "Q Cafe."  We thought that it was a little trite to name the place after the subway station next door.  That and the owners could easily confuse customers into thinking that the place was dedicated to musical theatre/puppetry fans.  How sucky would it be if our local cafe was overrun with singing puppet masters?  Christ.

"K-Dog & Dunebuggy," on the other hand, is unique and personal.  It may prove to be slightly difficult to remember, but "K-Dog," as an abbreviation for the full moniker, rolls of the tongue with ease.  So, like, we don't understand why anyone would have a problem with the name "K-Dog & Dunebuggy."

But please for the love of God, K-Dog: make good food.  Serve with smiles.  And solicit feedback.

We're also curious about the now defunct Morgies.  Was it a cafe?  Why did it close?  Was there another cafe at some point on Lincoln Rd?  As any prior cafe on Lincoln Rd. was before the time of ATP, we need answers.

Closed?

ATP reads.  We read a lot of things, one of them being the Lefferts Yahoo! group.  Yes, we're erudite in our ways.

That said, we noticed a post indicating that DownTown Restaurant had closed.  We've stopped in and also ordered from DownTown before, so we were sad to hear the news.  However, the pizza from the other pizza place a few blocks up on Flatbush is better (what's it called again?  It's been a long week.).

So we stopped by ol' DownTown to see if the rumors were true and to assess the situation for ourselves.  As depicted in the photo, the grates were down and the place looked closed.  But when we looked in the window, we saw some machinery, paint and other supplies typically used for renovation.

Let's take a detour from our usual method of eliciting comments and turn to democracy instead.  Please vote for your favorite option to describe the current status of DownTown: 

(a) DownTown permanently closed

(b) DownTown 'reinventing' itself as something else

(c) A new proprietor has taken over the space

We went outside

...and did more than just take pictures.

ATP is slowly figuring out that we might be better served by commenting on places we've visited in the neighborhood instead of raising questions about those that we have not been to.  We picked up on our readers' ever so subtle suggestions...  you guys have a real way with words.  We're evolving - being ATP is a learning experience.

We decided to cheat on our liquid diet and have some Trinidadian food at The Islanders, which is located on Rogers Ave. between Lefferts Ave. and Lincoln Rd.  The food was excellent, the service was smiling (as you can see) and we had a good time.  The curried chicken was excellent, and goat stew lovers will certainly be happy at The Islanders.  The sides we sampled were also excellent (in particular, the potato pie was scrumptious).  The owner gave us a sample of one of his smoothies, which was good but a little sweet for our taste - some of the other offerings on the smoothie menu looked like they might be more our speed.

Our only suggestion for The Islanders is that solid plates and real cutlery would be great for customers looking to have a seat inside the restaurant.  The Islanders is pretty clearly a takeout oriented establishment, as they have only two tables (one that seats four, one that seats two), but silverware and a plate are always nice touches.  That said, we give The Islanders an A-.

More to come on places we've actually been.  Trust that there is more than one.  Trust.

Chest wondering...

ATP is at it again, recycling old photos.  We pulled this picture from an earlier real estate oriented post about this house, which was for sale at the time (it may still be for sale, we don't know).

The truth of the matter is that Chester Court raises some questions for us.  Some very, very important questions:

1) When were these homes built?

2) Why were these homes built in the tudor style?

3) Why were these homes built in the tudor style and then given what appear to be Spanish-style roofs?

4) Is there a rule about uniform painting schemes on the street?

5) If the house pictured is not yet sold, can we have it for free?

ATP once stopped by an open house on Chester Court, and the house itself was lovely.  It was also full of Bavarians with Spanish accents.  No joke.

Redux: We love you, too

Yowsa!  Looks like we touched a nerve by posing a question and airing feedback we had heard about Meytex Lounge.  As we prepare to respond to some of your comments, we would like to remind ya'll that our post about Meytex came following a post about demonic trees attacking K-Dog & Dunebuggy.  If we have to spell it out one step further: you are making a mistake if you try to take ATP too seriously.  For more information, see this post.  Ok, here we go attempting to intelligently respond to our readers:

"Did you guys ever think that this place serves a certain type of clientele and that you guys are not it? In communities like this the restaurants are ethnically based, an African, Haitian, Jamaican person opens a restaurant for their community not for you. If an African wants to eat good homemade food he/she is not going to go to Park Slope or Boerum Hill he/she will go to an area where his/her people live."

ATP's clever response to this one is: Why shouldn't an African, Haitian or Jamaican business person want our money?  Yes, restaurants can foster a sense of community, etc - but in the end, every business has to pay the rent and turn a profit if it is to succeed and survive.  Generally, larger profits are seen as a good thing in the business world.  Meytex, based on their outward appearance, has not induced ATP to spend money there.  In essence, Meytex's hypothetical decision (we're not sure that it's intentional) not to attract our business is just plain BAD business - especially because we are fans of the African food we've had elsewhere.

"I have no idea what any of you guys are talking about.  Meytex is a nice, friendly African bar and restaurant --- it has tinted window, so what?!!  The food is good and the people there are inviting and open to any of you coming in and patronizing the place.  Plunk down $10, enjoy a plate of ox tails and listen to some African music.  Maybe it would open your tiny, little, closed-up minds a bit!  While we're at it, ATP and everyone else, why don't you hold off on the judgments about anywhere until you actually spend the 30 seconds necessary to find out if they hold water."

As far as ATP can tell from what we originally posted, we made no judgments.  We merely put Meytex out there as a topic for conversation, and primed the pump based on feedback we had heard from others.  Evidently, it got our readers talking - which is ultimately our goal for every post (that sound you just heard was us patting ourselves on the back).

"You can either come in like arrogant gangbusters (no pun intended), wagging fingers and simply complaining loudly of what is not "right." Or, with a bit of humility, you can seek to better know and understand your environment and the people in it. Then, you can work productively and diplomatically towards bringing the positive contribution of your particular presence to it. "

Kumbaya my lord, kumbaya.  We're feeling this post.  The above quote is excerpted from the larger post, but we agree with its main tenets.  Ultimately, ATP would like to make some sort of a difference in the neighborhood.  For the time being, we feel able to get some discussion going, which is clearly working (what's that mysterious sound again?).  As for next steps, we don't know.  After all, ATP is just a blog - it's not a business, it's not a civic organization - so bear with us.

There you have it, folks - we've received your comments as constructively as possible, and we're quite grateful for all of the traffic and feedback that we're getting.  Your comments bring us joy, frustration, novelty, confusion and many other intangible sensations.  Keep up the good work.  And as we grow, we're hopeful that one day ATP will be one big, happy hippie commune stationed somewhere between Empire Blvd. and Clarkson Ave.  Any brownstone owners seeking communal living?

Area restaurant still a mystery

ATP has no clue what goes on inside the Meytex Lounge.  All we know is that, at times, it's very, very loud in there.

Sadly, we've heard that the proprietors of Meytex Lounge are not that friendly to all types.  Has anyone dared to venture inside?

Supernatural threats to our local economy

ATP has carefully deduced based on this photo that K-Dog & Dunebuggy is not yet open for business. 

Open for business or not, we're worried.

A long-time resident once told us that the block of Lincoln Rd. between Flatbush and Ocean is cursed.  At the time, we scoffed and laughed in a perfectly respectable older man's face.  But boy, were we schooled.

As you can see, PLG's notorious evil trees have found K-Dog.  Run K-Dog, run.  And take your Dunebuggy - it won't help you here.  Not in PLG.  Not on Lincoln Rd.

Has anyone else heard of this "curse"?  Any other local ghost stories.  Please tell us if you know of any haunted houses, witches, etc in PLG.

Semi-luxury in PLG

Who knew?  For a mere $230K, you too could own your own semi-luxury apartment in PLG.  And, if you're interested in turning your own luxury-less home into a semi-luxury home, vast quantities of lavender paint are available at your local hardware store.

(Side question: Do we have a local hardware store?)

In other news, Massey Knakal is at it again with their wacky development site offerings in our hood.  This one has been knocked around the Lefferts Yahoo! Group a little bit.  It's large and expensive, and currently holds our favorite Zipcar.

If anyone is willing to pay $14 million for a development site in PLG, it will not be for building a movie theatre, as suggested today.  Not that there is anything wrong with movie theatres - as a gaggle of women ranging in age from 78 to 94, ATP thinks a movie theatre is a great idea.  But, in all likelihood, someone will want to build a big, tall condo building... once the price of the site drops dramatically, that is.

Would a big tall condo building be so bad?  We don't think so.

Let's bitch

Sometimes ATP wants shirts laundered.  So, when the fine folks at the laundromat on Lincoln Rd. indicated that they do, in fact, clean and press shirts, we were overjoyed.  We were also quite happy when they quoted the price of $1.25 per shirt.

Then we tried to get our shirts cleaned.  As it turns out, it's $1.25 to have each shirt pressed.  There's a whole other fee for having the shirts washed.  Our bill included $1.25 per shirt, plus $7.00 for a single load of laundry ($7.00 being the minimum charge for a load of laundry).

Is this not totally backwards?  Has anyone else had this problem, or did we catch the laundromat on a bad day?  We tried the other cleaners in the neighborhood - none of them do regular laundering and pressing, and they charge a lot per garment.

Trust that we explained to the laundromat folks that their pricing scheme is, um, out of the ordinary.  They didn't care.  We ended up spending A LOT of money to get a few shirts cleaned, and we're left with no where to turn.

Help?

Problem solved!

Thanks to this snappy broker, our neighborhood name issues are solved.  Clearly. 

GOL, anyone?