The current issue
Neighborhood Map
Bay Ridge
  • Bensonhurst, Dyker Heights
Brooklyn Heights
  • Downtown, DUMBO
Carroll Gardens
  • Cobble Hill, Red Hook, Boerum Hill
Fort Greene
  • Clinton Hill, Crown Heights
North Brooklyn
  • Williamsburg, Greenpoint, Bushwick
Park Slope
  • Prospect Heights, Windsor Terrace, Greenwood Heights
GO Brooklyn
Dining Guide
Where to GO
Events calendar
Classifieds
The Brooklyn Wire
Not Just Nets
Police Blotter
Perspective
Parenting
Politics
Transit
Podcasts
Brooklyn Cyclones
Merchant news
About The Paper
RSS Feeds
Avalon Fort Greene

Au revoir, Patois

By Mike McLaughlin
The Brooklyn Paper
The Brooklyn Paper file / Gregory P. Mango
Restaurateur Alan Harding will close his grounbreaking bistro, Patois, on Smith Street on Sunday night. It's a big loss.

Tools

Print this story
digg
del.icio.us

Patois — the groundbreaking French bistro that launched the culinary Renaissance of Smith Street — will close on Sunday after 11 years in business.

“It’s sad, it’s the end of an era,” said Alan Harding, the original chef and current co-owner.

It’s hard to tell from the look of it today, but when Harding and sibling partners Jim and Paul Mamary opened Patois in 1997, Smith Street was so depressed that many retail storefronts were used as apartments. The trio’s original rent on the space, between Douglass and Degraw streets, was just $900.

“They paved the way for all of us,” said Charles Kiely, who opened the Grocery in 1999.

“I remember a meal I had there in 1998,” Kiely recalled. “The food was very good. They turned 60 people away in one hour [because it was so busy]. I turned to my wife and said, ‘We have to open a restaurant next door.

Few dispute Patois’s legacy as the linchpin and one of the gustatory highlights — with garlic snails and steak frites — of a sprawling nightlife district, but the circumstances of the restaurant’s closure are unclear.

Harding told The Brooklyn Paper that the family that owns Patois’s building had sought a huge hike.

Untrue, said a member of the landlord’s family, who said the family kicked out Harding and Co. because they didn’t pay their rent.

“They’re behind on their rent for months,” said Theresa Russo, before hanging up.

Untrue, said Harding.

“Nothing could be further from the truth. We have not defaulted,” Harding told The Brooklyn Paper.

Whatever the truth of this landlord-tenant dispute, Harding and the Mamary brothers’ place in history is secure with Brooklyn foodies. After Patois, they opened the other Smith Street stalwarts Gowanus Yacht Club and Pacifico (try the ribs) and Sweetwater in Williamsburg.

Patois [255 Smith St., between Douglass and DeGraw streets, (718) 855-1535]. Brunch and dinner will be served on Sunday. Apres le diner, c’est fini.

©2009 The Brooklyn Paper

←Cobble Hill: Dough isn’t rising on Court Street
→Crime: Here they are — your Police Blotters

Reader Feedback

Enter your comment below

By submitting this comment, you agree to the following terms:

You agree that you, and not BrooklynPaper.com or its affiliates, are fully responsible for the content that you post. You agree not to post any abusive, obscene, vulgar, slanderous, hateful, threatening or sexually-oriented material or any material that may violate applicable law; doing so may lead to the removal of your post and to your being permanently banned from posting to the site. You grant to BrooklynPaper.com the royalty-free, irrevocable, perpetual and fully sublicensable license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, perform and display such content in whole or in part world-wide and to incorporate it in other works in any form, media or technology now known or later developed.

First name
Last name
Your neighborhood
Email address
Daytime phone

Your letter must be signed and include all of the information requested above. (Only your name and neighborhood are published with the letter.) Letters should be as brief as possible; while they may discuss any topic of interest to our readers, priority will be given to letters that relate to stories covered by The Brooklyn Paper.

Letters will be edited at the sole discretion of the editor, may be published in whole or part in any media, and upon publication become the property of The Brooklyn Paper. The earlier in the week you send your letter, the better.