All stomachs on deck!
An upscale floating restaurant on an historic schooner is coming to Brooklyn Bridge Park’s Pier 6, revealed its owner at Community Board 2’s liquor license committee meeting on Wednesday night.
Restaurateur Alex Pincus said the eatery’s menu will be seafood-focused, but offered few details beyond that before the advisory panel voted to unanimously approve the license.
He promised the committee that people wouldn’t be running around drunk after they got off the vessel, saying that his eatery will be classy, unlike an infamous Manhattan bar that is also on a boat.
“We run more of an upscale atmosphere than places like the Frying Pan where it’s more of a beer garden free for all,” he said.
The repurposed sailboat isn’t Pincus’ first dip into New York’s waters — he already owns another restaurant aboard a schooner in Manhattan called Grand Banks, which he opened with Mark Firth of Diner and Marlow & Daugters fame.
The eatery bills itself as an oyster bar that also serves entrees such as lobster rolls and soft shell crab.
And Pilot won’t be only floating eatery in the park — his ship will hover just down the estuary from the River Cafe, which floats on a barge near Pier 1.
Pincus’ latest venture will join Cafe Roebling as newcomers in the waterfront green space this summer. The eatery will replace the popular Garden Cafe and its menu will include burgers, hot dogs, salads, and beer, wine, and cocktails, according to its owner who also received the community board’s stamp of approval on Wednesday.
Pincus declined to comment on what type of schooner would be moored there or give any other details about his plans.
But his Manhattan partner did once dream of bringing the Manhattan-docked schooner around the horn.
“I just love the idea that this thing can move — maybe it’ll end up in Brooklyn at one point or down to Key West or over to New Orleans,” Firth told Bon Appetit magazine in 2014.
