BEN POPKEN WRITES

SCOOP: Dinosaur Bar-B-Que Opening Up Brooklyn Location At Foot Of Park Slope

Chain BBQ joint Dinosaur Bar-B-Que is stomping into Brooklyn. The Syracuse-born purveyor of wood-fueled BBQ served in a cavernous setting has applied for a liquor license at a huge defunct warehouse at 604 Union St, just steps away from the notoriously opinionated residents of Park Slope.

Company rep John Fink said they’re “early in the process” and have some “guesstimates” but wouldn’t pin down a launch date for when they would open up in the former site of Perfect Metals. What will opening up a big BBQ joint mean for this patch of Brooklyn, right at the point where Park Slope begins to rise up from the car garages and leaning brownstones of Gowanus?

Dinosaur Bar-B-Que, which billionaire George Soros’ investment company owns a 70% stake in, would definitely change the character of the block. In the fenced-in parking lot next to where Dinosaur hopes to roost, a neighborhood group of Puerto Ricans fix their cars and chill out in a plywood clubhouse. A spray-painted mural to one of their fallen friends, Raul, adorns what would be Dinosaur’s front. Lighted candles and flowers appear on the sidewalk in front of it annually on his birthday. The ribs n’ more joint would also be neighbors with the Ortov lighting and hardware supply warehouse. For years the building has sat empty. Every time it snows the long swath of sidewalk in front of it becomes a treacherous trough of snow and ice because no one shovels it. A company sign on the wall outside is the only evidence of its former use. The “P” in “Perfect” has long since fallen off. But the block is changing. A couple of years ago, a brownstone that was sinking too much into the soft mud the surrounds the general Gowanus Canal area had its residents evicted and it was demolished. A Holiday Inn Express opened up down the street. A used car dealership across from where Dino would go was turned into a gravel-strewn parking lot. That change will be accelerated if 604 gets a new tenant.

A flyer taped to the doorframe of an apartment building across the street announces the new venture and invites residents to attend a public meeting.

“Finally,” said Naomi Ingles, who lives across the street and used to clean the bathrooms when the building was home to Perfect Metals. “They do something good, not chemical.” She’s lived there 37 years and she and the other people in her building have summertime sidewalk barbecues in front of 604. She’s okay with giving those up. “It’s better than looking across the street at an abandoned building,” she said.

Clearly, “manufacturing is not coming back,” so it’s good that there’s development in the area, said Eric Richmond, owner and Managing Director of the Brooklyn Lyceum, a multi-use performance space and cafe occupying a former bathhouse on 4th Ave. “That block is a no man’s land,” he said.

However, Joe Dari, who has owned the Holyland auto repair place across the street for 12 years, is worried about getting pushed out. “It’s a big concern,” he said. He could see Dinosaur BBQ filing complaints and exerting “noise pressure, environmental pressure” on his no-frills repair shop, which often has cars lined up in its driveway. But there’s no denying progress.

“That whole area is on the rise,” company rep John Fink said. There’s been several new additions just down the street on 4th Avenue. Two new bars and a rock club opened up, along with a taco joint and a liquor store. Dino would be steps from the Union Street stop, which is just a stop away from the Atlantic Terminal, through which all the subway lines thread. It would also be a block away from a new, locally driven BBQ joint that is opening this month, Fort Reno Provisions.

Chef Jacques Gautier, one of the partners behind it and also the culinary mastermind at Palo Santo across the street, isn’t worried about the brontosaurus crashing the party. “I think we will have a very different appeal,” he said. “Fort Reno will be a small neighborhood joint. Dinosaur is a huge chain restaurant.” And Dinosaur agrees.

“There’s plenty of room. We’re not afraid of competition,” Dinosaur BBQ’s John Fink said.

“It creates a district, an energy, a vibe,” he added. “All boats rise in a high tide.”

A meeting for public comment on Dinosaur’s liquor license will be held on January 23 at 6:30 pm at 65 6th Avenue.