A First Look At The Castello Plan Crew's New Restaurant In The Old Vox Pop Space
Since construction began at 1022 Cortelyou Road in late March, neighbors have been speculating as to the future of the space that formerly housed Vox Pop. Today, we talked to Ben Heemskerk of The Castello Plan and Collyer’s Mansion about the as-yet unnamed Italian restaurant slated to open later this year.
The restaurant will be a bright, airy space focused on wood-fired pizza and handmade pasta made by Daniel Soskolen, a Naples-trained chef who has known Ben’s business partner Avi Shuker since their teenage years. It will be less dimly-lit date night material than Castello, and more family-oriented, seating 60 people inside and 25 people outside.
In addition to the several pizzas and pasta dishes to be served, the full menu will include appetizers and desserts (Ben says Daniel is a talented pastry chef, so watch out for that). They will also feature a full bar (seen above, on the right hand side) with beer, liquor, sodas, classic cocktails, and Italian wine.
“We wanted to bring what we left the neighborhood for, to the neighborhood,” says Ben. “That meant real Italian-style pizza and pasta.”
He says while Castello has some pasta dishes, he thinks of it more of a bar with culinary accessories–whereas this latest project will be a restaurant that happens to have a bar.
For the moment, the front of the space is being left open to accommodate a domed clay oven by world-renowned manufacturer Stefano Ferraro, whose ovens are currently used at gourmet NYC pizza joints Paulie Gee’s and Donatella. The oven will eventually end up in the back of the restaurant (above, where all pizza and pasta-making will take place), and, once it makes its way from Naples to Ditmas Park, will have to go enter through the storefront in one piece.
As you can see, the space is undergoing some major structural changes. Ben says another 80 square feet of space were reclaimed by removing the previous nine-foot drop ceiling (the new ceiling is 12 feet) and taking out several layers of walls to expose the building’s original brick.
A window that had been hidden under the wall on the Stratford side of the building will also help make things feel bright and open, as will the steel and glass opening doors that will replace the restaurant’s existing facade. Like the oven, tiles and chandeliers are being shipped from Italy. The outside area will also be revamped for cafe seating.
Ben says he’s excited to breathe new life into a space that’s so beloved by Ditmas Park. “I definitely understand the importance of Vox Pop,” he says. “I signed my first apartment lease nine years ago, sitting in Vox Pop.”
But, he points out, as a space so crucial to the neighborhood in recent years, it’s equally important not to let it simply fall apart. And with the family feel and openness he plans to bring to the new restaurant, it seems that in some way he’ll be honoring the community space that once was.
Ben and Avi hope to open their doors to the public in the mid-Fall. Stay tuned for more updates as the restaurant moves closer to completion.
