A&E Supply Co. Reborn As Bar Salumi

GOWANUS – After a transformer explosion forced the owners of A&E Supply Co. to temporarily shut down their business a few months following their February 2017 launch, subsequent financial strains resulting from the power outage ultimately left them no choice but to shutter the venue for good.

Earlier this week, A&E Supply co-owner Ennio Di Nino announced that he and his business partner, Chef Adam Harvey, are back and “are moving onward and upward.” They are reopening their corner storefront located at 548 4th Avenue (at 15th Street) this Friday under the new name and concept, Bar Salumi.

“We wanted to keep elements of the whole animal butcher shop but most importantly we wanted to be a neighborhood restaurant,” Di Nino says in the announcement. “Bar Salumi does both of those things for us: we are starting our own Salumi program to continue the ‘whole animal ethos’ that we were so proud of with A&E Supply Co.”

Bar Salumi will serve Italian dishes with Mediterranean flavors, inspired by both of the owners’ Italian grandmothers. The menu will feature shareable plates, pastas, and entrees made with locally-sourced ingredients and responsibly-sourced meat and seafood. The bar will offer Old World small-production wines, craft cocktails, and a rotating selection of local beers.

Di Nino and Harvey opened A&E Supply Co., a combination restaurant/bar/butcher shop/cheese shop/cafe, to much fanfare in a neighborhood lacking quality food options, and offered Brooklyn-made products including Brooklyn Roasting Company coffee, Dough doughnuts, Runner and Stone bread, locally brewed craft beers, as well as a whole animal butcher shop.

In June 2017, a ConEd transformer explosion cut the power to their space for two weeks and damaged the business’s air conditioning and refrigeration systems. Thousands of dollars worth of perishable food items were spoiled and Di Nino and Harvey were forced to let go of their staff and close up shop.

The pair were able to reopen the butcher shop portion of the business in Fall 2017, and in an effort to drum up business, embarked on a guerrilla marketing campaign, tagging the neighborhood with the A&E Supply logo. Though they used temporary paint, several neighbors were upset by the “aggressive” marketing and considered it vandalism. A&E Supply Co. officially closed in December 2017.

Welcome Di Nino and Harvey back at the Bar Salumi grand opening tomorrow (April 13). There will be drink specials and vinyl playing all night.

Bar Salumi, 548 4th Avenue (at 15th Street), 718.635.3388