HENRI’S Backyard To Open In Former Pickle Shack Spot

How many 18-month-olds do you know who have two restaurants named after them? We know of at least one — and he’ll soon be opening his brand new 4th Avenue digs.

Ok, well the whole truth is that Henri is the son of Binh Douglas, who currently owns HENRI on Fifth (279 5th Avenue at 1st Street), the French/German/Asian-inspired restaurant which opened January 2015.

And why use his son’s name? “I’m half Vietnamese, a quarter Native American, and a quarter black, and my wife has a French background, so we decided to name the restaurant after our [then]  newborn son, Henri, and the menu is an amalgam of his heritage,” Douglas told Here’s Park Slope when HENRI on Fifth first opened.

Douglas is working away as he readies to open his second restaurant HENRI’S Backyard (256 4th Avenue between President and Carroll Streets) over the next few weeks. The address may be familiar to the beer and pickle lovers — many in the neighborhood had a briney broken heart back in February when it was announced that Pickle Shack would close up shop.

“A lot of times, when you take over a place, people are in love with it, or they didn’t like it at all,” says Douglas while giving us a tour of the renovations. “People loved Pickle Shack, and I do want to pay tribute to what it was.”

With that in mind, there will be vegan and vegetarian items offered on the menu akin to the vegetarian gastropub focus of the closed business.

Douglas says the menu will vary a bit from HENRI’S on Fifth. “It’ll be a Vietnamese/German fusion. We’ll have big pretzels, classic banh mi – but with a German sausage,” says Douglas.

And there will beer.

“We are going to make the new place more ‘bar forward’,” says Douglas. We’ll have 18 tap lines out back [in the outdoor space].” HENRI’S Backyard has a full liquor license, so wine and spirits will be available.

Douglas intends to use the backyard year-round. “After the warm weather, we’re going to work on enclosing it. And we’re excited that we have a live music permit,” he says.

Douglas says that he and Pickle Shack owner Shamus Jones were trying to make the transition as smooth as possible between the two businesses. And while many former Pickle Shack employees were frustrated to find out about the closure only a week or so before it took place, Douglas said he would be happy to bring some of them back.

“There’s a lot that will be new, but there are many elements of the Pickle Shack worked,” says Douglas. “We hope for new customers, and we want the previous customers back.”

HENRI’S Backyard will be open Mondays-Thursdays, 11am-Midnight, and Fridays-Sundays from 11am-2am. A website will soon be available.