NYC Restaurant Week: Greenhouse Cafe
BAY RIDGE – It’s almost time again for New York City Restaurant Week, with reservations officially opened on Tuesday, July 9. The event, actually several weeks long, takes place from July 22nd to August 16th and features restaurants from all over the city.
For Bay Ridge institution Greenhouse Cafe, Restaurant Week is nothing new.
“We skipped one year and they called us up and asked us to come back. I’m going to say we were doing it for at least nine years, if not ten,” partner John Keegan told Bklyner over the phone.
The menu they’re offering for restaurant week contains many of the favorites you’ll find on their a la carte menu, including their signature roasted Long Island duck and the rack of lamb. Both the lunch and dinner menus offer nine options for an appetizer, including baked clams, shrimp cocktail, and eggplant rollatini.
“I just don’t want to offer a soup and a salad, maybe a pasta dish and three or four entrees. I don’t think there’s any value to that if you’re charging $42, that’s my opinion,” Keegan said, adding that the Greenhouse Cafe chef is more than happy to accommodate any dietary restrictions of their guests. “[The chef] accommodates more than a lot of owners would want, he feels that it’s better to do that than to not do that.”
Keegan hopes that those who visit the restaurant during the promotion become repeat customers.
“Hopefully [Restaurant Week] gives exposure to people who may have not been to the restaurant before. The restaurant is very pretty, it’s very nice. We have a glass enclosed room, a garden, we have an outside deck, and we also have very well lit, very well decorated rooms. Hopefully they come and they have a great experience. That’s what we’re aiming for,” Keegan said.
The restaurant is participating in the promotion all summer long, Keegan says, ending sometime before Labor Day. They also serve Saturday and Sunday brunch for $29.95 per person, including two hours of unlimited brunch drinks, coffee, mini muffins and rolls, and a three course meal.
The Bay Ridge area experiences a slow time in the summer, Keegan says, as many of the residents own homes elsewhere. Restaurant Week helps Greenhouse Cafe combat that.
“We have to rely on people on the outskirt neighborhoods, people in other area codes to give us the support that we need for the summer. NYC Restaurant Week takes care of that with the advertising and it’s a big promotional thing for New York City,” Keegan said, adding that being one of the few Brooklyn restaurants participating helps boost this even more. This year, Greenhouse Cafe is one of only nine in the borough.
The spacious and bright restaurant has been serving residents of the area for what is about to be forty years this October. Partners Keegan and Bobby Daquara both started working in the restaurant as young men, washing dishes.
“We started as dishwashers and now we own the place. I’m not joking,” Keegan laughs.
Stay tuned for more coverage of Brooklyn restaurants participating in NYC Restaurant Week!
Greenhouse Cafe is located at 7717 3rd Avenue, between 77th and 78th streets, Bay Ridge.