Enduring Eats: 5 Brooklyn Restaurants That Have Stood the Test of Time
1 YEAR
Fritzl’s Lunch Box
Dan Ross-Leutwyler opened this, his first restaurant, in Bushwick barely a year ago. But he’d already amassed plenty of industry know-how by working for some of the best in Brooklyn, like Vinegar Hill House, Roberta’s and Fatty ‘Cue. He also happens to be married to Carolyn Bane, the force behind Williamsburg’s top fried chicken spot, Pies ‘n’ Thighs. So what advice was he able to take from them when it came to launching his own eatery?
“The lesson that was hardest for me to learn until it was all mine and it really mattered was that you have to say yes to everything. No matter what anyone wants, as long as it’s something you can do, you really should do it, because that’s how you’re going to build a loyal, happy customer base,” Ross-Leutwyler says. “Another thing I’ve been really sensitive to, as a new restaurant in a rapidly changing neighborhood, is the price point. I want to serve food with the best ingredients I possibly can that’s still a great value.”
Time spent in many of the borough’s most successful kitchens also taught him that consistency is key, even if the artist in him yearns to switch up the menu with every farm- stand fluctuation.
“I can tell you that every time I go to Franny’s, I’m going to have the clam pie, and when I go to Vinegar Hill House, that pork chop is always going to be there for me. I think there’s incredible value in that,” he says. “I’m a market guy, and love getting my inspiration from the greenmarket, but I’ve also had to recognize that I’m not that kind of restaurant, at least right now. And it’s more important for me to focus on making each dish as delicious this time as it was the last than it is on being intensely creative. Because in a place like this, if I don’t, people just won’t come back. But if I go the extra mile, maybe I’ve made a customer for the long haul.”
Bushwick definitely seems to have embraced Fritzl’s, and there’s a torrent of love directed toward the laidback luncheonette all over the web. But the regrettable pattern today (and members of the media, we readily cop to it) is that brand new restaurants are met with a flurry of rabid, ravenous attention, which quickly peters out as soon as the next big thing comes along. So how does Ross-Leutwyler plan to keep people thinking about Fritzl’s, talking about Fritzl’s and craving his food once that initial excitement subsides?
“In the long run, I think it’s not about keeping the buzz going so much as it is maintaining a positive energy and keeping your regulars happy,” he says. “And then sort of try to stretch your arms out a bit with the rest of the menu and get people talking, because I think that word-of-mouth is a really powerful thing, especially for a neighborhood restaurant like this.”
173 Irving Avenue, Bushwick