Friday, May 20, 2011

East Village Brewery & Beer Shop apologizes for borrowing Prime Meats' menu

On Monday, EV Grieve reader T.E.V.B. noticed that the menu on display outside 14 Avenue B, home of the aspiring East Village Brewery & Beer Shop, was identical to that of Brooklyn's Prime Meats.

And Eater then did a side-by-side comparison. Yep, exact copies!


So we contacted the Brewers for an explanation. Here's what they had to say:

The menu on display was only intended to be an aspirational reference, approximating our aims pending community approval. We are NOT affiliated with Prime Meats, however their business is one that we admire and their program – along with others’ – often come up during development conversations. We apologize if anyone perceives that this was misleading or that our food program will be a replica.

The final program will be the product of the several months of development that still await us pending proper approvals. We look forward to sharing more with the community as our business develops.

Again, thank you for contacting us. We hope that everything goes smoothly and look forward to bringing our business to this community.

Best,
East Village Brewery & Beer Shop

In the meantime, someone removed the menu from the front door at 14 Avenue B.

16 comments:

  1. Wow. That is really sleazy. You don't post another restaurant's menu on your door!

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  2. "Perceives that this was misleading"???

    So we're really supposed to be that stupid that we believe such tripe? Shows how much respect they have for the nabe and its occupants. Lying sacks.

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  3. I would love to hear a response from Prime Meats.

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  4. This is the part about community action I love; RESULTS!

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  5. You know, and this ain't so long ago, one restaurant on Ave. B stealing another restaurant's menu way out the hell in Brooklyn was neither A.) Imaginable or B.) All that relevant.

    You can either bemoan a bygone age or herald its leaving, and either one's OK by me, but it seems to me you guys are having your cake and eating it, too. Neighbourhoods change, unless they come museums, and I wouldn't wish that on anyone. But it's hard to claim any sort of left-over street credibility while complaining over shit like this...

    Good luck, kids.

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  6. Shorter apology:

    Sorry we got caught.
    EV Brewery & Beer Shop

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  7. I would also love to hear what Prime Meats has to say. This place hasn't even opened yet, and I already have a bad taste in my mouth!

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  8. This building is owned by Westbrook Assosiate, slimy real estate dvelopers who own 17 buildings in the east village and managed by Magnum Mgmt. which is owned by notorious predatory developer and property manager Ben Shaoul-responsible for the A Building and Sky East on 11th bet. B & C.

    This building is run by bad operators who have terrorized people, forced people out, etc. They try to bring is assholes like this to further destroy the neighborhood. They pay for the buildout. Another example of a Westbrook Magnum building is 165 and 167 Ave. A home of Diablo Royale.

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  9. This isn't about bemoaning a bygone age. These people are vultures. They come here hoping to strike it rich with an upscale clientele. Which are the same drunken pabble that splatter their way down Ave B, further north..
    This area needs an affordable place to eat, with healthy food.
    Hopefully, the same fate will take them as other hipster venture capitalist ideas, that have tried to turn this place. They burn through their seed money and go back to where ever they came from.

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  10. Issues were raised about the prior occupant and about how they caused all these problems in the neighborhood, as well as who the principal was, where they were purchasing the brewery equipment from and who the brewmaster was, because obviously there were concerns about the legitimacy and credibility of the applicant.

    The only people present were a lawyer and the supposed new general manager for the operation. At some point during the debate Ariel Palitz raised a concern that the space had been vacant for several years and that she didn't think it was fair that because the prior owner "who still holds the license" had caused problems that CB3 should deny this applicant.

    According to her this was obviously an eager sincere and experienced applicant who had a great idea for a small business.

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  11. You're right, Anonymous. You're right. And for what it's worth I'm not being snide about bygone ages. I'm from the neighborhood and I miss what it was. Used to be when there were places to eat, though we always ate at home. But the vultures have been picking over the place for the past twenty years easy and this seems like a peculiar bit of whatever-the-fuck, barn-door-after-the-horses-have-bolted bit of not much to get upset about after all this time. But that's just me, and God knows you're on the side of the angels here.

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  12. "Aspirational reference" is a new one to me though...

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  13. Just plain dumb.

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  14. I think I won;t be going to any restaurant that calls their menu a "food program."So pretentious!

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  15. glad to see the truth come out. "aspirational reference" = at best, lazy. at middle, misleading. at worst, leeches.

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  16. I know this post is several days old now but I can't not comment on this. What sleazebags! And what a half-assed excuse. An "aspirational reference"? That is EXACTLY what some people in the neighborhood (me, for one) hate about some of the new restaurants and businesses that have moved in: the owners aspire to make a pile of money and to tell their d-bag friends about their trendy restaurant in the EV and they don't give a shit about being original or contributing anything unique or even about having an identity. These people might inadvertently end up hiring staff who have some ideas and who know how to execute them but if they do it will just be dumb luck, because they are obviously dimwitted, trend-chasing sheep who don't know what they're doing.

    Also, "We apologize if anyone perceives that this was misleading"? It's totally misleading to use another restaurant's menu to promote your own non-existent one but they don't seem sorry about that, they're only sorry anyone noticed. Pigs. And how does it "approximate" their aims if it's 100% lifted from another restaurant? All it shows is that they have some vague idea that Prime Meats has a menu that attracts the same sort of crowd they are hoping to attract here. If they have more defined ideas than that, they certainly didn't articulate those ideas by taping up the Prime Meats menu on their door.

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