A sign on the door yesterday noted that they'd be back at it today.
But! There's a new sign noting that they won't return until Sunday...
[Via Facebook]
Per the sign, they'll need these extra days "to hire and train additional staff and ramp up production." The 24-hour schedule will then go into effect Tuesday.
Eater has more on the opening here ...and as Eater said about this: "Apparently owners Yonadav Tsuna and Jonathan Price were just not prepared for the white hot frenzy that biscuits can incur."
Let me get this straight: They open for business, were caught off guard by having business - basically a handful of friends on opening night - and now have to close their business to prepare for future business? Now we know what the Kickstarter account was for, to fund their Biscuit Follies! Amateurs.
ReplyDeleteWhat a bunch of yokels.
ReplyDeleteIt's one thing to have a soft opening while you work out the kinks of a new business but to have to shut down after the opening shows is unusual. If I had invested in this place, I would not be thrilled.
ReplyDeleteI was there opening day, there were no lines, just a few hipsters eating tiny biscuit sandwiches. My Pepperidge farm bisquits easily give theirs a run for the money, and mine are cheaper.
ReplyDeleteNow they have all the windows papered over and their story about closing keeps changing. First they were supposed to reopen Friday, now it's Sunday, and no 24 hour service until Tuesday. even the signs in the window tell different stories.
Their first excuse for closing up was high demand, which sounds funny, not credible, and their next excuse was operational and staffing issues. Which one it?. Only the hipster hillbillys know for sure.
If they ran out of flour and lard and eggs and butter, they would have more in an hour. There are obviously bigger problems here, probably manpower and quality control. Or worse: someone deleted the secret biscuit recipe from their laptop and now they have to start all over again.
Maybe this was all just an elaborate Banksy hoax.
ReplyDeleteThey can't locate any flour, but they sure have got one of their cronies at NYMag hard-selling the story about being "crushed by an onslaught of biscuit fiends on its opening day." Ha ha yeah OK. No hyperbole there.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.grubstreet.com/2013/11/empire-biscuit-east-village-hours.html
The restart was due to the white hot frenzy over $8.50 fried chicken biscuits with pickled carrot on them. Yeah, that's the ticket
ReplyDeleteOpening a new place is tough. You can expect lots of bumps and rocky periods for the first year or even two if your business is growing at a rapid pace. I hate to say it but if these guys weren't ready for day one, they are in for a bumpy ride.
ReplyDeleteLol, I'm sorry and I don't want to be an ass... But they spent how many months renovating this place themselves... How much a month in rent was wasted with no income... Lol, I can hear them saying they saved money on renovation costs by doing it themselves... Can they at least admit they have no idea what they are doing and that daddies money funded this and the kickstarter was a complete scam for beer money... Sheesh...You bring complete shame to nyu business school(one of the kids went to nyu grad business something)
ReplyDeleteIf I never read the word Biscuit again. Fro-yo in a hoof, that's another story! I wish Hoboken Hoof was real.
ReplyDeleteBiscuits = Obamacare
ReplyDeleteAt least the government isn't requiring us to buy biscuits.
I've been in the restaurant business for years, these guy's don't have their shit together!! Rookies, they won't last a year.
ReplyDeleteThe Yelp reviews are suspect considering all the reviewers had never reviewed anything BUT Empire Biscuit (and all their profiles have a first name and abbreviated last name) but I did like this quote from one of them:
ReplyDelete"The staff was really friendly, even though it was a bit hectic--I don't think they expected their first night to be so popular. This meant that they got a portion of our order wrong, which they both immediately fixed and gave us for free the biscuits they had made inadvertently."
Source: http://www.yelp.com/biz/empire-biscuit-new-york
A poster above said they renovated the place themselves but I watched the work being done and they had some skilled carpenters in there getting the job done. This was not a do it yourself reno. I am not a fan of this place but I was impressed by the quality of the woodwork. They spent serious money getting it done right.
ReplyDeleteHate to say 'back in my day' BUT…back in my day (the 80s and 90s) in the East Village no one *needed* specialty food. Leshko, Kiev, Veselka, or Odessa was exciting and satisfying enough.
ReplyDeleteI had a nightmare in which I woke up in Cincinnati.
ReplyDeleteThe People of Wal-Mart are getting hungry!
ReplyDeleteOpen up! Honey Boo Boo needs 'er biscuits!
ReplyDeleteSketti!
ReplyDeleteI'm out of town today, and the suspense is killing me. Open? Lines around the corner?
ReplyDeleteI just passed by. There are a bunch of people outside (bunch = 6 or 7), but it's not a line per se. It's just people loitering, although one or two were holding menus and seemed to be at least *thinking* of ordering a biscuit. I rolled my eyes at the place (nice woodwork admittedly, I still say they should adopt a cat and call him/her Billy Ray Cyrus or Magnolia or somethin'). Overheard:
ReplyDelete"I think I'm gonna get the Scotch egg. Wait, what's a Scotch egg?"
You can now go back to your regularly scheduled Sunday :p
I found them VERY over priced, slow service and take out was just your biscuit (singular) n gravy dumped in a sleeve. I think one of them should go work in a reak fast food joint to see how it's really done.
ReplyDeleteWhat a fucking joke. Also, literally the worst tagline I've ever seen. Especially the drunk part. Jesus.
ReplyDeleteThis will end in tears.
ReplyDeleteNo chain stores! No independent stores either!
ReplyDeleteNo obnoxious, pretentious, disdainful stores, chain or independent.
ReplyDeleteLord love a duck. Biscuit dinkii ... you are sooo defensive, and every attempt you make to fight back just intensifies your image as super unfit, carb-bloated, animal-hating hayseed hipsters. Stop. Just stop and sell your biscuits and stay off the internet and prove us all wrong.
ReplyDeleteAs someone who was approached and asked openly by Fischer Price multiple times to be an "investor" I considered it.
ReplyDeleteHaving said that, it's good to know I really just thought the EV was not their style.
Seems like they are off to a rocky start and as an "investor" I couldn't allow them to play with my money.
Exactly. This "venture" is just another toy for the lidults to play with at other people's expense. I say they apply for a liquor license and sell that liquor license when they close.
ReplyDeleteWow. Grouchy sniping here. Go get your startup freak on and STFU. Cheers!
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