[Photo via dwg]
That's what the plate-shaped signage says here at Empire Biscuit at 198 Avenue A between East 12th Street and East 13th Street.
Here's the word from their Twitter account...
Empire Biscuit will be closed until March to retool for the coming apocalypse and make pastries.
— Empire Biscuit (@empirebiscuit) January 31, 2016The quick-serve biscuit emporium cut back its hours during January. At the time, Empire Biscuit owner Jonathan Price told us that they were just taking a break for parts of this month. "It's a slow time of year," he said a few weeks ago. "We're doing some housekeeping. We refinished the floors in the kitchen ... for example."
Empire Biscuit opened on Oct. 30, 2013.
Zzzzzzz.....
ReplyDelete#committed
ReplyDeleteIt's almost time for Grieve to get those Limp Bizkit videos ready.
ReplyDeleteI have only gone there a few times since they opened and I think the biscuits are quite good however it's not the kind of thing (butter and lard) I really should be eating. Unlike a lot of haters out there I am glad this place exist especially since the alternative would be an alcohol pimping business which we certainly don't need more of.
ReplyDeleteTheir parents must be loaded. And extremely indulgent.
ReplyDeleteapastrolypse...now
ReplyDeletecoming biscuitcalypse
ReplyDeletetheir parents fund them to refinish the kitchen floors, for example, but they don't have enough funds for a sheet of plain bond paper and properly type out the notice. seems like this was done in haste. I suggest a Kickstarter campaign for them for a bond paper and printing fees and the local copyshop. How about housekeeping in their conceit?
Cut back hours in January, complete shutdown for all of February, I don't understand the economics of these decisions. Perhaps they are making enough profit to afford a long ass vacation. Retooling? This place serves biscuits and biscuit sandwiches, what could be more straightforward? A month long break to me suggests they are either raking it in and living on easy street, or else are in serious trouble.
ReplyDeleteSometimes I consider schlepping up Avenue A to go to this place, but then I think "nah, it's probably closed."
ReplyDeleteI wonder if they're living in there, behind that brown paper window, hearing everything we say when we pass by?
ReplyDeleteAnd here's what Gabe, whose Twitter page background is someone pouring a beer, said back to Empire Bisquick on Twitter. Need I say more?
ReplyDelete"Gabe @beertrvlr @empirebiscuit I am so bummed out. What am I supposed to do for drunk food??!"
If this place is in deep sh*t it may be a better decision to stay shut. Add operation costs and the rent and they may still be losing a lot of money. By staying shut they only have the rent and of course sharpies and paper plate costs.
ReplyDelete"Unlike a lot of haters"
ReplyDeleteThis must stop. It must end. It must die. I know this ”haters gonna hate” crap goes back to 1997 (?) but Taylor Swift now owns it. And Taylor Swift is the AntiNYC, the succubus of true NYC culture.
9:38a is a Biscuit Lady.
ReplyDeleteI guess not enough drunks in the coming month to buy their biscuits. They surely are missing out on Sunday's Super Bowl.
I don't think they will reopen, even with their new kitchen floor. The food is decent, all prepared from scratch, and the prices aren't a total ripoff. However, as we all know, the restaurant business is a bitch and making money at it is very hard. I'm guessing he's in deep shit financially. If he had rich parents the Kickstarter thing wouldn't have happened, right? Plus, didn't there used to be two owners? What happened to the other guy?
ReplyDeletePeople behind Veronica Mars had money. Spike Lee has money and connections to investors. Zosia Mamet has a rich and famous dad, plus she herself is rich. So why the Kickstarter campaigns for them?
ReplyDeleteIt's because crowdfunding platforms are a way to scam the masses into buying invisible products in advance and in return for their 'donation' they get some sort of merchandising or marketing paraphernalia of their products.
And in the case of the Boys of Biscuits, they were offering a high-five. A HIGH-FIVE bro, in exchange for I believe a $5 donation. That's what was off-putting about this place, from the scratch, the hubris was unbounded, and even its marketing scheme whereby they hired actors and temps and invited friends and families to pretend that this was a new hip and happening place where a line snakes around the block and they have to hire a security and where girls cried over dropped biscuits, oh please. Insult to the intelligence. And they were never apologetic about it. Just kept insulting you with their "Private Events" closure, etc. Yeah, Yeah, someone needs a biscuit.
9:38 AM
ReplyDeleteWorrying about butter and lard is pretty old school. That's not what's causing the obesity/diabetes/heart disease epidemic, it's all about the sugar and refined carbs.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/carbs-against-cardio/
" Taylor Swift now owns it" who sold it to her? Unfortunately "haters" is still a useful word to describe those that can only bitch about everything.
ReplyDeleteYou'll have to do a lot of shaking to shake off those biscuit calories!
ReplyDeleteWell, I guess it's time to hit the ole 99 cents Jiffy mix.
ReplyDelete"Unfortunately "haters" is still a useful word to describe those that can only bitch about everything."
ReplyDeleteSteven?
"“haters gonna hate,” which has flared into public life for a couple of years now, is an empty phrase born of our social media addiction,...where brouhahas and firestorms burst into existence, and everyone eventually leaves the arena feeling unfairly targeted and victimized. The sufferers have been bullied, the bullies have suffered, everyone has a wound deeper than someone else. ...Just as everyone wants to play the victim now, so also there is a rush to be the victim of “hate.”...“Haters” is now an all-purpose word used by those feeling “hated” toward those who don’t automatically fall down to worship their pedicured feet, or divinely anointed heads. Who question them. Who criticize them. Who dare say anything slightly dissenting to them. Or yes, who outright condemn them." http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/08/25/why-we-should-hate-haters-gonna-hate.html
ReplyDeleteI've worked in many restaurants. re-doing the kitchen floors?
ReplyDeletethat's a good one.
WHO DARES QUESTION TAYLOR SWIFT!?!
ReplyDelete"Haters" and "Biscuit Apocalypse" will soon be patented and copyrighted and registered by the the ambassador of New York f#c¥in♢ forever and constantly changing City. Welcome to New York, it's been hated for you.
ReplyDelete"Empire Biscuit will be closed until March to retool for the coming apocalypse and make pastries."
ReplyDeleteI don't get the need to retool; seems like they have more than enough tools over there already
This is so strange. I have lived in the neighborhood since the 90s and can't ever remember a business suddenly closing and opening and closing and opening like this. I feel for the employees. I can't imagine they are getting paid when the place is closed.
ReplyDeleteEmployees don't get paid since they're not working, plus they're not getting all those iPad tips. Vendors don't get paid because Empire isn't buying supplies. Loyal customers have to go be loyal to someplace else. But you know who still gets paid? The landlord.
ReplyDeleteyeah 4:28 ... that's what happens when you sign a lease
ReplyDeleteWhat a waste of space. How about letting some local artists or charity use the space while these guys try to figure out what they want to do with their lives?
ReplyDeleteGood fucking riddance. This place popped up with a perfect five-star review before it opened, 15 friends or paid agents propping it up. It's been rotten ever since.
ReplyDelete-A
Is this part of their Empire Biscuit Comedy Festival (EBCF)? Because this is surely a laugh.
ReplyDeleteWell it's not as if we didn't do everything we could to support them, right?
ReplyDeleteAs a vegetarian, am I obligated to support a business whose menu is mainly composed of lard and pigs, that once served "foie gras butter," just because the place is across the street? Should nearby residents be urged to support a business that markets directly to drunk interlopers? Empire Biscuit is a business, not a charity case, and no one here is required to support them.
ReplyDeleteOverpriced from the start. Not really that interesting. They could've done better if the prices weren't like Crazy Eddie "Insane"
ReplyDeleteWouldn't it be cool if the biscuit place closed down and St Marks Bookstore moved in. sigh.
ReplyDelete