Streetlevel: The Return of Chicory on Degraw
Chicory, a popular Cobble Hill spot for an affordable meal or reliable take-out which closed earlier last year, looks poised for a re-opening. The storefront space at 243 Degraw Street has paper in the windows and workers have been spotted coming in and out in recent days. We’re not sure whether the re-opening is happening…
Chicory, a popular Cobble Hill spot for an affordable meal or reliable take-out which closed earlier last year, looks poised for a re-opening. The storefront space at 243 Degraw Street has paper in the windows and workers have been spotted coming in and out in recent days. We’re not sure whether the re-opening is happening under the auspices of the restaurant’s founder or whether there’s new management—the place was for sale last year for somewhere north of $200,000. GMAP
Also, getting back on topic, I’ve lived down the block from this spot for five years and have seen two businesses come and go. I hope this new one sticks…
Agree with CGfan. As a Brooklynite “lifer” who attended public school from K to 12, there are plenty of good schools if your kids are smart and well-behaved. I attended IS51 and I know for certain my parents didn’t have to pull any magic tricks for that to happen.
Boerum Hill, I don’t know about “working the system”, but if your kid tests decently and does well in school, there are middle schools and high schools that are probably at least on par with the average suburban schools (not the top ones). Middle school “choice” (which is how it works in most of brownstone Bklyn) means that many middle schools are “tracked”. IS 51 in Park Slope only takes top students from the neighborhood elementaries. Math and Science (another middle school) is known to only take the best behaved students. Unfortunately, it’s a 2-tiered system, but the failing middle schools you hear about aren’t the ones that parents in PS 321, 29, etc. are sending their kids to. You don’t have to work the system to get your kid in to one of the better ones; kids rank top choices and in most cases, are matched with one of them.
There are some very good public high schools. Unfortunately, people really have to work the system to get their kids into those schools. My kids did private school through 8th grade and are public now. We’ve been pleasantly surprised by the public high schools.
The decision between a suburb and the CIty is basically a personal one, so there is no right or wrong. I think it took more work + energy to raise kids in the City. We’re happy we stayed though. When the kids go off to college, we don’t plan to move and will be happy not to be paying the $20K in annual real estate taxes we’d owe if we’d moved to the suburbs.
The middle school situation is already improving in District 15, which encompasses much of brownstone brooklyn — Cobble Hill, Boerum Hill, Carroll Gardens, Park Slope, Windsor Terrace. Lots of the same parents who improved the elementary schools are keeping their kids in public for middle school (not all, but definitely a majority). It’s all via choice (no neighborhood schools anymore), but there are 4 or 5 at least that parents are sending their kids to now, and more on the way. (For example, the middle school that was part of Brooklyn New School — BCS — was once dismissed but I know many parents choosing it for their kids next year.) Sure, it’s not private school, but many kids of middle class, college – educated parents are staying public for middle school and high school now. And anyone who has an older kid in one of the good elementary schools knows this is the case.
After P.S.29, I went to Packer for middle school, hated it, and then went to Music and Art in Harlem (now Laguardia High School of Music and the Arts behind Lincoln Center) there are alot of public specialty schools a kid can go to (provided they get in) and still live in Brooklyn..the commutes a bitch, and yes the middle schools around here are not up to muster..
i’m not a lifer – moved here in ’97. i just had a child – not school age yet. current plans are to stay here thru PS29 years and then re-evaluate then.
i truly hope to stay, as there is no other place i would ever want to live than cobble hill. i can’t say enough good things about it, especially as a place to raise a child.
but if the middle school / HS are sh;t 12 years from now then i will have to make a decision. private school ($$) or move (and i hope neither).
I have seen families come in on my block and do what Prodigal says, they settle here, raise their kids here, send em to the local schools, and then when their kids go away to college, they sell the house and move on, I have also seen families do what Boerum Hill did. Its a mix. Its certainly a great place to raise kids. I am partial of course.
i remember Dom’s sandwiches, let’s hope he left some karma in there….they were delicious!