Bad Days for Red Sauce Joints

News from Queens and Brooklyn indicates the City will soon be losing two of its more authentic Italian red sauce joints.

Over at Queens Crap, a readers post news that Salerno's in Richmond Hill may be gone for good. The restaurant has been around for more than 70 years, and was a location in "Goodfellas." The door has a sign saying "closed for renovations," but word on the street is otherwise, and no one is answering the phone.

Over in Carroll Gardens, meanwhile, Casa Rosa on Court and Carroll Streets is on the market. They're asking $3.3 million for the building and lot, and, with that prime location (right near the park, lots of foot traffic and services), they'll get it. The building's been around for at least 100 years, and most of that time its been a restaurant, though not always the Casa Rosa, which is a fairly recent place. For a time, it appears, it was a pool parlor, which is cool. The DOC site shows that while the address has incurred quite a few DOB violations over the last 25 years, all of them have been dismissed. Hmmm.

I'd be sad to see Casa Rosa go. Not that it's such great food, but it's one of the last red-sauce, old-style places that were once so prevalent in Carroll Gardens and are redolent of the neighborhood's history. If it vanishes, that only leaves The Red Rose on Smith, really. And, I suppose, Marco Polo, though that's a much fancier affair, and who knows what's going on with that place these days.

The photo's courtesy of Pardon Me For Asking.

Casa Rosa Gets a Side Door

In these days of recession, some old restaurants are feeling compelled to reinvent themselves and shed their stodgy skins.

A year or so ago, longtime Carroll Gardens red sauce joint Casa Rosa was put up for sale. When that didn't take, the owners decided to keep the place for the time being. Now, last week, some architectural renovations were put into play—an indication, perhaps, that the owners are trying their renewed ownership of the place the old college try. It doesn't appear like Casa Rosa will look markedly different. The main alternation is the installation of a sliding glass door on the side of the building. This will presumedly somewhat relieve the restaurants of its slightly gloomy atmosphere.

Casa Rosa Gets All Awninged Up

The quote-unquote improvements continue at Casa Rosa, the old-school red-sauce joint on Court Street in Carroll Gardens. Following the installment of a new glass sliding door on the side, the joint just got a new set of awnings out front, which should look just swell for about two weeks, when the Carroll Park pigeons get ahold of them. The old awnings were green. The new ones are red. Hey, gotta stick with the Italian flag colors, don't we?

What's Going on With Casa Rosa?

One year ago, it was revealed that Carroll Gardens' old red-sauce joint Casa Rosa was up for sale. Or the building was for sale. Which is the same thing, really.

There was a nasty old Massey Knakal "for sale" sign on the side, saying it was a "development site." $3.3 million was the asking price. Well, here we are in March 2009 and the sign is gone, but the restaurant is still there. The listing is also gone from the Massey Knakal site. Could the eatery be out of danger?

Some Scenes From South Brooklyn's Past

I sometimes talk on this blog about Leonardo's, the brick-oven pizza place that used to be on Court Street, near First Place. But I've never had a picture to post. Here it is, on a snowy day in, I don't know, the late '90s. There's a Dunkin' Donuts there now. How I hate it.

Some sort of parade (Halloween?) down Court Street in, I'm guessing, the 1980s. That must be the first incarnation of Casa Rosa in the background. The building's been salmon pink as long as I've known it, and that's 16 years.

I'm reaching way back here to a place only few people living still remember. A long time ago, there used to be an ice cream parlor on Court Street, near Baltic, called Ebel's. It was one of three beloved ice cream joints on Court, one of them called Swede's, near Carroll Street. In 1964, the New York Times referred to it as "a candy store with a good reputation." Every old South Brooklyn kid who recalls it describes it as a popular hangout of its day. This photo is from Ebel's earliest days. Jeez. What a place. I'd hang out there, too. I'd never leave.

Carroll Gardens: Pool Hall Canyon

I got into a conversation in Carroll Park with an old man who said he had grown up on First Place between Court and Clinton Streets in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn. He said he had basically grown up in the park. I inquired weather it had changed much in the past 50 years, and he answered that it was pretty much the same.

He then proceeded to tell me how he had typically spent his days back then, and that was in playing pool. There was a pool hall on the second floor of a building at Court and Union Streets. I assume he meant the present home of the Albee Dance Studio. He said there was also a pool hall where Court Street Pastries now stands.

I mentioned that I had learned that the Italian restaurant Casa Rosa, at the corner of Court and Carroll, has also once been a pool hall. He confirmed that. "When they closed I bought one of the tables from them," he said. "I got it for $100. It was a nice one, with small pockets."

"In the old days, women were not allowed in the pool halls. Do you know ESPN?" he continued. I nodded. "You ever seen some of them women pool players. They're knockouts. I saw one of them leaning over a table on TV, and I said to my wife, 'Holy crap, will ya look at that?' She said to me, 'Yeah, well you aren't exactly what I bargained for, either.'"

Carroll Park Then and Now

Carroll Park, Brooklyn, in the late 1970s, looking toward the intersection of Carroll Street and Court Street.

And today:

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What In Helen's Is Happening Now?

I lot of things I loved about Carroll Gardens have fallen by the wayside during its recent, decade-long transformation from sleepy Italian-American enclave to bubbling yuppie enclave, but there are few I miss as much as the lost, and seemingly little lamented Helen's Italian Cuisine at 396 Court Street near Carroll.

It was one of the old-school Italian eateries of the neighborhood, best represented now by the Red Rose on Smith and Casa Rosa on Court. I liked it better than those two, however. The southern Italian food smacked more of home cooking (the lasagna was particularly savory and good), and the slow and often tipsy service had a lot of family character to it. I believe the silver-haired, main waiter was Helen's son (Livio was his name, I think). If you were in a hurry, it wasn't a good idea to eat there.

There was a wooden vestibule that separated the interior from the street, and a simple rack with hangers for hats and coats. Orders were passed through a small square window in the back. There were tables and cozy booths. Wine was served in small, stemless tumblers the way it's done in Italy. Prices were low.

The facade's most distinctive characteristic was an all-a covering wall of gold, corrugated metal—bit of which are still visible as part of the faceless card and gift shop that replaced the restaurant. It was an ugly look, but utterly unique. A work permit in the window of said shop says the reconstruction work is being done. Hard to imagine what sort of redo might make that drab store exciting. I remember when Helen's closed. A man told me the family hoped to reopen it in another location. Sadly, never happened.