2
BROOKLYN WEEKLY, AUGUST 2, 2020
The storied Emmons Avenue restaurant. Roll N Roaster
YES, CHEEZ!
Roll N Roaster celebrates
its 50th anniversary
BY JESSICA PARKS
Thousands of people stopped
by Sheepshead Bay’s Roll N
Roaster on July 18 for a sociallydistant
celebration of the beloved
roast beef joint’s 50th anniversary.
“It went really nice, the public
was great,” said Eric Rodriguez,
general manager the southern
Brooklyn eatery famous for putting
“cheez on anything you
pleez.” “Everybody kept their
distance and respected everybody’s
space.”
To prevent overcrowding,
Roll N Roaster hosted a walkthrough
style anniversary
party where patrons could pass
through serving stations for
complimentary ice cream, tshirts,
masks and a bit of bubbly
before continuing down Emmons
Avenue or heading back to
their vehicles.
“We had custom-made masks
celebrating the 50th anniversary,
50th-anniversary t-shirts,”
Rodriguez said. “People were
just getting their stuff and then
they left. They were happy and it
was just how we wanted it.”
Brooklyn native Buddy Lamonica
fi rst opened the familyoperated
fast food restaurant on
Emmons Avenue in July, 1970.
Roll N Roaster quickly became
a southern Brooklyn staple,
known best for its thin-sliced
roast beef smothered in cheese
sauce sandwiched between two
pieces of gravy-soaked bread.
Over the course of the day,
employees served over 3,000 patrons
at the reimagined celebration
— and while Rodriguez said
it was a long day, he added that
it was nothing his team couldn’t
handle as the eatery typically
averages about 10,000 customers
a week.
“It was nice and steady
through the whole day and
night,” he said. “To see that
many people turn up, it was really
special.”
And Roll N Roaster’s steady
fl ow of customers hasn’t tapered
off during the pandemic, which
Rodriguez credited to his staff’s
quick transition towards safely
operating the restaurant in the
early stages of the pandemic.
“It takes a lot of work and
thinking to adjust to what is going
on,” Rodriguez said. “One of
the reasons we are doing so well,
I think, is because we started
doing all of these adjustments
before the governor ordered the
shutdown.”
And, what has kept diners
coming back for half a century
is the quality of Roll N Roaster’s
simple, yet mouthwatering
menu and the feeling of eating
in the same restaurant as one
might have decades ago — something
that is hard to come by
these days, Rodriguez said.
“There is a lot of nostalgia.
People who moved from Brooklyn
to other places, when they
come back, this is their fi rst stop
after the airport,” Rodriguez
said. “They come over here.”
Rethinking
the rezoning
Industry City developers consider scrapping rezoning
Industry City executive Andrew Kimball is considering scrapping the complex’s rezoning plan. Industry City
BY ROSE ADAMS
The developers behind Industry
City are considering scrapping
the proposed rezoning of the
sprawling Sunset Park complex
after local elected offi cials have issued
a number of “unreasonable”
demands, a representative said.
“A number of convergent factors
are causing Industry City to
question whether or not it should
pursue the rezoning,” said Industry
City spokesman Lee Silberstein
in a statement, which was fi rst reported
by Politico. “First, the price
of conditions set by elected offi cials
in their attempt to appease even the
most unreasonable constituents is
very high. That, combined with the
fact that companies allowed under
current zoning continue to show
interest in the campus, raises the
question as to whether the application
should be pulled.”
The developers’ July 27 announcement
comes just weeks before
the City Planning Commission
was set to vote on the rezoning
application — which, if approved
by the city, would allow for a 12-
year, $1 billion redevelopment of
the 35-acre facility that would add
more retail, academic space, and
offi ces.
The proposal has fi ercely divided
Sunset Park’s largely immigrant,
working-class neighborhood
— with supporters arguing
that the development would bring
desperately-needed jobs, and critics
charging that renovation aims
to lure large corporations, which
could jack up rents and displace
locals.
Among the rezoning’s critics
is local Councilman Carlos
Menchaca, who holds outsized
power over the application’s passage
in the City Council as the
district’s representative. After
initially saying he would support
the rezoning if developers bent to
a long list of conditions, he vowed
on Tuesday to vote down the application,
claiming that developers
have failed to meet his demands.
“I made it very clear that I
would not support Industry City’s
rezoning unless certain conditions
were met. These conditions were
not met,” Menchaca said in a statement.
“I strongly oppose this application
and will vote no if it comes
before the City Council.”
Menchaca’s conditions included
the elimination of hotels from the
application, a reduction in retail
space, and the creation of a public
technical high school, among
many others.
Industry City’s owners — a
partnership between Jamestown,
Angelo Gordon, and Belvedere Capital
— agreed to bow to Menchaca’s
demands. But the owners, who
had already delayed the application’s
submission for months at
Menchaca’s request, submitted the
paperwork in October before all
Menchaca’s conditions were met,
kicking off the city’s seven-month
land use review process known as
ULURP — leading the legislator to
ask the developers to pull the plan.
“I am asking that Industry City
offi cially remove their rezoning application
before the mayor restarts
the ULURP clock next month,”
Menchaca said.
An Industry City rep suggested
the developers won’t seek another
rezoning if they decide to pull the
current one, but will continue
their planned redevelopment of
the space, which now houses light
manufacturing companies and job
services tailored for locals.
This time, though, the developers
can pursue signifi cant asof
right renovations without any
community benefi ts or input.
While the current zoning forbids
Industry City’s owners from building
on top of the existing structures
or leasing space to hotels and
department stores, the owners can
still conduct internal renovations
without having to answer to the
community.
“Reactivation will continue
with as-of-right uses, but that
leaves no requirement to preserve
manufacturing, operate Innovation
Lab or other job training programs,
recruit neighborhood residents
for available jobs, or support
local initiatives,” Silberstein said.