30
COURIER LIFE, APRIL 22–28, 2022
New life for old fave
Locals revive B’Heights’ almost-lost Vineapple Cafe
BY BANKS HALVORSON &
MEAGHAN MCGOLDRICK
After one of Brooklyn Heights’
staple restaurants closed its
doors in 2019, a couple who loved
the eatery made it a mission to
bring its signature meals back to
the neighborhood.
When Vineapple Cafe, an Italian
esque eatery located on Pineapple
Street just blocks from the
Brooklyn Heights Promenade
first closed, regular customers
Aubrie Therrien and her husband
Zac Rubin were hopeful their favorite
haunt would return.
“We’ve been residents of
Brooklyn Heights for seven
years,” Therrien said. “Old Vineapple
used to be our coffee shop,
we basically lived right next door
and, like the rest of the neighborhood
we were very sad when they
closed.'”
Eventually, Rubin was able to
speak to one of the restaurant’s
owners, and confirmed the sad
news: Vineapple wasn’t coming
DINING
Find out more about Vineapple
Cafe at their website. 71 Pineapple
St., between Henry and Hicks
streets. 347-799-1035. facebook.
com/vineapple
back. “And when it closed we
looked at each other at one point
and said “We can do this,’ Therrien
said.
Her family has deep ties in
the hospitality industry and has
owned Giambone in Little Italy for
over 75 years, which made their
project both possible and practical.
But months passed before the
pair started seriously discussing
reviving Vineapple — which they
officially did in February 2020.
Of course, the start of the pandemic
quickly derailed the project,
closing the doors of many of
the city’s restaurants first temporarily,
then, eventually, permanently.
While getting the new
Vineapple Cafe up and running
took a backseat, the delay wasn’t
all bad for the couple’s planning
process.
“It did give us more time to decide
what we wanted Vineapple to
be instead of rushing to reopen
the place,” Therrien said. “We got
to renovate, and it was really a labor
of love. We took our time. Our
family came up, we painted the
mural, we made the restaurant
what we wanted it to be and then
we slowly opened in July 2020.”
They started small, with limited
options and operating hours,
and, with the help of a “super
forgiving and open and excited”
neighborgood, slowly grew into
what’s now the thriving Vineapple
Cafe 2.0. The restaurant, led by
bar director and general manager
Jennifer Sandella and Executive
Chef Joel Mendia, serves food described
as “fusing New American
and Italian-leaning cuisine.”
Vineapple’s three-meal daily
menu features coffee from Brooklyn
When they heard Vineapple Cafe was closing in 2019, longtime regulars Aubrey
Therrien and Zac Rubin knew they had to act. Vinepple Cfe
roastery Devoción and locallysourced
pastries; soups, salads
and paninis for lunch; and a varied
Italian-esque dinner menu
complimented by signature cocktails
created by Sandella.
With weekly Trivia Nights,
live music on Sunday evenings,
and regular non-profit nights,
where 20 percent of the evening’s
proceeds are donated to a local
organization, Vineapple is “in a
good place,” Therrien said.
It’s a particularly sweet victory
to be able to maintain the legacy of
the original beloved café and pay
homage to the previous owners.
“I think they’re really happy
to know that Vineapple is in good
hands, it’s legacy, it still exists,
and that what she had built for
eight years sort of remains,” Thierren
said. “We kept subtle nods
to Vineapple of the past, and kept
true to that kind of coffee shop
feel.”
BY KIRSTYN BRENDLEN
Voices of Lefferts, a volunteerled
effort to document the history
of Prospect Lefferts-Gardens and
its citizens, is enlisting the help of
the community to maintain their
mission as they fight to stay afloat
after a particularly difficult year
left them without the grant funding
they usually depend on.
Launched in 2017, the multifaceted
project is dedicated to educating
neighbors about local history
and recording that history in oral
interviews and in a twice-annual
publication called “Voices of Lefferts:
The Flatbush-PLG Community
Writing Journal.”
Since its inception, Voices
of Lefferts has been funded by
grants awarded by the nonprofit
Humanities New York, the Brooklyn
Arts Council, and Citizens
Committee for New York City.
Those grants paid for rented space
at the Grace Reformed Church,
the cost of printing each issue,
and for the work provided by the
org’s graphic designers, photographers,
copyeditors, and more.
This year’s grant cycle just
didn’t go the way they’d hoped,
said Deborah Mutnick, director
and co-founder of the project.
They didn’t receive either they’d
applied for likely because of a particularly
competitive field of applicants,
Mutnick said — everyone
was hit hard by COVID, and most
groups are in need of money to recover.
With one application still
pending and months until new
applications open again, Voices of
Lefferts was in a tough spot.
So, earlier this month, Mutnick
and the team launched a
GoFundMe page, aiming to raise
$7,500, which would cover the publication
of the next three copies
of the journal, one of which is already
in production. So far, it has
raised just over $2,600.
“We’re one of many projects
that are really great projects,
and do important work in communities
that amplifies community
voices and tells stories that
would never get told otherwise,”
Mutnick said. “We’re certainly
not alone in what we do. The funding
for these projects is not easy to
come by.”
Printing a run of each issue
costs between $800 and $1,000, she
said, and that’s including a discount
from the printer. Voices of
Lefferts has an ongoing partnership
with Greenlight Bookstore,
who sell the pamphlets and host
live readings, and they give a cut
of each $6 sale back to the org. But
even with a more generous slice
of revenue than Greenlight would
usually offer, since Voices is a
community organization, it’s not
enough to cover the cost of printing.
If they can’t raise the $7,500,
issues could shift to online-only.
On May 9, Greenlight is hosting
an online reading with the authors
of the upcoming issue of the
journal, the second installment of
a special edition titled “Flatbush
Eats: Food, Survival, and Celebration.”
After that, the future is a little
hazy. But Mutnick is optimistic
about their prospects, based on
the support they’ve received so far
and the neighborhood’s usual enthusiasm
for the community-led
history book.
“People come when they
come,” she said. “And they come
because we’ve called and they’ve
heard us. I think if we get to a
point where that doesn’t happen,
the project will end.”
Voices of Lefferts is hoping to raise just over $7,500 to keep their public history
projects afloat. Photo by Alexis Holloway
‘Voices of Lefferts’ launches fundraiser
to keep community history project alive
BROOKLYN
Cost of memories
/news:Vineapple