Dear Mack’s (new restaurant on Seventh Avenue between Garfield and Carroll Streets in Park Slope):
To put it bluntly, so far I’m not hearing good things about your food.
I know you’ve only been open a couple of weeks and there’s always that rocky shakedown cruise period at any restaurant, when it first opens.
So this is just a friendly note to say: Slopers are excited about the new place and WANT to like the food, and want you to succeed. You’ve got a great location and a good idea: a casual, fun place to eat with friends and family any day of the week.
Slopers really want Mack’s to work out not just as a bar but as a place to grab a decent burger or fish, chicken, meat or veggie entree.
I was in there last Tuesday night for drinks with a friend. We sat at the bar and had a great time watching the Olympics (Ladie’s Short Program ice skating) at the bar. We didn’t eat a thing.
The bartender was super nice about turning on the volume so that we could hear the skater’s music. We drank raspberry martinis, which were fantastic and I cried my eyes out when Joannie Rochette skated, just two days after her mother died.
The bartender told us that the “executive chef” is excellent but that some of the kitchen staff had to be replaced. I am hoping that’s why some notable Slopers have not been impressed with the food. The bartender told us that the chef makes his own pasta and that his food is “very good.”
But so far I haven’t heard good things (and I hear stuff).
I admit that I haven’t eaten at your place yet. So I may be out of turn making these comments. It’s just that, I hope by the time I eat there the kinks in the kitchen have been worked out and things are on the up and up.
In other words, I hope the food is as least as good as the food at your other place, Johnny Mack’s, on 8th Avenue and 12th Street, a place we love to go to after a movie at the Pavilion.
It would be a shame not to have a much needed place to have a casual dinner and drinks on Seventh Avenue.
Good luck and best wishes:
OTBKB
I have no vested interest in this restaurant, however i am appalled at how you spew what is basically hearsay about the food quality, having admitted to not trying any food at this establishment. times are hard and this is a small business person trying to make a go of it. for better or worse, people seem to revere your blog. so have a llttle morality/ethics/professionalism and DO SOME REPORTING before you repeat anecdotals that could potentially wreck this person’s new venture. sheesh!
I also think Johnny Mack food is awful. I tried Mack’s on a whim and found it quite underwhelming. I’m surprised a restaurant owner can spend all the money it takes to put up a new restaurant in Prime Slope and then during their debut days, show they are only amateur hour quality. A shame. Snooky’s wasn’t fancy and wasn’t beautiful, but they had a similar menu to Mack’s and they got everything spot on, including the service.
It sadly looks that Mack’s is going to be another slope loser where you have to drink enough at the bar to be able to stomach any of the cuisine — or, at the very least, lose your memory as to whether it was really any good at all.
I don’t agree with your assessment of the food at Johnny Mack’s which I find pretty much inedible. The only reason I go there is for the nice, warm community feel — and it’s kid-friendly. So I don’t have high hopes for Mack’s (but I hope I’m wrong).
This blog owner plugged Elementi to no end, even though the food and people there were truly unremarkable, and I can say that from personal experience. She also thought she was “above” Snooky’s. Anyhow, I think Mack’s will be around for awhile. It needs time like most casual places to grow, see what works and what doesn’t.
I also agree with Emma. The above is gossip not journalism. Then again, this is just a run-of-the-mill blog.
This is ridiculous. You haven’t eaten there yet, but you’re slamming the restaurant? That’s sloppy work.