‘SNice is a feel good kind of place. I can feel that already.
It’s the kind of place where, in simple ways, you feel cared for. Well-prepared sandwiches, interesting ingredients combined in an interesting way and a helpful staff conspire to create a comfortable atmosphere.
Walking in I go straight for the wood counter where two young staff members smile as I come toward them. I order quickly, as I know exactly what I want (I’ve been studying the menu).
"Tempeh Reuben, please."
"Would you like that with Swiss cheese or soy?"
"Swiss cheese," I say with certainty. This place is very vegan, I think.
While I wait I survey the menu o
f vegan sandwiches, the graffiti-like paintings, the copper light fixtures, the familiar metal Emco chairs like the one’s we have in our dining room.
The decor welcomes as it brings comfort. It is a place you might want to stop into a few times a day. In the morning for, dare I say it, steel-cut oatmeal and coffee. A lunch of some soup, a salad. A tasty sandwich.
And Park Slope seems to be the perfect destination for this sandwich shop that started life in the West Village. When I ask owner Mike Walters, how he decided on Park Slope he said. "I headed east from Greenwich Village and hit it right on the dot."
Before signing the lease on the Fifth Avenue space vacated by Zelda Victoria, Mike considered the space vacated by Seventh Avenue Books. Last summer owner Tom Simon emailed me that a vegan restaurant was interested in that space. Then the deal fell through.
But Third Street and Fifth, just across the street from the Stone Park Cafe and a couple of blocks from Blue Ribbon, seems a perfect spot for ‘SNice.
Comparing the location to the West Village, Walter says, "The neighborhoods are very similar," he says. "But to open another place in Manhattan I’d have to charge $20 a sandwich to pay the rent."
Looking very relaxed in jeans, a hoodie and a baseball cap, Mike sits back in his chair and waxes poetic about Park Slope. "This is a great neighborhood to do this sort of thing in. People have good taste; they’re well educated on what they eat. They think about what they put in their bodies."
Walter’s wife, Deborah Pirraglia, is the co-owner and pastry chef. She discovered that she loved to bake making brownies and cookies for their kids. Then she went to the International Culinary Academy. Together they decided to open the kind of place where they wanted to eat.
"We were tired of the one vegetarian option at the bottom of the menu."
Mike is an experienced New York barman and restaurateur. Prior to opening ‘SNice, he owned the New Music Cafe on Canal Street, where, coincidentally, the Bromberg Brothers, owners of the Blue Ribbon restaurant empire, played in the band, Heavy Flow.
Later Mike opened Elbow Room, another music club on Bleecker. When he wanted to get out of the bar business he decided to open ‘SNice three years ago and the rest, as they say, is history.
The shop was designed by LMD Design, who also designed Rachel’s Taqueria on Fifth Avenue. While I’m there, Marty, the owner of the Taqueria, stops into ‘SNice to admire the new restaurant.
"Wow," he says walking into the kitchen. "This is incredible."
Mike has known designer Luis Delgado of LMD since 1994 and appreciates how he "brings personality to a space; he makes a space come alive." Everywhere I look, there’s a combination of recycled and found materials, including a stone floor from a stone Yard near the Gowanus.
But it’s the feel good atmosphere that seems to be Mike’s M.O.
"In the Village, we have so many good regulars, so many friends. Some people come into the Village shop three times a day," he tells me surveying the crowd in his new space.
"You don’t open a restaurant to make money. I love doing it," Mike tells me. "And doing it with my wife is great. She’s my best buddy and my partner."
As we speak, I finish up my tasty Tempeh Reuben. You hardly miss the corned beef with this combination of tempeh, sauerkraut, Thousand Island dressing on delicious health nut bread. It comes with a generous mescalin salad.
"There are so many intangibles that go into a good restaurantâa million details. You’re selling this community. Music, food, atmosphere, the environment," Mike tells me as a sound system plays a melange of Ani DiFranco, Joni Mitchell and Tom Waits.
"A place where you can leave your keys, like a post office. I want to create a space that people want to be part of. "
