Schnäck, the eatery on Union Street in Red Hook, is going belly up. The end has been in the works for a long time, we guess, but it still makes us sad to lose one of our favorite stops for veggie burgers and a basket of artery clogging fries and onion rings. Not to mention the mac and cheese. “Co-owner Harry Hawk tells us that the end is nigh, but he will not give an expiration date. We hear through the grapevine that the proximate cause of the closing is a lost lease, but having seen ever-thinning crowds over the past year, we are more likely to believe that the poor location and awful service softened the victim up for the final blow. Schnäck is a resilient entity, however, and it would not surprise us to see it pop up somewhere else…”–Grub Street via Brownstoner
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7 responses so far ↓
1 Anonymous // Feb 7, 2008 at 6:00 am
It was a stupid place. I’m glad it’s going but in all respect, it might work out better next to a school. Perhaps that idiot who is trying to open a raw BAR on Hoyt Street 1/4 of a block from PS 32 would like to change venues.
2 Anonymous // Feb 7, 2008 at 7:54 am
They have the best mini-burgers, fries and a beer in Bklyn! However, they stopped selling beer and didn’t take care of the place …
3 Anonymous // Feb 7, 2008 at 8:51 am
They could have overcome the location. I loved this place 3 years ago and it was often crowded … then it just got too grungy, and lost its charm.
4 Anonymous // Feb 7, 2008 at 11:23 am
10:51 is exactly right. It used to a be a great little spot to get a burger a few years back. I went a few months ago and it was awful -empty, dirty and no more beer. Do they still have the outpost at BK Lyceum on 4th? Haven’t been in there in a minute.
5 Anonymous // Feb 7, 2008 at 12:13 pm
lost their liqueur license…its pretty simple!
6 Anonymous // Feb 7, 2008 at 1:54 pm
I have to say – used to love this place – I think they raised their prices and then changed the recipe for the french fries – then they lost their liquor license, all the while the service was getting worse and worse. I don’t know if Harry stopped hanging at his place, but it happened more than once when we would order something and it just wouldn’t come….
7 Anonymous // Feb 7, 2008 at 10:26 pm
Hated the place. The food sucked, the attitudes were worse and the decor was like something out of The Terminator.
Before it was Schnack, it was a small grocery store run by a nice couple. Manny worked at fish markets when he was younger and every morning he drove to Fulton and picked the freshest best local fish that was available and arranged it lovingly in a small ice counter just inside the door.
He’d sell it at a fair price to folks in the nabe, cleaned and filleted for free. I’d rather have Manny back than 100 Schnack type sh** shacks.