Today’s Post features the story of a harrowing standoff currently unfolding inside a landmarked brownstone on Brooklyn’s Fulton Street: The owners of Ladies and Gents, a “schlock jewelry store” located in the space that once housed apparently non-schlocky restaurant Gage & Tollner, have disrespected their 119-year-old building by hanging hot-pink partitions mere inches from its interior walls. The Landmark Preservation Commission has threatened to fine the shop for up to $5,000 over the temporary paneling, but that isn’t likely to do much to ease the pain of those already traumatized by the sight of the offending fabric, not to mention the “huge pink flag with the Ladies and Gent’s emblem [hanging] above the building’s original revolving front door” and signs announcing the presence of $20 handbags.
“I was very upset that a lot of the history was gone — it’s so sad,” said Joseph Chirico, who used to run Gage & Tollner, which closed in 2004. And then there’s Park Slope resident Lauren Meehan, whose objections are more future-oriented:
So, hot pink: Fun, or pernicious? That really depends on how far one is willing to walk for a reasonably priced cup of coffee.
Famed Brooklyn restaurant turned into schlock jewelry store [NYP]
