March 8, 2017 By Christian Murray
A new coffee/sandwich shop is opening on Queens Boulevard in the location that once housed the Meat Boutique.
The shop, located at 43-15 Queens Blvd., is owned by Paul Longo, who co-owns Ida’s Nearabout, a bar that opened next door in August.
Longo anticipates the shop, to be called Brookside Market, will open on March 24, with a grand opening planned for April 1. He said the sign on the front will be painted by the weekend.
The location has been empty since November 2013, when the Meat Boutique closed after about being in operation just seven months.
Longo said the venue will primarily be a coffee shop and that he is working with Stumptown Coffee Roasters, a Portland-based company
He said Brookside will offer grab-and-go food such as sandwiches and salads, geared for people going to work. He said that that the pre-packaged items will be made fresh each morning and that customers will also have the option to get items made to order. He anticipates the shop opening at about 6:30am or 7:00 am each day.
Longo said that he will also be offering pastries, cookies, fresh juices and smoothies. Additionally, there will be a grocery component.
The shop has a limited number of seats so the focus will be on the grab-and-go concept. However, there is a rear yard that will open in spring.
Longo, who lives in Greenpoint, said that he got the idea to open the shop while constructing Ida’s Nearabout last summer.
“I’m a coffee shop guy and I realized that one didn’t exist in the general vicinity of Ida’s,” he said. “I like to go to the neighborhood coffee shop where they have a barista—a cool bro–who likes to talk about everything going on; a place where the quality is really good, prepared by people who know what they are doing.”
Longo said he named the shop after his family’s farm stand in Woodbridge, Connecticut. The stand, called Brookside Market, has been in his family since the 1940s.
He said that he will be putting photos of the family farm stand on the walls, which will give the store an outdoors theme. He said the logo is a picture of a Brook trout, since he is an avid fly fisherman.
“I come from a farm boy, country background so I’m excited to bring some of that here.”
Paul Longo
