Park Slope restaurants must innovate to survive

As Park Slope, Brooklyn, has become a dining haven, many eateries have also shuttered, due to higher rents and more competition, the Wall Street Journal reported.

But even as older restaurants, like the recently shuttered Aunt Suzie’s, leave, new restaurants snap up their space, the Journal said. Bareburger, Kos Kaffe Roasting House and Dizzy’s Diner have opened recently on Park Slope’s more popular strips, such as Seventh and Fifth avenues, according to the paper.

Irene LoRe, the executive director of the Park Slope Fifth Avenue Business Improvement District, said Fifth Avenue has about 150 bars and restaurants, and rents can be as high as $60 a square foot.

“You have to continually re-engineer yourself,” says Mitch Szpicek, vice president of the Park Slope Chamber of Commerce and owner of Little Things Toy Store on Seventh Avenue. “It’s about being able to stay in touch with the times, and knowing where you are and what you can do. Are you a destination restaurant, are you a cutting-edge location, what is it that you offer?” [WSJ]