One Brooklyn neighborhood’s trash is another’s treasure. The New York Daily News reported that a Coney Island landlord has actually reached out to restaurant chain Hooters in hopes of bringing it to the boardwalk just three months after a Park Slope landlord rejected the wing joint’s expression of interest in renting his property. What’s more: Whereas rumors of the chain’s interest sparked outrage in Park Slope, Coney Island officials are also working to lure the restaurant.
Natan Bukai, who owns the empty lot at 1223 Surf Avenue where he plans to build a restaurant, has been sending renderings to Hooters all summer in hopes that they’ll sign on for the space. Luna Park operator Zamperla USA also said it would welcome the restaurant.
“You have a Mermaid Parade with half naked people,” Joe Vitacco, Bukai’s broker, told the Daily News. “You have a beach with bikinis. This is not a place where kids become amoral if they see a piece of leg.”
A Hooters official said the restaurant would look into a Brooklyn location, but wouldn’t be able to make a decision until 2013. He denied the chain’s management ever considered Park Slope, despite reports they were “desperate,” or any location in Brooklyn.
Hooters recently signed on for a location near Penn Station. [NYDN] — Adam Fusfeld