(Photo: Daniel Maurer)
One of Bushwick’s most alluring nooks is about to spring back to life, as Forrest Point readies for its opening next month.
Darin Rubell of East Village spots Boulton & Watt and Ella has long admired the triangular plot across the street from his other place, 983 — Bushwick’s Living Room. “It’s the most unique, special space in Bushwick, in my eyes,” he told us. The onetime Flushing Farms property has sat conspicuously fallow for the past five years but still boasts grape vines, rose bushes, and apricot trees from when an artist tended a garden there.
Now Rubell and his partners in 983, David Rotter and Mark Trzupek, are poised to revive it as what Rubell says will be “a neighborhood bar and restaurant in this little oasis in Bushwick.”
On the bar side, Dustin Olson of Ward III has created a cocktail list that includes milk punches served by the glass or in a fishbowl. And on the restaurant tip, Rotter has contributed an “eclectic” 12-item menu that’s dotted with Mediterranean and other international touches. (See both below.)
Obviously, the place’s allure is its 70 outdoor seats, but the airy interior (which holds another 60 seats) is appealing as well: hanging lightbulbs are dramatically enclosed in gigantic birdcages and the walls are splashed with art by Ben Angotti, who also painted the building’s exterior.
All of that — plus a square bar that lends itself to mingling — should make for vibey evenings and late nights. For daybirds (and for the hungover who don’t mind returning to the scene of the crime), there’ll be lunch as well as a takeout window serving coffee, breakfast and pastries starting around 8 a.m.
With his staff in training and the opening still a couple of weeks away, it’s clear Rubell is eager to pull off what he knows is a highly anticipated opening. “It’s really funny that every person that comes up is like, ‘Oh, you’re finally here!’ It’s just a really special space in Bushwick.”
Forrest Point, 970 Flushing Ave., nr Central Ave.