Building On Bond

www.buildingonbond.com
@BuildingonBond
Address: 112 Bond St. Brooklyn, NY
Miles from La Colombe Torrefaction: 90.5
Best Blend: Haiti Blue Forest
Paired Best With: Chocolate chip pancakes

This is the second part of our feature on the Building on Bond, a cafe/restaurant/bar in Brooklyn, NY (click here to read part one, “About the Space, Interview with Phil Morgan”).

Building on Bond, is the “epitome of a neighborhood restaurant.” according to Erica Kane. Erica started working around a year and a half ago with Jared Lewis, a co-owner of Building on Bond. She started with consulting with Hecho Inc. clients on the operational end of restaurant businesses. Erica later signed on full-time with Milk Restaurant Partners, a subsidiary of Hecho Inc, to oversee Building on Bond as well as new projects like their new restaurant, Palmer’s*.

“Coffee is very much a part of the culture here and a big part of what we do. The core of our business is coffee.” says Erica.

“[La Colombe] coffee is served all-day, everyday. You see every table right now (4pm on a weekday) has coffee. It’s really interesting to see this place progress during the day” Erica continues. “In the morning it feels very much like a coffee-shop. You come in, get your coffee, your pastries. After lunch, as dessert you’ll have coffee and of course after dinner.”

They have regulars who come in just for the coffee and the baristas know what everybody drinks in the mornings. La Colombe worked with Building on Bond to create a custom blend, which they brew hot and use for their cold brew coffee.

“We have people come in multiple times a day. People treat this place like their home. Some people eat all three meals here. Some of our servers have ended up baby-sitting our regulars’ kids. It’s an extension of people’s home lives.”

Building on Bond is also world famous for their cocktails. Their infused vodkas are one of the bar specialties, predominantly used for their Bloody Marys. Stand outs in the selection are the horseradish infused vodka and also a jalapeno-infused tequila. A “bloody menu” is in the works, which they will launch very soon for their brunch.

Their made-from-scratch Pimm’s are also very popular. Another signature summer cocktail is called “Brooklyn Fields” in which they use a local Brooklyn gin, meddled with strawberries and basil. “Bob’s Grog” was a coffee cocktail that a former bartender at Building on Bond, who is now on “some adventure in South America-somewhere”, created for their winter menu last year. It had dark rum, brandy, lump sugar and coffee with a twist.

Building on Bond hosts many events for their customers. A monthly newsletter and a poster that they hang in the cafe announce these special events. In April of this year they held a screening of the Paris Roubaix, a classic one-day professional bicycle road race in northern France. “[The race] was at 6 in the morning or something and we open at 7am. So minutes after we opened, this whole room was flanked with cyclists in their gear with coffee in their hands.And now the soccer games are on. If it’s on TV and it has anything to do with soccer or cycling it’ll be on.”

*Erica on their new diner in downtown Brooklyn, Palmer’s:

“Palmer’s is a retro diner with art deco sidecar influences. The menu is elevating some classic recipes that you would find in a diner. The gorgeous espresso machine and the barista is one of the first things you see. We are also working with The Teaologist (http://teaologist.wordpress.com/). She has created a bunch of custom herbal tea blends for us. It’s really going to hark back to soda fountains and how they started out. Those syrups were made from herbs and different natural blends so we’re using a lot of those blends as teas but also as syrups for sodas. We’re going to have all-natural Dr. Pepper, ginger ale and vanilla cream soda. We also have this wonderful pie-maker, Rachel, who’s the owner of Rachel’s Pies. She currently sells at Smorgarborg in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. We are featuring her pies exclusively as our dessert menu. They are these gorgeous little 4 inch pies. At the end of the day we’re working with a lot of artisans and putting together something really fun. The guys who own Building on Bond own this one, too and Hecho is designing it so it looks great.”

Check out Palmer’s here: palmersnyc.com

1 comment

  1. Best name ever? for anyone who grew up watching Susan Lucci on All My Children. Love it when you teach us how to correctly pair beverages with foods – very Top Chef!

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