...on paper thanks to the folks at RED HOOK STAR-REVUE Special Edition FREE A Look Into The Past Of Some Montague Street Restaurants by Evan Bindelglass Let's take a trip back in time down Montague Street. What was there before today’s eateries? What do the owners want you to order if you stop by? Let’s find out! Teresa’s Restaurant (80 Montague Street) According to owner Teresa Brzozowska (yes, there is a Teresa) it was a dry cleaners before she opened the restaurant in 1989. Brzozowska is originally from Gdansk, Poland. She came to America in 1980 and settled in Williamsburg, where she has lived ever since. She had what she described as “life experience in the food business.” She worked in delis (German, Jewish, Polish, French, and American) and, in 1985, she opened Teresa’s in the East Village (on 1st Avenue between 6th and 7th). She had some customers and friends who lived in Brooklyn Heights and she found Montague to be a “nice street” and opened the second location. The original bit the dust in 2007, but the second incarnation is still going strong 25 years on. Brzozowska loves the support of the public and said being a “neighborhood place makes business very stable.” What The Owner Says To Order: Appetizer: Chicken soup Entrée: Cheese and blueberry blintzes Custom House (139 Montague Street) Custom House is a relative newcomer. According to city records, the location housed a two-car garage as of 1922. However, people have been eating at this spot for decades. It was a Hebrew National deli, visual evidence of which was left behind. La Traviata was around for about 30 years. Custom House owner Red Davis is a native of Dublin, Ireland, where he was a busboy at O’Dwyer’s pub. He came to the U.S.A. in 1992 in search of a “change of scenery” and eventually landed at Clancy’s on 2nd Avenue and 52nd Street in Manhattan, which he ran until 2010. Then he set his sights on Bk and opened Custom House on June 9, 2012. When you walk in, don’t forget to look up. The atrium is two-stories-tall and the ceilings beyond are also high. What The Owner Says You Should Order: Drink: Guinness Entrée: Shepherd’s Pie (made with lamb) On the web: brooklynbugle.com | brooklynheightsblog.com | cobblehillblog.com Montague Strret (continued) Heights Café (84 Montague Street) Buildings Department records from 1930 list the first floor as simply “stores.” As of 1940, the second floor was being used as a school. A 1976 document called the “Montague Street Revitalization” listed a York School, as well as an antique store. As of 1967m it was the Plymouth Pharmacy. For the 27 years prior to 1995, the first floor was the Promenade Restaurant, a staple of the area. It even had its own postcards! Eventually it closed and the space became available. That caught the eye of Greg Markman, who opened Caffe Buon Gusto up the block in 1992 (he sold his interest in it over a decade ago). Markman teamed up with Joe Secondino, who was an accountant at ABC and with whom he’s been friends with since they were seventh graders at JHS 281 (now IS 281) in Bensonhurst, and, on May 15, 1995, opened Heights Café on the corner of Montague and Hicks. What The Owners Say To Order: The Southern Boneless Fried Chicken with mashed potatoes, gravy, and coleslaw. Do You Live in the Fort Stirling Neighborhood? by Claude Scales Reader Ion Freeman has Willowtown envy: he wants to live in a part of Brooklyn Heights that has a name, other than “Brooklyn Heights” or even “the North Heights.” We’re not sure exactly where he lives; it’s “in some unnamed region of the [N]orth [H] eights between the fruit streets and Montague.” The name he proposes is “Fort Stirling Neighborhood.” If you’ve ever entered or exited the promenade at Clark Street, or walked along Columbia Heights where Clark Street ends, you’ve passed the site of Fort Stirling .. It’s now marked by a sign that says “Fort Stirling Sitting Area,” but the only opportunities for sitting when I visited the site yesterday were if one were to borrow the seat of one of the bikes parked there. There was, back in the eighteenth century, a fort there. A sign which has been in place for some years, tells its history. Supposing there were a Fort Stirling Neighborhood, what should be its boundaries? Extending it as far south as Montague seems a stretch, as does, as Mr. Freeman suggests, having it go eastward to Cadman Plaza. I would put its southern boundary at the north side of Pierrepont Place, and its eastern at the western side of Henry. “The fruit streets,” as Mr. Freeman acknowledges, seems to be a neighborhood sub-designation of its own. Since Pineapple Street is the next street north of Fort Stirling, I would have the Fort Stirling Neighborhood include Columbia Heights, Willow, Hicks, and the west side of Henry as far north as Pineapple, but would not include the south side of Pineapple. How’s that? Read the full story at BrooklynHeightsBlog.com Now we've seen everything. Word comes to us via Twitter of a Justin Bieber piñata on sale at the Montague Street Key Food. This, friends, is something the whole world wants and needs- the chance to smack ol’ Biebs around. His seemingly insane behavior over the last year is enough to fuel your aggression and bloodlust while hacking at Canada’s most hated export. Justin Bieber Piñata On Sale at Montague Street Key Food