The NEW restaurant in Ditmas Park:  PURPLE YAM

Opening July 2009

1314 Cortelyou Rd., Brooklyn, NY 11226, Q line, Cortelyou Rd stop

We would like to thank all the people who have been emailing and calling us

inquiring about the opening of Purple Yam.

Unfortunately, we are still undergoing construction and still

have to undergo inspections and much bureaucratic red tape.

We will keep all of you uptodate on the progress of Purple Yam.

We are grateful to our wonderful architect,

Claire Weisz   (WXY Architecture & Urban Design )

and her hardworking colleagues: Rob Berry and Jacob Gerson.

This is what the exterior of the future Purple Yam looked like.

it used to be a 99-cent store.  The sign came down tomake room

for a new facade will be built with wood and glass

The beginnings of a new facade.

When the sign came down, it revealed an I-beam that supports the floor above.

Peeking down below is Romy's wine shelving which we moved from 45 Mercer over to Cortelyou Rd.

Bringing out the two-door refrigerator in our prep kitchen was the toughest job in the entire move.

But our persistent and creative movers

(Manny's Trucking referred to us by Lils Villanueva of Tama Gallery)

did it and we were free at last!

 

I took this photo several months ago. The studs are for the bathroom.  Behind that will be the kitchen.

That light area at the back is the doorway to the garden.

Perry, our resident artist here at Cendrillon will make new lights for the booths

which will lead to the garden where he will make a wall of bamboo lights.

A new window to the right of the doorway will be built to bring in more light into the dining area.

Our construction crew was able to chip out the  old plaster on the right wall to

bring out an elegant brick wall -- a reminder of SoHo Cendrillon.

Booths and banquettes taking shape.  Deja vu for SoHo? The brick wall on the right

is actually a whiter shade of brick (as opposed to the red in SoHo) which works well with our color scheme.

The concept of the new Purple Yam is to re-create a kitchen-centered home

harking back to the Asian values of hospitality and generosity.

Many of you have asked us what the new menu would look like.

To tell you the truth, we still do not know.

We will keep old favorites like lechon kawali, adobo, kare kare.

But Romy and I are at the stage of our lives where we will just do the food

that we love, that we find delicious and comforting.

It will be eclectic and span the experiences of our lives.

One thing I am sure of, we will serve new and exciting dishes that

you will never get anywhere.

This is an overhead of the model that our architects have made to give us a visual feel

of the new Purple Yam. The two booths towards the end of the space near the garden

will be exactly like our Cendrillon booths. We are bringing many things from Cendrillon

to create a feeling continuity from the old place. Our kitchen and wait staff will come with us, too.

The backyard is about 350 square feet which can probably seat about 16 people.

It will be fully cemented to come up to the level of the restaurant and will connect with

the last two booths inside (refer to the model above).

We will put benches around the perimeter of the yard and Perry will build bamboo lights

on that link fence.  Our friend, Julie Weiss, a very talented gardener, will help with plant life.

We are very excited to join the Ditmas Park community.

Recently, a tiny Moroccan restaurant, Mimi's Hummus, just opened on Cortelyou Rd.

The food is truly wonderful, delicious and homey.

We highly recommend our customers to try out the restaurants on Cortelyou Rd:

The Farm on Adderley and their bar, Sycamore, Picket Fence, etc.

There is a nice Mexican place called Cinco de Mayo

and even a little Tibetan place near the

subway station.

(more to come....)