Brooklyn Apartment's Pulley-Delivered Steaks Go Viral, Then Get Shut Down After Just Four Days
In Bushwick, Brooklyn, in New York City, New York (Kings County), 24-year-old chef Chianli Hang and five friends opened a storefront-free eatery called Some Guy's House in late October, lowering boxed steak dinners by homemade pulley from a second-floor apartment window on McKibbin Street to customers on the sidewalk. According to the New York Post on November 9, after the Thursday-and-Friday-evening operation went viral on social media, it was forced to shut down following six 311 complaints and two written warnings from the city Health Department, having operated for just four days in total.
Here is how it worked: customers reserved a spot online, paid $25 at the window for a sticker that came with a free steak dinner of steak, potato and spinach, and watched the boxed meal ride the pulley down from the second floor. According to Dexerto's November 2 report, the crew capped service at 72 plates on Thursdays and 62 on Fridays, between 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. The Post reported that several members had kitchen experience and started the venture to test recipes and make fun social-media content: they sold just three meals on the first night and 11 the next, and then it blew up online, with influencers coming to review it and Michelin-rated chefs offering collaborations. Hang said the friends had sat on the couch wondering whether anyone would actually watch a video, travel to the window and pay for a steak out of a window, and the answer was yes.
Word of the shutdown came from their landlord. Hang said the landlord told them a single person had lodged numerous complaints with the city, and that the landlord had thought they might be running a full-scale commercial kitchen out of the apartment. City records cited by the Post show six complaints were filed to 311 over the pop-up, two of which resulted in the Health Department sending written warnings to the landlord over potential violations. The complaints are still under investigation, and it is not clear whether the crew received any violations.
The venture never made money. Hang said food and equipment costs left the group several hundred dollars out of pocket. They had planned to run just one more week, had prepped for 100 pre-orders, and were considering bringing in a DJ for a big send-off. “I guess we have like at least one, like, mega-hater out there,” Hang said, adding that they had been really excited for the send-off before they were shut down.
Source: New York Post
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 布鲁克林McKibbin Street红砖建筑资料图（Kidfly182摄，CC BY-SA 4.0，经Wikimedia Commons；为事发同一街道的建筑，非涉事公寓）
