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Read the press release here.

Shuttered Sandwich Shop Needs Your Help to Reopen in Crown Heights

 Sydney Wayman, the owner of Syd's Serious Sandwich Shop, in front of his storefront on Nostrand Avenue, which he was forced to close this summer.
Sydney Wayman, the owner of Syd's Serious Sandwich Shop, in front of his storefront on Nostrand Avenue, which he was forced to close this summer.
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Sydney Wayman

CROWN HEIGHTS — He’s raising some cheese to bring back the cheesesteaks.

For four years, Sydney Wayman brought his big, Philadelphia-style hoagies to Nostrand Avenue with Syd’s Serious Sandwich Shop, which he opened in 2010.

The shop became known as a top spot for cheesesteak outside of the City of Brotherly Love and, most recently, was deemed one of the top 10 restaurants in Crown Heights by the Village Voice.

But Wayman was forced to close the shop this summer after a planned much-needed renovation fell through at the last minute when the investor backed out, he said on a crowd-sourced fundraising website set up for the shop.

“We were caught with no options,” Wayman, who lives in Prospect-Lefferts Gardens, said in a video message on the site. “I was pretty devastated.”

He says he now needs $75,000 to find a new location, hopefully on or near Nostrand Avenue, sign a lease and buy new equipment to bring the sandwiches back to the neighborhood in a bid to maintain the relationships he’s built with both customers and neighbors, he said.

“I think there’s definitely a sense of community that people who move to Crown Heights sense and that’s why they move there. And with all of the development going on, that sense of community kind of feels threatened,” he said. “So, I’m trying to appeal to that sense of neighborliness, that community feel … that it’s nice to have small, locally owned businesses.”

In addition to buying meat slicers, a griddle, an air conditioner and other necessities, Wayman hopes to do some “cosmetic work” on any space he would rent, to keep up with the changing neighborhood.

“Crown Heights is gentrifying and attracting residents who are looking for that ‘new Brooklyn aesthetic’ in the businesses they patronize. Atmosphere and ambiance are important elements of the retail experience,” he said in his fundraising message.

The fundraising campaign for Syd’s Serious Sandwich Shop will continue through the end of November. Contributions start at $10, going up to several thousand dollars, which will give a donor the right to name a sandwich for a year and an assortment of free food giveaways.

Wayman said he is not doing as well so far as he’d hoped, and will “cut back” on his plan if he can’t raise the full $75,000, but he is still encouraged by how much support he’s received from the community.

“I was really taken aback by the number of the people who came up and said, ‘Oh wow, man, I really miss your sandwiches,’ you know, ‘what happened,’ ‘come on we need you here,'" he said. "That kind of support has been there."

For more information about the fundraising effort, visit the campaign website.