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The DNAinfo archives brought to you by WNYC.
Read the press release here.

Vietnamese Gastropub and Pure Barre Fitness Studio Open in Park Slope

By Leslie Albrecht | February 10, 2015 8:48am
 Pure Barre workout studio opened on Feb. 7 and Bricolage, a Vietnamese restaurant, opens Feb. 9.
Openings and Closings: Pure Barre, Bricolage Vietnamese Restaurant
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PARK SLOPE — Former cooks from one of San Francisco's most acclaimed restaurants are bringing their talent for Vietnamese food to Park Slope starting Tuesday.

Bricolage, a Vietnamese gastropub, will open for dinner at 6 p.m. at 162 Fifth Ave., co-owner Miro Gal told DNAinfo New York. He's partnered with married chefs Lien and Edward Lin, as well as lawyer Jed Freedlander, to open the 90-seat restaurant.

The Lins both worked for several years at Slanted Door, one of the most successful and lauded restaurants in San Francisco. The two rose through the ranks and eventually helped open spinoff locations for Slanted Door, Gal said.

The culinary duo teamed up with Gal, who managed restaurants in London decades ago, after he and Freedlander jumped into the restaurant business by posting a Craigslist ad looking for a chef to run a contemporary Vietnamese gastropub.

Gal and Freedlander got more than 100 applicants but chose the Lins because of their training in high-end Vietnamese, French and American cooking. Edward Lin worked at San Francisco's well-regarded Fifth Floor and the Michelin-starred Campton Place.

“They’re very meticulous, both of them,” Gal said of the Lins. ”They only want to work with the highest grade ingredients. We did a lot of tasting and a lot of tweaking.”

The menu was still being finalized on Monday, but it will likely include pork chops from California's Niman Ranch, seared dayboat scallops, and Vietnamese crepes called banh xeo made with pork, shrimp, onions and bean sprouts. Bricolage will serve only dinner at first but will eventually include a lunch service with pho and banh mi, Gal said.

Gal, a visual artist and professor at the School of Visual Arts, designed the space using metal pieces he found at scrap yards. The restaurant's cocktails are being crafted by Adam Wilson, a former bartender from San Francisco's Beretta who has also worked for Mario Batali's restaurant group.

Bricolage means "assemblage" in French, and Gal said the restaurant will meld the backgrounds of its partners.

“It’s an assemblage of people, materials and cuisines, but not in the fusion sense,” Gal said. “It’s traditional and modern Vietnamese at its core, with influences from French, American and Chinese cuisines. In other words it’s going to be a contemporary interpretation of Vietnamese food.”

Other recent comings and goings in the local restaurant and retail scene include:

► Ballet-based fitness studio Pure Barre opened its first Park Slope location on Feb. 7 at 178 Fifth Ave. between Sackett and Degraw streets. Classes are $33 for 55 minutes, or customers can sign up for a grand opening package of six weeks of unlimited classes for $150, owner Tiffany Currid said.

Currid said Pure Barre's workouts are addictive because they give quick results. “It targets all of the trouble areas specific to women: arms, abs, seat and thighs,” said Currid, who also owns Pure Barre Cobble Hill. “You fatigue the muscle and it creates long lean dancer muscles without adding bulk.”

Art & Artish, a gift shop selling handmade jewelry, ceramics, paintings, prints and more opened recently at 272 Fifth Ave. between Garfield Place and First Street, Park Slope Stoop reported.

Miti Miti Taperia, a tapas bar whose owners also own Bogota Latin Bistro, opened recently at 138 Fifth Ave. between Douglass and Baltic streets.

► Buttermilk Bakeshop, which opened in early 2015 at Seventh Avenue and Ninth Street, will expand with a second location in the former Trois Pommes space at 260 Fifth Ave., Here's Park Slope reported. The new, larger second location should be open by early March, according to Here's Park Slope.

► Lolli, the children's clothing store at 169 Seventh Ave. between Garfield Place and First Street, will close soon after 10 years in business. The store announced on its Facebook page that its likely last day of business is Feb. 15, or "earlier if there is nothing left to sell."