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Three Letters Restaurant Shutters After 2 Years in Clinton Hill

By Janet Upadhye | March 3, 2015 2:23pm
"It just didn't stick," owner Pip Freeman said about the French cuisine restaurant.
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Facebook/Three Letters

CLINTON HILL — Biggie's corner is back on the market.

Three Letters, a French restaurant that opened two years ago on Fulton Street and St. James Place — where there is a push to name the corner "Christopher Wallace Way" after the late rapper — recently shuttered because "It just didn't stick," according to the owner.

Pip Freeman, who owned Three Letters and was also head chef, is looking for someone to take over the lease to 930 Fulton St. after deciding that the restaurant was doing well "but not well enough."

"We were working so hard and just treading water," he said. "Ultimately there were not enough people in the neighborhood that were into it to make it work."

Three Letters specialized in French and American dishes made with classic technique and focused on seasonal cooking and sourcing locally.

Some popular dishes included Moules Poutine, consisting of mussels, fries and mushroom white wine gravy, fried pickles and duck liver mousse.

Freeman said that people who liked the restaurant came often but others never came at all.

"It was super neighborhoody; we recognized almost every face in the room," he said. "That is a double edge sword though — If there are not enough people in the neighborhood that are into it then it won't work."

Freeman guessed the neighborhood might not be ready for his type of cuisine and something like a "noodle shop, pizza place or burger joint" might do better.

"I think the neighborhood needs something much more casual," he said.