PARK SLOPE — A pastry chef who competed on TV's "Chopped" and "Sweet Genius" and once worked at Le Cirque is bringing her talents to Park Slope.
Katie Rosenhouse will open Buttermilk Bakeshop at 339 Seventh Ave. near Ninth Street in February.
The shop will serve new interpretations of time-honored recipes, including some of Rosenhouse's own favorite baked treats from childhood, she said. The menu will include a cranberry carrot cake with cream cheese frosting inspired by her mom's recipe, and apricot bars similar to the ones her grandmother made.
There will also be turtle bars and something she's calling a purple velvet whoopee pie.
"Everything is kind of a twist on a classic," Rosenhouse said. "It's interesting and fun and outside the box, but still something you’d recognize. It's my personal collection of favorite desserts."
Rosenhouse wants the bakery to be a family-friendly spot where parents can buy birthday cakes and kids can grab afterschool treats.
The bakery, first reported by Here's Park Slope, will take over a small space last occupied by a Tasti D-Lite frozen yogurt counter. Because the shop is so tiny, it will have an open kitchen and customers will be able to watch the baking from start to finish, Rosenhouse said.
A runner-up on the Food Network's "Chopped," Rosenhouse fared better on the baking competition show "Sweet Genius," winning a $10,000 prize. She trained at the French Culinary Institute, was head pastry chef for the David Burke Restaurant Group and was a pastry instructor at Sur La Table.
She said she's hoping to bring her education background to the store, perhaps with demonstrations on how to make macarons.
Other recent comings and goings on the neighborhood restaurant and retail scene include the following:
The Park Slope branch of Grand Central Oyster Bar will open at noon on Wednesday, a spokesman said in a statement. The seafood restaurant on Fifth Avenue and Carroll Street will start off serving "light fare" such as oysters on the half shell, shrimp cocktail and oyster po'boy sandwiches. The menu will expand later to include Oyster Bar classics such as pan roasts and stews.
Park Optics, an eyeglasses store, is moving into the long-vacant space at 337 Fifth Ave. and Fourth Street, Park Slope Stoop reported. The space was previously occupied by the Italian restaurant Primo Atto.
Hummus Garden, an all-vegetarian Mediterranean restaurant, recently opened at 3201 Fort Hamilton Parkway between Second and Third streets in Windsor Terrace. The menu includes several varieties of hummus, as well as falafel, baba ghanoush, sandwiches and breakfast dishes.
Flirt, the clothing boutique on Fifth Avenue and Park Place, opened a South Slope outpost recently at 586 Fifth Ave. between 16th Street and Prospect Avenue.
After only a few months in business, the Oyster Shack restaurant on 16th Street and Prospect Park West in Windsor Terrace closed. It will be replaced by a restaurant called Brooklyn Proper, South Slope News reported.
