Someone Up There Likes Us

If you recall from a previous post, we came very close to signing a lease at 162 5th Avenue. We negotiated a lease which cost us a pretty penny in attorney fees only for both the landlord and us to just drop the ball and not follow through on what we had begun due to some issues that we could not resolve. Fortunately a lease wasn't signed and eventually the space went to the folks who own Mary's Fish Camp, a very successful seafood place, located in the west village in Manhattan. Well, grand opening night was last week.

I had decided to take a stroll along 5th Avenue that evening unaware that it was their grand opening and came across fire trucks blocking the avenue directly in front of Mary's Fish Camp. From what I understand, a space heater upstairs started a fire which spread to the restaurant and the rest of the building displacing the tenants and shutting down the restaurant. Although this is tragic, we are so fortunate that we didn't end up renting that space. Ever since we made the decision in early 2004 to open our own restaurant, it has seemed from day 1 we have been extremely lucky on so many different levels.

When the reality hits me that I'm really opening up a restaurant along Park Slope's 5th Avenue in such a great location and incredible space, and I find myself momentarily paralyzed by the magnitude of it, I need only look upon the incredible successes and miracles that have gotten us to this point so far. I'm convinced that there is a force that really wants us to open this restaurant. How else to explain all the amazing "coincidences" that have happened since day one? There have been too many to simply discard as merely happenstance.