Bogota Latin Bistro: Park Slope - Brooklyn

At the recent Fifth Avenue Festival held in Park Slope which we participated in, I noticed a police officer standing nearby patrolling our stretch of the festival.

I gave him a nod and said, "Hi, how are ya?" and extended my hand to greet him.
"How's it going?," he replied, extending his.
"Whew...I'm tired. It's been a long day...fun but long. My name is Farid, by the way. I'm opening up a restaurant right here behind you."
"Yeah, I can see. You guys are going to do great. I can tell. Yeah, you guys are real friendly and I can see you're both really good with people."

Erin and Roberto

Erin and Roberto brought over the tasty sandwiches, brownies and potato salad for all to enjoy as we stained, glued, rubbed, painted, talked and laughed this Memorial Day weekend.

When we first began construction in mid-March, I'd look around at the surrounding restaurants and think about the money and customers they were reaping in and we weren't. These days, I do notice the other restaurants around me but not with the same eye. 'Great, they're busy. We will be too. For now, even though we are working very hard to open Bogota, we're enjoying the time we're spending with friends-old and new-along the way.

Yesterday, we met with photographer Alex Bitar and muralists Ben Rojas from Trust Your Struggle and Miguel Perez from Devils or Angels stopped by Bogota to talk "art." Alex Bitar recently returned from a trip to Colombia with dozens of fantastic photographs that we're interested in as our first exhibit in the restaurant. The muralists, Ben and Miguel, are incredible artists who we've offered the wall in the backyard to to work their magic on.

It's all coming along.

Memorial Day Weekend 2005 at Bogota Bistro

More Bogota friends and family pitching in and helping out. Thanks to Mika, Eric, Erin, Roberto, Ivan, Edgar and Tara for spending your Memorial Day Sunday at Bogota. It was fun!

Friends Stopping By and Saying "hi"

Emil, George & Chelsea
It's always a treat when friends stop by unexpectedly to say 'hello.' It's also a treat when the phone rings and it's someone calling for directions to the restaurant (even though we're not open yet!). Yesterdays friends included Emil and Chelsea. Yesterday's phone call came from 'Diana', who had heard about Bogota through a email circulated around American Express after George spoke on a panel there recently.

It's what we want Bogota to be about: a place to drop in for friendship, fun, family and food (not necessarily in any particular order, mind you).

Advice to Budding Restaurateurs

Our First Jetro Purchase

Be prepared to spend, spend and spend. Be sure you have a business plan and your budget mapped out too otherwise you're operating blindly.

Bogota's Good Friends

"Come by and help us stain some tables," George asked Tara. "Besides, you haven't been to the space yet ... you'll get to see the restaurant."

And she did. Tara came by and stayed until after 1:00 a.m. It was great seeing her and catching up since it did seem like MONTHS that we hadn't seen each other. One word for you Tara, "Bubbles."