Gloria's Staff Back With New Restaurant On Nostrand Avenue

CROWN HEIGHTS, BROOKLYN — When a bizarre property battle forced Crown Heights institution Gloria's to close its doors in 2020, its staff knew the neighborhood wasn't ready to give up their signature Caribbean food.

"[Neighbors] see us all the time and they tell us, 'You guys are really missed,'" former Gloria's manager Wayne Smith said.

It wasn't until recently, though, that Smith and others got the chance to do something about it.

Thanks to an investor who approached the employees last year, several Gloria's employees have opened a new restaurant down the block from where the neighborhood staple stood for nearly two decades.

The new spot, called Gee's Caribbean Restaurant, includes several former employees, Gloria's longtime chef and Smith, who had run Gloria's for 22 years, BK Reader first reported. About half the staff at the new eatery is from Gloria's, Smith said.

"We'd all been out of work and we finally got the opportunity to do what we're accustomed to do, which is serve the community," he told Patch. "God is good."

Gee's opening in late December comes just over a year after Gloria's was forced to close in November 2020. The restaurant had faced a years-long court battle over the ownership of the 764 Nostrand Ave. building, which Gloria's owners had unknowingly bought from someone who had stolen the deed to the property, according to Gothamist at the time.

The Gloria's storefront had been the third and most popular iteration of a Trinidadian eatery started by Gloria Wilson in 1974, who passed the restaurant to her daughter, Nicole Cumberbatch, before she died in 2004.

A judge ultimately ruled that Cumberbatch had to vacate the premises and pay $50 million in damages to to the buildings legal owner.

At Gee's, Smith said customers can find the same menu, plus a few new additions.

The new restaurant has already gained the excited attention of Gloria's regulars.

"We can all rejoice that the original staff, led by a former manager or Gloria's is back in action," a reviewer on Yelp wrote. "...That investor sure have good taste."

"...Go 3 stores over and you can't miss this Big Red sign and the gentleman behind the register who looks very familiar," said another customer, Roger Myers, on Facebook. "Congratulate him on their return to blaze another 20 years of good food."