Popular BK Bakery Bringing New Location To Crown Heights

CROWN HEIGHTS, BROOKLYN — Crown Heights neighbors will soon be able to get a taste of a Michelin-awarded bakery Winner without making a trip to Park Slope.

Daniel Eddy, who opened Winner on Seventh Avenue in 2020, is bringing a new location of the popular eatery to Franklin Avenue later this year, he told Community Board 8's SLA Sidewalk Cafe Committee this week.

The second outpost — to open on the Sterling Place corner where Hunky Dory stood before closing late last year — will build on the menu that brought Winner's flagship a Michelin Bib Gourmand award within a year of opening, Eddy said.

The Park Slope spot has grown from five employees to 40 employees since opening just a week before the coronavirus crisis shut down restaurants in March 2020.

"That’s through the pandemic and that is something I am very proud of," Eddy told the committee, noting that half of his employees live in the neighborhood surrounding the bakery.

"I hope to sort of continue within that in Crown Heights and focus on community and bringing people together."

The Franklin Avenue location of Winner will include a morning through evening menu similar to the Seventh Avenue spot, including breakfast items, lunch sandwiches and takeaway-style dinners, Eddy said.

The location might also become the site of a new butcher shop program Eddy hopes to launch, he added.

"We do everything in house — from our baked goods, to our breakfast sandwiches, to our coffee," Eddy told the committee. "...It's a business that is meant to be malleable and be able to facilitate things that people can walk away with."

The Franklin Avenue spot will have 24 tables with a total of 48 seats and a bar with 17 seats, according to the plans. It will likely open in March, according to Eddy.

Eddy said the business will not be using an outdoor lot next to the storefront that Hunky Dory previously used given that it was recently sold to be developed into a new building. Winner will also take down Hunky Dory's outdoor structure on Franklin Avenue, he said.

Community Board 8's committee voted unanimously to support Winner's liquor license application, which will face the full board next week. The State Liquor Authority will have the ultimate say on the liquor license.

News of the new location garnered anticipation — and some apprehension — from those at the meeting Monday.

"I'm very excited and also a little nervous — between you guys and Bien Cuit, I think my New Year's resolutions are out the window," neighbor Carey Tan joked at the meeting. "But I look forward to the monkey bread."