A Brief History of Root Hill - 3 Years of Excitement (Birthday!)

In honor of our Birthday we have put together a brief sort of photo history of the locations of our cafe and of our last 3 years in this great neighborhood.

This clipping from July 1976 New York Magazine indicates that it became Joe's Italian Kitchen at one point. Our location seems to have been a Social Club for many many years, which is not surprising considering social clubs used to be very common in the area. In addition to this clipping AllNY.com indicates that this place at one time was called the Silver Bark Social Club. Neighbors in the area confirm this information. Also, two of our owners Michelle & Andrew have an Aunt May who hung out at the place when it was a social club.

Later just before Root Hill was converted into the cafe the location was home to a Family Car servers.

Finally we moved in and started causing trouble.

We got RSVP Architect Studio to come in a create a unique design for the space. Their design was awarded later in 2008 'Best of Year Merit Award' from Interior Design Magazine

During the renovation we painted the covering wood, which we briefly kept during the first year. The mural of dancing coffee cups was done by cartoonist Jennifer Camper. 

On April 1, 2008 we thought it'd be a funny prank to open a coffee shop in South Brooklyn, Gowanus. 

Then we thought it'd be really cool to add a mural to the side of the building in 2009. The mural was done by Katherine Gressel (check out her site!). You can also, read more on the mural here: The Mural.

Our friend Brian Trzeciak brought our 'roots' inside with this mural on the back wall in 2010. Brain also wrote a great story early called the The Tale of Root Hill, which you can find here. 

We then added the Trash Pony Bar sign for our night time venue that open in June 2010. 

The blogs over at TrashPonyBar.BlogSpot.com

What's Next?...well something special you can be sure...

We'd like to thank everyone for their continued support over these last 3 years. We are very honored to have such great people visiting our cafe and bar each day. Come by and celebrate with us April 1st; At 8pm one of Root Hill's favorite musicians, Matthew Brookshire, will be playing a few turns. 

The Mural

Back in 2009, in a time when it wasn't snowing every other day, we asked a wonderful designer, Katherine Gressel, to create a interesting and unique mural to go on the outside of the building. What was created was an colorful design depicting some animals that once lived in (and still live in) the Gowanus Canal. It also shows images relating to Root Hill and the neighborhood we love. It is meant to add to the growing colorful art that comes from Gowanus area. The images of the animals are obvious, but you can also find an image of Helen, the original landlord for the building, as well as an image of Kiso the dog. Please swing over to Katherine Gressel site to see more photos of the mural and the wonderful other work that she has done and continues to do.

*support local artist

ROOT HILL CAFE'S FEATURED ARTIST: KATHERINE GRESSEL REARVIEWS: BROOKLYN

Katherine Gressel's scenes from moving vehicles aim to show the tension between the safe, stable inside of a vehicle and the fluctuating, transient, and sometimes unrecognizable landscapes seen over the course of one ride. The work in Rearviews: Brooklyn investigates issues of development, nostalgia, and branding in her current home of Brooklyn (and in particular the changing neighborhoods of Park Slope/Gowanus and Downtown Brooklyn/DUMBO). Katherine juxtaposes views of contemporary transitional public spaces seen from car windows with images of new buildings in progress and their visual advertising campaigns. She appropriates historic Brooklyn images (including old Brooklyn real estate ads), to show both contrasts and connections between past, present, and future perceptions of Brooklyn. 

Katherine is an artist, writer and curator based in Park Slope, Brooklyn. In addition to painting the Root Hill Cafe mural in 2009, Katherine has exhibited her artwork at such venues as the Brooklyn Arts Council gallery, Brooklyn Public Library, City Without Walls in Newark, and the 2010 FIGMENT season-long sculpture garden on Governors Island. She was a 2008 Abbey Mural Fellow at the National Academy of Fine Arts and a 2009 CEC ArtsLink travel grantee to do public art projects in Russia. She currently serves as Programs Manager at Smack Mellon gallery, and is also currently curating exhibits at Brooklyn’s Old Stone House and FIGMENT 2012 on Governors Island. Katherine also works as a live event painter, capturing scenes of weddings, fundraisers and other private parties. 

Please visit www.katherinegressel.com for more information.