Grimm Tavern Opens With a Dinosaur Bar-B-Que Alum

Plus: the long-awaited Washington Avenue supermarket finally has an opening date, King Tai gets a food menu and one of the neighborhood's bleakest corners is getting a green makeover.

Hi all,

Neighborhood group chats have been buzzing about Grimm Tavern’s opening today—and I’ve got a few more details for neighbors to get excited about, including that the executive chef and several members of the kitchen team came over from the recently shuttered Dinosaur Bar-B-Que in Gowanus.

In this issue: the long-awaited supermarket on Washington Avenue in Crown Heights finally has an opening date, a neighborhood mom is bringing a new co-working space to Prospect Heights, one of the neighborhood’s bleakest corners is getting a makeover, King Tai gets a food menu, and a Park Slope restaurant gets a shout out on Grub Street's list of the best things they ate in 2026 (so far).

Grimm Tavern is located at 659 Vanderbilt Avenue

Grimm Tavern opens Friday with a chef who spent a decade at Dinosaur Bar-B-Que—and is putting that expertise toward what the team hopes will become Prospect Heights’ go-to burger.

Chef Greg Massaro, a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, will lead the kitchen in the former Olmsted space on Vanderbilt Avenue, serving elevated tavern fare including a dry-aged smash burger, pan-roasted trout and roast chicken with salsa verde.

"I think the single most ordered thing will end up being burger and fries," said Joe Grimm, who founded Grimm Artisanal Ales with his wife and business partner, Lauren Grimm.

Chef Greg Massaro, spent ten years running Dinosaur Bar-B-Que’s kitchens before joining the Grimm team.

The brisket used is dry-aged in-house before being ground into a custom beef blend for a double smash patty, creating what Joe said is a more flavorful burger.

“You’ll be able to get a much more complex, richer, higher-quality smash burger than you’re going to find elsewhere,” Joe said.

The restaurant will open with Grimm Ales beers on a new 20-tap draft system, alongside their wine and nonalcoholic beer options, with a classic cocktail program to follow.

The Grimms, who opened their East Williamsburg taproom in 2018, spent several years searching for the right restaurant space before taking over Olmsted's lease. They preserved much of the restaurant's design—including the signature plant wall and backyard dining areas—while installing the new draft system as the centerpiece of the renovation.

Once the new restaurant finds its footing, they plan to open Grimm Goods, a grab-and-go café in Olmsted’s former private dining room next door, serving coffee, sandwiches and picnic provisions for Prospect Park visitors.

Grimm Tavern arrives amid a changing dining landscape on Vanderbilt Avenue. After the closures of Olmsted, Faun and LaLou, New York Magazine wondered whether Vanderbilt was “cursed.” But since then, the Gazette has documented a different shift, with many of the avenue's former fine-dining spaces giving way to more casual neighborhood restaurants that cater to the area's growing number of families.

The Grimms hope Grimm Tavern strikes a balance between the two—a chef-driven restaurant with elevated food that is approachable enough to become part of neighbors' weekly routines.

“When we were working on the space, someone came in and said, ‘I have kids, and I can’t wait to have a place where I can feel like an adult again, but that I can also bring my kids to,’” Lauren Grimm said. “That really encapsulates what we’re going for.”