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Hmm, is this the future? The Littleneck, a clam shack to exist between Carroll Gardens and Park Slope, is fundraising on Kickstarter. Can you… do that? I mean, you can! Sure! The best part: "we promise not to get our seafood out of the Gowanus Canal." NOT SO LOCAL NOW, ARE YOU!
It's pronounced SNAKE BAR.
Kickstarter: Half the money for none of the oversight!
SOM FINALLY HACKED THE AWL
Please.
i am so divided on kickstarter. i had no problem contributing to the return of oakland's only movie theater that serves booze (which still hasn't happened some 2 years on), but when somebody wanted to renovate their cafe i got fucking hateful. and when some lady wanted me to contribute to her GODDAMN ROADTRIP (for $25 you will get a postcard and a trinket bought on the road), oh boy…
there should be stronger regulations, but i'll be damned if i know where to draw the lines. i mean, i guess the whole point is to let the public decide what should and should not get funding, but man do some campaigns make me fume.
@iantenna When the campaign is "Pay for me to go on vacation" or "Pay for my wedding" (NOT A KICKSTARTER, I KNOW, BUT BEAR WITH ME COS THOSE PPL ARE THE WORST), then I wanna murder. Snake Bar looking to get a little extra money to open with, I do not want to murder at all. So what I'm saying is, if I know you I will contribute to your Kickstarter. If I don't know you, I will stab you in the face, just on principal? I dunno what my point is anymore.
@allyzay "I dunno what my point is anymore."
this is my problem in a nutshell. everytime i bitch about kickstarter i start going around in circles and contradicting myself.
that said, my main beef with businesses using it is that the return on investment is usually pretty weak. in the end i am fronting a loan to a BUSINESS WHOSE GOAL IS TO MAKE SCRILL. $20 for vinyl LP plus download card shipped to my house? sure, that's reasonable. $10 FOR A PINT OF FUCKING BEER? no, sorry, i think you're at least $5 short on my investment there, snake bar.
@iantenna to further carry on this discussion, probably with just myself at this point: i have no problem with crowdsourced funding for a business in 2011, when getting a old school bank loan is like pulling teeth. i'm all for innovative ways for small businesses to get off the ground, but the return on my investment should not be insulting. if it is, i am essentially donating money to your band or clam shack or whatever. i can think of more worthy outlets for my philanthopy.
@iantenna @allyzay Here's an ethical question for you: if someone thought up a creative campaign of some kind that was geared around pledging money to pay off their student debt, would that make Kickstarter? And would it make you go blind with rage or would it be a good use of Kickstarter's services.
God damn it, if they would've just linked to an etsy page with hand knitted clam warmers I would've had Brooklyn Bingo!
Colonie, on Atlantic Avenue, did some of their fundraising through Kickstarter last year. They must have been the first restaurant, because as they tell it, they were initially rejected for not being a "creative arts" project: http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/26678
(and yeah, they have the same locavore/recycled/reclaimed ethos that Littleneck is talking up; Brooklyn, what have you become?)
Anyway, PS, fast-forward, they got a one-star review from Sifton, which is pretty stylin' for a place in Brooklyn Heights.
What's a "food project"?
Sounds like something you might find on a table at the pre-school.
@hockeymom I'm thinking turkey picture made out of macaroni.
Manhattan clam chowder is so much better than the New England kind anyway, amirite?
@Mr. B
Actually — no.
(Even while almost everything else that begins with "Manhattan", as opposed to "New England" is preferable.)