Tragically, Mama Joy’s, the southern soul food go-to in Bushwick, shuttered its doors for the final time last Saturday, as first reported by DNA Info. No longer will it be possible to try over fifty different bourbons without leaving Flushing Ave. No longer will one be able to enjoy locally sourced biscuits and gravy and immediately wash it down with a cocktail named the “Screen Door.” But…what about Bunna?
Rest assured, Bunna Café will carry on. The Ethiopian pop-up shop has been making a semi-permanent home in Mama Joy’s for quite awhile now. Sam Saverance, of Bunna Café, says it’s very possible the now vacant space will transition into their permanent residence. Regardless of whether or not that happens, they’ll definitely be selling Thanksgiving dinner there all next week from 2 to 10PM.
Opening a restaurant in New York has always been a do-or-die proposition. On the scale of financial riskiness, it’s somewhere between putting your life savings into gator flesh commodities and selling your collection of antique tampons to buy a timeshare. But Mama Joy’s had great food and a modicum of cached cool. Is the Bushwick restaurant scene already just too fierce for all but the fiercest competitors? Was the location, inconveniently between Morgan and Jefftown, off-putting? Or is Mama Joy’s preparing for bigger and better things? Saverance has supposed that the owners might consider relocating. “Owner decided to call it quits, pulled the plug voluntarily,” he emailed us earlier this week.
For now, we’ll just have to wait and see what the future of Mama Joy’s is. And…I guess get our late night fried chicken fix at Crown?