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Business & Tech

At Van Horn, The Neighborhood (and the Sandwich) Is Everything

Jacob Van Horn's eponymous restaurant opens today.

“Supporting the neighborhood is really important to us,” Jacob Van Horn says of his new namesake sandwich shop Van Horn, opening today.

To that end, the Southern-flavored restaurant is sourcing its meats from , its bread from and its fruits and vegetables from . Keeping everything within a few blocks is just the beginning of Van Horn’s strategy to build a neighborhood hangout spot.

Van Horn hails from North Carolina and comes to Brooklyn by way of Maryland, where he worked as an architect for several years. When he got laid off, he reached out to Rick Hauchman, an old babysitting charge who had grown up to be a successful figure in Nashville’s booming restaurant scene. Together, Hauchman and Van Horn conceived a restaurant that would offer what Van Horn calls “super simple, super clean sandwiches.”

Super simple and super clean they may be, but delightfully delicious sounding, too.

Van Horn will offer a carefully-edited menu of Southern-inspired sandwiches (priced from $8 -12) like fried chicken, North Carolina-style pulled pork, fried catfish and pimento cheese. In addition to the standard BLT, there’s an over-the-top BLP (bacon, lettuce and pimento cheese), as well as a veggie-friendly Sweet PLT (sweet potato, lettuce and tomato). The sandwiches will be supplemented by sides like mac and cheese, roast beets, collard greens and hush puppies, as well as regularly-changing specials.

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Though starting as a lunch-only establishment, 11 a.m. - 11 p.m., Van Horn hopes to eventually serve breakfast too, complete with biscuit sandwiches.

Drinks are important, too.

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“We want people to be able to come in and get a really beautiful cocktail, in a place that’s simple and not pretentious,” says Van Horn. Unlike Cafe Mei Mei, the last tenant at 231 Court St., Van Horn has a full liquor license. Expect five or six seasonal cocktails, as well as eight mostly local beers on tap and a good-sized selection of domestic beers by the bottle.

Van Horn isn’t concerned by 231 Court’s constant rotation of tenants over the past few years.

“People think it’s cursed, but I don’t believe that,” he says with a laugh. “I think it was just bad business.”

Nevertheless, Van Horn and Hauchman completely gutted the space and transformed it with sleek pine and charcoal. There’s table seating for twenty, and another eight can sit at the bar. Come Spring, a backyard garden will offer even more seating.

The space’s real centerpiece though, is a giant shuttered window designed by Van Horn himself. Four lucky eaters will get to sit at the window and look out on a particularly scenic expanse of Court and Baltic streets. 

The view was a big part of Van Horn’s decision to take over 231 Court.

“I think it’s such a beautiful location. There’s not many places you can stand and look down a tree-lined street.”

Opening in Cobble Hill was a no-brainer for Van Horn.

“It’s where I wanted to live," he said.

Hopefully, it will prove to be where residents want to eat.

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